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Today’s photos are from this date in 2014 while wrapping up our final day in South Kensington, London, England. You’ll find our total expenses for the 15-nights in a hotel below:
Here are our expenses for the 15 nights in London:
Hotel: US $3,312.26, 1,995.40 pounds
Transportation: 455.29, 274.28
Tours: 451.81 272.18
Groceries: 240.34 144.79
Restaurants: 850.46 512.34
Grand Total: US $5,310.16, 3,198.99 pounds
Daily Rate: US $354.01, 213.27 pounds
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| Yesterday, we walked down this road toward Bobo’s Bubbles to do our final two loads of laundry. |
Each hour, while walking, I listen to podcasts on my phone. At this point in time, I am not interested in much other than those podcasts that are educational and informational, often a variety of videos from immunologists from all over the world. I do so in an attempt to determine which countries we may possibly visit when we’re able to leave India.
Of course, leaving India is entirely predicated on how India is doing with COVID-19, their infection and death rates which at this point are increasing like a raging fire. Yesterday, by happenstance, I stumbled across this India generated video with a immunologist from Harvard, born in India and interviewed by an Indian news/podcaster.
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| Occasionally, we spotted a brick building mixed among the white buildings. |
This video, found here at this link, This is not a conspiracy theory-type podcasts but a well researched and highly informative report on the statistics for COVID-19 for India and the projections by this highly qualified medical professional. The prospects for us leaving are not looking good.
In essence he’s stating that the reported cases in India, with a population of 1.3 billion, is only reporting 15% of the actual cases when many get the virus, don’t test, and subsequently don’t report their case. In reality, based on statistics gleaned from countries and researchers throughout the world, this could mean there are currently 200,000,000 to 500,000,000 cases in India.
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| This was the shortest (height) car either of us has ever seen. I can only imagine that getting out of it would require rolling out the door onto the street and then standing up. |
This threw me for a loop. I can see why our hotel doesn’t want us to go outside. There is a very high percentage of contagion in Delhi and Mumbai, the two largest metropolises in the country. Opening the airports for international flights is highly unlikely anytime in the near future.
One might think, “Why would they be so cautious for flights leaving India?” The answer is logical. The international airlines are not about to send empty planes to India. To warrant the resumption of international flights it must be a two-way process. India is not about to allow international travelers into the country. It certainly makes sense when worldwide, so much of the virus has been brought into countries via flights from highly infected countries.
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| South Kensington consists of one pretty street after another with parking always at a premium. |
Citizens of the US, regardless of where they’ve been, are on “no fly” lists all over the world and will continue to be so for an indefinite period. The prospect of us leaving India anytime soon is grim.
We accept the fact that if at any point, we cannot stand being here another week or month, most likely we can find a way to get on one of the repatriation flights for US citizens to return from India back to the US. Finding an affordable holiday home in a nice area in the US at this time is impractical and costly, far more than we’re paying here. Also, we’d need a rental car which is outrageously priced in the US for extended periods.
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| In London, there are no large trash bins for residents in which to place their garbage. Instead, they place the bags on the sidewalk or street where they’re picked up a few times a week from what we’ve seen. |
The alternative would be to find a hotel comparable to this hotel in the US which most likely will be more costly than here. Plus, the travel required to get to a location we’d prefer could result in numerous flights at numerous airports with added risk of contracting the virus. We’d simply be trading one confined location for another. The US is still in the #1 position of most cases of the virus in the world. We don’t want to go to the US due to my high risk status.
At least, here and now, we are as safe as we can possibly be. There hasn’t been a single case of the virus in this hotel. We don’t go out to grocery stores, pharmacies and other shopping. We can get most of what we need from Amazon India which items are sprayed with disinfectant when they arrive and are delivered to our room. We wait a few days to open any package.
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| Wildwood had a comfortable ambiance, but the food and service was mediocre. See the post here for food photos and prices. |
Breakfast is included in our room rate and our dinners are never more than US $20, INR 1463, per night. There is nowhere in the world we’d be able to eat for this low cost. Besides, during these lockdown conditions throughout the world, we can’t justify paying more than what we’re paying now.
Complaining? No. Observing. Reality. Safe. Healthy. We’d OK
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Photo from one year ago today, August 30, 2019:
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| Look at the numbers of sailboats moored in this bay! For more photos, please click here. |
Liz’s husband Dave sent this bottle of beer for Tom. Tonight, we’ll chill it on ice and he’ll drink a toast to Liz and Dave for their thoughtfulness.
Sunrise over the bay in Falmouth, Cornwall, England. For more, please click