The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
January 27 - The Street Scene Plus
Traffic is generally congested in Delhi and moves at a slow crawl ... except during the morning and afternoon rush periods when it simply stops moving entirely! The traffic moves in a similar manner to what we saw in China -- basically everyone on the road trying to occupy the same piece of pavement at the same time. Scooters and motorcyles are everywhere, continually honking their horns. Three and four on a bike is not unusual and we have seen five! I will admit that the turban with a face shield was a new one for me, though. "Hunkering" -- essentially sitting on your heels -- seems to be the position of choice throughout Asia. They can sit like this all day. (Their knees are obviously in better shape than mine!) The ubiquitous auto-rickshaws buzz about like angry bees. They run on compressed natural gas (a good thing) but still make a gawdawful rattling noise that nearly deafened us during our short ride in one.
And now for something completely different! Imagine coming straight from the filth and frenzy of Old Delhi to lunch at Restaurant One in the Imperial Hotel. The cold beer was a life-saver! We did not opt for the buffet but I was very impressed with the presentation.
A day without shopping is simply not worth living. Margene's relentless quest for gifts continues unabated ... but she is so cute that it's hard to say anything but, "Of course, Dear."
© 2009 Restaurant Doctor
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