We had been looking at making a trip to Paris since a long time. Somehow one thing or the other hindered us. It would either be the case of leaves not being there, weather not being ok, personal engagements or for that even finances keeping us down. I had plans to go with a chartered tour because of the kid. I wished for the nitty gritties to be taken care of already so that we could sit back and enjoy the ride.
We decided to go by the highly recommended Star Tours.Like most places, UK is also highly capital centric. So the tours start and end at London (with pick ups being available from other locations). The pick up was at an odd hour of 0100 which would not have worked well with Chiyaa. We decided to go one day ahead and put up at London itself.
It did end up being a very good decision. K loves London. He for the matter loves the tube in London. He feels like Indiana Jones, reading the maps, deciding which line to take and where to go. He could spend the whole day hopping from one train to another. We did get to London and then of course we got tube hopping. Finally we got to our hotel. It was awesome. There is something about hotel rooms - the initial cleanliness, the spic and span towels, the soaps and lotions, the tea and coffees, the tv, the way everything is there in that small space - a sofa, a coffee table, a working table, cupboards, hair dryers, iron boxes, laundry (seriously is'nt literally a home fitted into the small space) . Even the budget hotels make K and me go all ooo aaaaa :) Or then maybe we are simple-tons who are easily impressed :)
The first thing we did was hit the bed. We literally had to drag ourselves out of the bed at 1600. The area we were putting up at was an Indian dominated one. K started doing yet another of his favorite things - search for Indian restaurants! I somehow see no point in eating Indian food in a foreign place , is'nt that what we eat at home. To top it,in our house, we cook fares from all parts of India (ok maybe not from the west :D ) . We have the regular south Indian meals, and I cook stuff that are essentially northern or eastern. So I don't see much point in getting the same food in a hotel. I prefer going for a cuisine which we cant make at home. But K of course thinks differently. He just likes having the same food in a hotel :| We finally we opted for - guess what - Chennai Dosa :| Huhhhhhhhhhh.
On the way to the place, literally every person we saw seemed from the Indian sub continent. The place was crowded and the shops had an ethnic Indian feel to it. K even spotted a shop with the name written in Tamil and did a woo hoo. To add to the authenticity the afternoon was hot and sweltering. It was literally like walking on Rangathan street in Chennai!
We were flooded with nostalgia as we entered Chennai Dosa and started ordering like crazy. We ate like little piggies till a point we could move no more. That's when we decided to do our bellies a favour, stuffed a paan and headed out. To alleviate some guilt, we decided to take a walk. We spotted a park and of course we had to let Chiyaa have a go. She went berserk and we ended up being exhausted. I am sure we burnt more calories than we had consumed ;)
We wrapped up the evening with some fresh juices and headed back to the hotel. We had a very early start and a really long day ahead of us. As we snuggled into the duvet, I could not help thinking - the afternoon made me miss my friends. Not Chennai, not BBSR, not my family, not my acquaintances, but my friends. I wished to see them - Sam, Ashu, Roomie dear, S. I missed them a lot somehow. I have no idea why.
With my thoughts hovering around my lovely bunch of friends, I drifted off to a coma like sleep.
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