Page 158 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SPRING 2023 SPECIAL CRUISE EDTION

NEW DELHI

Exploring Old Delhi and New Delhi at the
end of our trip added a capstone to our Indian
adventure. If put into a Bollywood movie
trailer, the Old Delhi segment would jar the
senses with rapid cuts between crowded side
streets, traffic jams at major intersections,
rows of slums, aggressive street hawkers surg-
ing toward the camera, throngs moving as one
on Chandni Chowk, Asia’s busiest street, and a
soundtrack of revving motorcycle and truck en-
gines, honking horns in every key, shouting in
the bazaars and lively music, as in Slumdog Mil-
lionaire. The New Delhi segment would have
with a mix of symphonic and classical sitar mu-
sic, and friendly chatter and laughter on the
soundtrack, and pan across wide avenues,
parks, malls, fountains, people walking at ease
near the Presidential Palace (Rashtrapati Bha-
van) and other buildings created by Sir Edwin
Lutyens, the British architect who designed
Delhi over some 20 years (1912 to 1930).
We stayed at The Oberoi, New Delhi, in the
center of the city. Opened in 1965, the 220-
room hotel closed in 2016 for a major redesign,
two-year renovation and modernization. It re-
opened in 2018 to worldwide acclaim, then was
closed during the pandemic, so it’s like staying
in a new hotel. Its modern style is enhanced
with classic Indian design touches everywhere
(now ranked #5 in India by CT Traveler) and the
latest technologies in every room. Its Baoshuan
Chinese restaurant on the top floor is one of
the best we’ve enjoyed anywhere, including
Hong Kong. We watched a spectacular drone
light show over the city one night from Cirrus
9, its popular rooftop bar. The main restaurant
on the ground floor (360) offered perhaps the
best breakfast and lunch buffets we’ve experi-
enced anywhere, with cuisine from around the
world (for lunch, we had salads, fruit plates,
sushi, lasagna and traditional Indian cuisine;
breakfast included traditional American fare,
plus international treats).

158 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SPRING 2023