Day 22 - Birthday celebrations in Delhi

Way back in 2012 I was lucky enough to celebrate my 52nd birthday in Singapore. We had a beer and peanuts in a bar at Raffles. Today I was lucky enough to celebrate my 63rd birthday in Delhi. We had Perrier, cucumber sandwiches, tea and a rich chocolate and apricot cake in The Artium at the Imperial Hotel. It was fabulous! The Hotel is built in the opulent 1930’s art deco style. The staff were all immaculately dressed. The chief porter and doorman wore a rich, red tunic, turban and sported a magnificent curled moustache. The other staff were genteel, always smiling and immediately made one feel important, even though we were clearly just two tourists who wandered in for an hour or so of class and refinement. I did put on a collared, buttoned shirt and wore my RM’s for this special occasion. We were ushered down a long, marbled corridor to The Atrium, were tea is taken at this fine establishment.

The large, light-filled room was furnished with round tables for parties of two or four who were seated in white, cushioned wicker chairs. Our immaculately dressed waiter “appeared”, as quality waiters do, to take our order at just the right time. He’d been serving at the the Hotel for 32 years! As we enjoyed our tea and sandwiches and immersed ourselves in the ambiance, beautifully dressed ladies in glorious sarees floated down the marble corridor, their male companions looking equally impressive.

All to soon our time in this other world was over so we sauntered slowly back towards front entrance, stopping here and there to poke our heads in some of the other rooms. Our driver arrived and whisked us out the tall cast-iron gates back to reality. What a splendid way to spent one’s birthday!

The day started with some consternation about whether or not we’d continue with part two of our holiday as Kerry’s sore calf was recovering, but slowly. On top of that she has a head cold to cope with. A driver was organised for us, available for four hours. Destination one was the physiotherapist for our final visit. Some more treatment was given for the Achilles and some treatment for Kerry’s emotional state. Dr. Nidhi and her team were very mindful of the fact that the continuance of our trip may be in jeopardy so they lent Kerry a lot of positive reinforcement that she could make it through the next three weeks with the injury management practices they’d given us. This made us feel a lot better as we hopped in the car and set off for The Imperial Hotel. Dr. Nidhi even presented Kerry with a hand-made (by her husband) long, wooden incense burner. Kerry had made a remark about the one on the reception desk yesterday. One places an stick of incense inside the box, close the lid and the smoke curls out through the numerous, carved holes in the lid. This really buoyed Kerry’s spirits.

As our driver returned us to the hotel we talked about cricket and politics. He loves cricket, Adam Gilchrist is his favourite Australian player, he hates Prime Minister Modi because he and his cabinet are all corrupt. BTW, the Australian Test team is in Delhi preparing to play the 2nd Test which starts on Friday. Back at the hotel, we relaxed for a couple of hours and started to pack our bags for India – Part II.

At 6:00pm we met our Tour Leader, Anant Singh, and the other members of our touring party. This group is half the size of the last one. We have Eric from Wisconsin, Cheryl from Florida (just moved form California), Irene from Pretoria, Anna from Chicago, Kerry and Greg from Bendigo and a woman and her 16yo daughter from Wellington. We were to find out during dinner that the latter two had abandoned the trip due to concerns about the young girl’s health. What a shame. Once again, everyone is about our age, except Anna, but she looks like the type who won’t be fazed by hanging out with old people. After the meeting we strolled down to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. I was really surprised when from behind the counter appeared a waiter with a birthday cake! Anant clearly had read the client profiles closely and had arranged a cake. A very nice and welcome touch. Bed early tonight as were up at 2:00am to catch a train at 4:30am for the 19 hour journey to our first stop – Jaisalmer, way over in the west near the border with Pakistan.