My wife, the lovey and talented Catherine Marchand has met me for a conjugal visit in India. Long travel days for both of us to get here. Met her in the airport in the middle of the night and made it to our hotel at about 3AM.
One of the excellent things about her visit is that she DOES need to stay in the Shangri-La. And since she worked up all of our India itinerary, that is exactly what we are doing.
Obama arrived the next day after us. Do not know how much of this was covered in the USA, but this was a very big deal here. He came for their equivalent to our 4th of July, “Republic Day”. Was guest of honor at the big parade, but also had many meetings, speeches, etc. Tremendous press coverage here. Live on 5 TV channels and every kind of analysis covered extensively in the papers. All of this was right down the street, just a few blocks away. Consequently all of our neighborhood was blocked off to traffic, filled with armed guards, and all the shops closed.
We did not make the parade. Needed advance tickets, plus it was raining. But who knows how many people did. My guess was 10,000 seats and then standing areas.
Arriving here was not much of a time change for me, but Cathy has to go through a major jet lag shift (11 and a half hours) and is working on it. SO, for all of these reasons we basically just hung around the hotel for a day. Not too much of a hardship with complementary food and drinks in the concierge lounge. (I wish she would travel with me more often).
And, for those of you who made it this far, here are some pictures of walking around this morning. NEW DELHI STREETS:
