"For weeks I’d been dreaming of blue skies and the smell of eucalyptus in the air," writes Glenda Kwek, an Australia native on a post in India. "I was shivering through one of New Delhi’s coldest winters in a century and one of its worst air pollution seasons in recent years and all I could think about was upcoming Christmas trip home to Australia -- fresh air, soft, sand beaches warmed by the summer sun."

"The scene that greeted me was starkly different."