Breakfast and Bird-Watching on the Roof

Saturday, November 8, 2008

The prospect of exploring India seems so much more exciting and palatable after a night's sleep and a breakfast spent bird-watching on the rooftop patio.

We watched large hawks chase pigeons through the maze of buildings around us, dive-bombing low over our heads as they chased their prey. A large eagle of some sort glowered from its perch on a nearby hotel sign. There were some small green parrots playing on the roof across the street (like the ones in the photo below which we took later on today), a few doves, and of course those ubiquitous little LBJ's (little brown jobs), tiny birds pecking for our toast crumbs.

A man from the hotel sat with us for part of our breakfast, pointing out attractions on the map and advertising the services of a car and driver which could be rented for a few hours or all day.

Since we were hoping for a relaxing day before the tour with Exodus started, and yet still wanted to see some things before leaving the city, we decided to hire the fellow, who was named Rajneesh (Raj for short). For under twenty dollars, we would have a guide and transportation all day in New Delhi in his little white car. Just for fun, I started counting the number of times Raj leaned on his car horn---32 times. And I think he might be conservative in that around these parts. :)