4am on a Sunday morning

Being a morning person and having the curse of an internal body clock, I have just returned from my walk. It is officially 0524 hrs. I have been through the inside of the building and its various wings. It is awful the smell of fresh paint and I am getting a little giddy. The artist in me is getting very annoyed indeed but I am booked for 12 nights and I shouldn’t be complaining… or should I?

The team from the UK would also be here I guess and I have the decided to do the early morning run instead so that I can get work done in the office rather than wait around to find out what I would do between 4-6 am. The fitness centre is closed …my card wouldn’t work + the swimming pool is closed…the door is locked due to security reasons. I think this is a hotel for lazy people who just eat and sleep. Taste is not at the top of menu apparently. The sad thing about it is that the food is not even close to gourmet and I am astounded that the architecture  is the only thing that is keeping this place from being voted at best a 4 star hotel in terms of service. The prices on the other hand begs to differ!!  It boast its own Chanel store and I wonder whether I need to get some Foundation at this hour? Huh?!

Actually, I am planning on catching a taxi today to the Red Fort on my own. I am pretty nervous and my suspicious nature is always thinking of how everyone in India is on the take. I am such a racist at times but you can never be too careful – there are so many awful people out there. Multiply that by the millions – most of whom are working as Touts or some other schemes. Wish Nicholas was here – he would protect me from all these people with his mere presence. I do miss the boys – oh well i am here now. Just another 1/2 hour before I can get breakfast.

Wish me luck!

Delhi oh Delhi

The 15 hour flight and loosing 4 hours did not help. I staggered out of the airport with throngs of people being supposedly screened for the H1N1 virus via a piece of green paper with odd caricatures that you had to fill in while on the plane. Apparently, a questionaire can dictate that you have the dreaded flu by pure honesty on the part of the infected. My immigration officer was also displeased that my passport showed signs of being ‘less’ of a virgin than he cared for +my name did not help either but I was ready for the visual slur though I would have preferred not to be at the receiving end especially at 2am Adelaide time.

The airport pick up was good though and I arrived at the hotel through a metal detector and a 3 meter x 5 meter wide iron gate. The DECO Imperial is going through a facelift – you can smell the mortar and polish throughout the builiding while heated essential oil aroma tried desperately to mask the apparent. One thing I cannot live with is the dreaded smell of dust, sand and lime.

I did manage to stroll around the building and had a look at all the wierd places that no guest would be seen wondering. At 6am in the morning, no one except the serving staff were busy sitting around their meeting tables being appraised of the daily specials at the restaurants.

Are you Chinese? That was the oddest question I had at the airport in Singapore and I would have thought that the fact that I looked the way the way I did would have been  a dead giveaway for any Singaporean to decipher which cultural denominations I am from? You’d think? Somehow it was important and I felt that I was caught off guard – why is that since it had never been an issue - I have always accepted the mongrel nature of my upbringing and racial mix. So tonight while I wait for my dinner party to show up, I am contemplating whether I should rush out again to take more pictures but this time in the opposite direction of Janpath. I feel a little vulnerable as Delhi is a little alien to me but I need to get over it if I am to be here on and off.

Oh well – hopefully Dinner will be good…apparently the Spice restaurant is world famed. I am sceptical but until then  I am keeping an open mind !!!