Don't Blame The Chicken

Plumaria trees add a sweet aroma around 
the pool area at the Oberoi.

 So the spicey chicken at the Boshaun restaurant meal the night before I suddenly realized was not to blame for Bob's malaise when I joined him in his misery. Despite our flu shots before we came, I'm guessing the two of us found a 24 hour bug, the kind that hits you like a truck and zaps your energy. We lost a whole day to it and still feel exhausted. Thank goodness we came a few days early.

Before I got sick, I made another trip to the Patisserie, by myself since Bob was not up to eating. I hade a really nice bagel with egg, fries and a cup of tea. This time I remembered to take some pictures. We both really like the little place and will surely revisit it again.

You might say we lost a day just sleeping but gradually we managed to let food back into our lives being careful to stay away from anything spicey lest it react badly. I guess we will pass on the new restaurant the hotel offers called the Dhilli. It is an Indian specialty restaurant and we'll stick with the 360 where we have more mild choices for our diet right now.

The plan to have a four hour tour with a hotel car is also something we will pass on. Our tour with Uniworld will begin tomorrow morning early. It will be a long day with a tour in the morning and another in the afternoon so we are saving our strength for it. Two seventy-somethings need to take things a little slower. 

We are excited to get to meet the others who will join our group of river cruisers. Some of them are already here according to the Uniworld FaceBook page and others I'm sure are arriving by day's end. 

Since I have some down time, I used it to look up a few things I was curious about. When we get up each morning it is always foggy or smoggy and as we look out our fifth floor window, you can see it settle into the trees. It goes away a bit but in the several days we've been here, I've never glimpsed blue sky. I searched online for the air quality for New Delhi. It wasn't encouraging. Here's what I found:

Delhi, India's air quality is currently unhealthy for sensitive groups. Some say the city's toxic skies are similar to another Asian capital that was once known for smog so thick it could hide skyscrapers. Factors that contribute to Delhi's poor air quality include crop stubble burning and Diwali celebrations. Air pollution in India is estimated to kill about 2 million people annually making it the fifth leading cause of death in the country.

I'm guessing the Asian capital they refer to is Beijing which is the only other place we experienced this and it was definitely much worse. We sat in a plane on the airport tarmac for two hours waiting for a slight break in the smog in order to take off. There was such a small window that they would not let us disembark lest we miss the opportunity to take off.  I am interested to see if it is like this in the other places we will visit in India.

The other research I did was on Diwali which takes place during part of our visit to India. It is the Hindu festival of lights and symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. Fires are lit, fireworks shot off and many celebrants lighting candles and lanterns. I'm sure when it arrives, our river cruise guides will explain more to us. 

So, I sit for now with my computer on my lap looking out the window at a still hazy sky with birds sailing about, some which are large enough to be eagles, and await our first meeting to receive our welcome packet and schedule for tomorrow. I'm ready to get this adventure started.