First weekend in Hyderabad - Feb 2-3

Yeah yeah I know ... this post is over a month late. Sigh.

So, I felt all traveled out after Trip #3 and had to take a break. Coincidentally, all the expats decided to stay back and take a break at the same time, so we had quite a group of people to hang out with (maybe 12+ people) and celebrate the good times.

We kicked the weekend off on Friday night with dinner at BBQ Nation, followed by some nightlife at Firangi Paani. I've mentioned both of these in a previous post -- they're both on my recommended list. It was fun -- the place was crowded, they had a dance floor, and as expected, they played "Bebot." Where's the filipino? Oh, there I am. And so everyone looked at me during the song and it shouted "Pilipino!" during the chorus.

Half of the gang at Firangi Paani.

Me and Viktor.

The next day was lazy day. I slept in for once (hallelujah!) and had lunch at Aroma, a really good Chinese restaurant here which I also mentioned in that previous post. The hot-pot style soup, meat, and veggies were really yummy, and it's probably the closest to authentic chinese that I've found here.

In the evening, everyone (about 12 people) joined together at my place, and we ordered some italian food and biryani for delivery. Biryani is an indian rice with lots of herbs and spices, and Hyderabad is especially known for its biryani. It's actually too spicy for me so I don't eat it that much. It was nice in the end to have everyone just relaxing and kicking back at my place. We ate and chatted and watched bollywood music videos together til the midnight hour.

On Sunday morning we went to the children's orphanage, Divya Disha. The intention was to help tutor the kids with English and math for an hour or so, and then play with them for a bit. I was a little nervous beforehand because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to communicate properly with them given the language barrier, but I was knew that it wasn't about me and that it's about helping the kids and giving them company.

When we arrived, we were greeted by many excited little girls. (The girls and boys were in separate houses.) They rushed up to us, shook our hands ("Good morning ma'am! Hello ma'am!"), and were giggling and smiling at us. It was little overwhelming, but it was nice to see their excited faces.


The girls were especially fascinated with Pris' and Aly's cameras. It seems that here in India, whenever you flash a camera in front of a child, they immediately strike a pose! I've often watched them fight for camera space, with one girl trying to get in front of the other while another girl just squeezes in barely from the back. And when you say that you're done taking pictures, they ask for you to take more!


After we spoke with the facilitators, we found out that there was no real agenda. "What do we teach? What's the schedule?" The response essentially was: Do whatever you want! Of course, we were stumped for a bit -- the girls couldn't really speak English, and we didn't actually have any school material to cover. So ... we decided to just play singing games with them instead!

We did everything from hand games to "Ring around the rosie" to the chicken dance ("I don't wanna be a duck, I don't wanna be a chicken, I just wanna be me ...") to hop-skotch. They also taught us some of their own games. One of them involved people holding hands and walking in a circle and singing a song, while one person was in the middle dancing to the song and selecting the next person to go in the middle. All I really remember was the part that went "Shakey shakey shakeeeeey .." where the person in the middle would shake their hips. Some of the girls were quite the divas when they did that part. :)

Spinning in circles! "Ring around the rosie ..."

"I don't wanna be a duck, I don't wanna be a chicken ... "

For two hours, we played outdoors with them. Of course it got a little hot, and it was also very tiring! Maybe I'm getting old, but I can't sustain enough energy to play games for 2 hours, apparently. Haha. We took little 5-minute breaks here and there to just watch them play on their own, as well as take some additional pics. One of the girls even put a sticker on my forehead. :)

After the two hours passed, it was time to leave. We said our goodbyes ("Bye ma'am! Next Sunday!")

All of the kids were very sweet, and it does break my heart to know that these girls don't have any families of their own. I was touched to see how much they take care of each other. When one girl stepped on something and get a splinter in her toe, another girl immediately went to her side and helped her get it out. And the bigger girls were like older sisters to the younger girls. It was hard to say goodbye when you could tell that they wanted you to stay longer.

It was a nice experience to interact with the children. By going to all of these posh, high-end restaurants, I was sort of avoiding the reality of many parts of India. I hope that these children do somehow find new families. The experience has motivated me to always to my best to reach out whenever I can. They were innocent, enthusiastic, and genuine kids, and they deserve something better.

A word of advice, parts 2 and 3.

If your laptop isn't charging properly on your docking station, instead of wasting 4 working directly on your laptop and charging via your universal charger, just make sure that the power source is actually plugged into your docking station.

AND

Don't try to hold a cup of coffee (mocha) in one hand and a plate with a pastry in the other and then attempt to open a door. It will only end in a mess and coffee stains.

More updates coming soon! I promise!

It's been a very busy past few weeks -- lots of traveling and good eats involved! I just haven't been able to find enough time to blog about it in a proper way that does justice. But soon ... coming soon to a blog near you ....

Until then, here's a joke I learned:

What are 3 good things that you need to drive in India?
Good horn, good brake, & good luck.

Out and about.

Some quick reviews.

Restaurants:

- BBQ Nation - Delicious, highly recommended. They serve you an assortment of kabobs (veg, chicken, shrimp, lamb, fish, etc) and there's a grill on your table so that you can further grill the kabobs and marinate to your taste. Also an additional buffet section. This is all for the price of 400 Rs. Great food for a fantastic deal.

- Aroma - The best Chinese food I've had here yet. In fact, our Chinese expat Steven approves of it, so it must be good. There's an option on the menu to cook food hot-pot style in a pot of broth. Yum.

- Touch - The restaurant has good, salty spiced fries. I'd make it #2 on my list of favorite fries in Hyderabad.


Bars/clubs:

- Touch - The club. Everyone raves about it, but there's nothing to rave about on a Thursday night, when there's a total of 5 people. I'll have to check it on a weekend, but don't go on a Thursday.

- Firangi Paani - Great bar with a nice small dance floor. Seems like a good spot to just hang out and would recommend.

- 10 Downing Street - Still my favorite hang-out spot. Been there twice and ready to go more. My #1 fries are served here -- perfect texture, just the right about of salt and crisp. Wednesday is ladies' night and Thursday is karaoke night. I prefer the latter.


Miscellaneous:

To date, I've heard "Bebot" at every bar/club I've been to. It's starting to lose its novelty.

Trip 3: Puri

Who: Me, Pris, Aly, & Steven
Where: Puri
When: Jan 25 - Jan 27
How: 1.5 hour flight + taxi
[All pics are courtesy of Pris.]

The tagline for this trip: "Remember that one time, in Bhubaneswar/Puri ...."

Puri is known for being a nice, relaxing beach village with beautiful temples. You can bet that we were eagerly anticipating our relaxing beach time and 4-star accomodations at Toshali Sands.

To get to Puri, you have to fly into Bhubaneswar and then take a taxi for a 1.5 hour drive. As is expected in India, things didn't exactly start off on the right foot. The Bhubaneswar airport was tiny, and we had difficulty at first finding the pre-paid taxi stand. Then, to avoid being overcharged for the drive by revealing that we were staying at a nice hotel, we only told the counter the address/street of our hotel, rather than the hotel name. We were set at about 650 Rs for the ride to Puri. However, once we got into the taxi and told the driver we were going to Toshali Sands, he said that we had to pay about 150 Rs more. He claimed that it was because Toshali Sands was 15 km outside of Puri, but we figured that he was just trying to cheat us for more money since we revealed our hotel. After about a good 10 minute dispute, we finally told him to just drive us to the location that we paid for, and we'd find alternative transportation from there.

Arriving in Puri felt sooooo good. We got dropped off along the beach side, which was just booming with people and food stands of THE BIGGEST SHRIMP IN THE WORLD. Well, at least, the biggest I've seen so far. The air was cool, there was a slight breeze, and we could see and hear the waves crashing not too far away. The beach had an exciting and lively atmosphere, and it was nice to feel the vibe after the hectic taxi situation.

We found a place to grab dinner, and after an hour emerged from the restaurant to make our way to the hotel.

And then it was raining. Correction, it was POURING. It never rains in India! At least, not during this time of the year. That fabulous scene I described? Gone. The streets were bare, all of the transportation was gone, and it was soaking wet. What the hell, right?

We managed to find one rickshaw that was willing to drive us to our hotel for 200 Rs. Given the rainy conditions, we had no choice. The 4 of us climbed into the rickshaw and braved the weather. Keep in mind, rickshaws don't have full covering, so we were getting soaked in the rain. Furthermore, a very large portion of the 15km drive to our hotel had no lighting whatsoever. We pretty much thought that we were driving into the darkness to die in the cold rain. But thankfully, eventually we made it. Whew.

The hotel ... well, let's just say that I had higher expectations. It was decent, but not worth the money that we were paying for it. The rooms weren't too cozy or comfy, but we didn't have much of choice -- most places were booked because it was an Indian holiday (Republic Day). We settled down, laid out our clothes to dry (my entire bag of clothes got wet!), showered, and got some rest for the next day.

Luckily it wasn't raining when we woke up. After breakfast, we found a taxi to take us to Konark to see the Sun Temple. It's a huge, beautiful temple .... and it kinda reminds me of Indiana Jones. :)

The Sun Temple.

We spent a good half hour taking a look at the intricate carvings and detail. I honestly wish I could see what it was like 1000 or so years ago when the temple was in use. It's difficult for me to imagine how they could create such temples like this so long ago.

What we found really interesting is that, as conservative as the country is, a lot of the imagery is very provocative! Check out this carving on the temple:


And there were kids pointing at it! It's such a contradiction, don't you think? On one end, everyone is completely covered from head to toe. On the other end, you have saris and carvings portraying lewd acts. Something's not adding up here ...

After the Sun Temple, we made our way back to Puri, grabbed some lunch, and walked along the beach. I would say that the Sun Temple was the main attraction, and everything else was just relaxing. It was cloudy all morning, but the sun did manage to peek out for an hour or two in the afternoon.

Clouds and the beachside.

Around late afternoon we took a bicycle rickshaw to another temple located in Puri. The bicycle rickshaws are actually good fun -- it almost feels like riding a carriage, but then you start to feel bad when the old guy who's peddling for you breaks into a sweat when riding uphill.

Me riding in the bicycle rickshaw.

We couldn't enter the temple (Muslims only), so we just observed from a restaurant roof top over tea and milkshakes.


Also, some small processions came through with lots of people chanting and singing and dancing to music being blasted over speakers -- I'm assuming it was because of the holiday. It looked fun. I wanted to dance too .. I just had to jump with my hands up in the air.

After some bar time and dinner, it was finally about 9pm and we were ready to head back for sleep. And, of course, it started raining. Again. So once again, we had to pay a rickshaw driver a little more than usual (200 Rs I think?) to take us back to our hotel. In the end, I realize that that initial taxi drive didn't try to cheat us at all. It really did cost us around 150 Rs each time we travelled between our hotel and the main Puri village.

The next morning, we simply got up, checked out, and made our way back to Bhubaneswar for our early departure around noon. We killed some time at the airport by playing hearts (card game), and then we finally boarded the plane and came back to Hyderabad.

Let me take a moment to address airports and IndiGo airlines. Airports here in India are nothing short of a chaotic mess. In the States, each airline has its own terminal, but here in India, there's usually only a small handful of terminals all shared by several airlines. There are no directories to tell you where you have to go -- you just have to listen to the loudspeaker announcements, or follow people carrying the same tickets as you. Haha. It's pretty crazy.

And IndiGo airlines ... kinda scared me a little. Well, more like a lot. I understand that turbulance happens ... especially up-and-down turbulance. But, left/right turbulance? No, that has to be the steering wheel. We're pretty certain that we only landed on one wheel at first.

So note to travellers: just be prepared for the chaos known as Indian airports.

Back to our trip -- we safely made it back to Hyderabad (whew) and winded down with a delish brunch buffet at the Marriott Hotel. And the best part is that after all of that, I still had the whole Sunday afternoon and evening to relax. :)

All in all, Puri was an interesting trip, to say the least. If the sun had been out, it would have been gorgeous. Nonetheless, it was still a nice, chill, and relaxing adventure, and I'd still recommend the village to anyone. The troublesome taxi ride, the rain, and the seductive temple carvings? Those just give me more reason to say "Remember that one time, in Bhubaneswar ..."

A word of advice.

Don't spill a bottled frappacino drink on your laptop. Not only does it ruin your computer and make it black out, but it also is a waste of a good drink.

I was double-y sad.

If you know me well, then you know that me going to a marketplace of scarves, bangles, and jewelry is probably the most non-sensical thing that I could do. Why? Because I have no fashion taste whatsoever.

We went to the Industrial Exhibition today, which was basically a marketplace of the aforementioned. While it's certainly a haven for shoppers (especially females), I found it quite overwhelming and couldn't tell the difference from one jewelry or scarf stand to the next. I can't tell what color combinations are the best, or what cloth constitutes good material. For some reason, I just don't have an innate ability to make these fashionable decisions.

That said, I deeply and sincerely apologize in advance for those of you who are expecting great presents back home. For your sakes, I will try and bring a good shopper with me for your souvenirs. ;)

New terminology.

Indian phrase / English phrase:
"I'm in a session" / "I'm in a meeting"
"I have a doubt" / "I have a question"
"Please do the needful" / "Please do what is necessary"

Also:
bachelor = single people (both guys and girls)
pista badam = pistachio

European English:
"I'll call to your desk" = "I'll come to your desk"

Trip 2: Mumbai

Man, it's been busy, but better to post it late than never, right? :)

Who: Me, Pris, Aly, Alon, Viktor, & Mike
Where: Mumbai
When: Jan 18 - Jan 20
How: 1 hour flight + taxi
[All pics in this post are courtesy of Pris]

After a short, one-hour flight, we successfully landed in Mumbai. The departure building is beautiful, probably the best-looking airport in all of India. For a moment, I actually felt like I was in L.A. in a nice big city. Of course, the L.A. feeling disappeared after one minute. Soon enough, we were all in taxis on our way to our hotel in Colaba, the southernmost touristy part of Mumbai.

As we were trying to find our taxi to take us to our hotel, we saw that there were two lines, one of which was called "Cool Cabs." We had no idea what that meant and fell into the other line for "Taxis." Later on, we figured out that "Cool Cabs" meant cabs with A/C. I think it's funny that they called it "Cool Cabs".

An hour later, we made it to the Garden Hotel. It was an interesting ride -- the cab driver didn't know where Garden Road was, and I forgot that we're supposed to provide landmarks instead of street names, since they won't always know all of the streets. After stopping and asking several people, we eventually made it and got situated in our rooms. We went back out to eat dinner at the posh restaurant Indigo, where I was quite pleased with my teriyaki chicken and creme brulee. (Those are two of my dietary staples in the States.) Of course, the others couldn't resist that there was steak on the menu and went for that instead. :)

The next day (Saturday) was ridiculously busy. We crammed 2 days worth of stuff into one:

8am - Free breakfast at the Godwin hotel next door. (I just ate bread and tea.)

9am - Walked past the Taj Palace Hotel and to the Gate of India. It looked cool, and probably would've looked even cooler if there wasn't scaffolding on it. We hopped on a ferry boat to Elephanta Island. The ride took an hour, but it was nice and relaxing.

Taj Palace on the left, Gate of India on the right.

10am - Elephanta Island. People usually go here to look at the caves and temples, but I personally thought they weren't as impressive compared to Hampi's. In fact, the monkeys were more interesting. The island had monkeys EVERYWHERE, and we took hundreds of pictures of them. They were cute and fun to watch, but you really have to keep your distance, as they can be vicious if upset. In fact, a mommy monkey got upset at Aly (who was taking pics) and went up and grabbed her skirt. Eeeek. After all the sightseeing, we took a little soda break before hopping back on the ferry.

The group on the ferry.

1pm - Hungry. Naturally hungry. Aly and Pris found an interesting place in the Lonely Planet book called the National Hindu Hotel. We walked for about 20-25 minutes, and when we finally found it, I think I had a mixed feeling of intrigue and disgust. There were rows of tables with banana leaves at each seat, and servers were walking around with buckets and plopping food on the banana leaves for people to eat with their hands. Now, I actually think the concept is fantastic and would love to adapt this for Filipino culture back home, but ... the place wasn't exactly sanitary. You could see the dirt from the kitchen, and you had no idea in what conditions the food was cooked or the dishes were washed. We sucked it up, took a chance at contamination, and dined for the experience. The food was actually good, although I admittedly only ate the dal and one of the things schlopped on my banana leaf. But I think the experience was fantastic and definitely something interesting to talk about. I'm sure all of the locals got a kick out of watching these foreigners trying to eat like them.

Serving the food from the buckets.


Food served on a banana leaf. Eat with your hands only!

This is also the point at which I realized that if I'm not satisfied with the sanitary conditions of a place (i.e. dirt or bugs) that I'll actually lose my appetite and eat less, regardless of how hungry I was initially.

2pm - Hands washed, stomachs full and psychosomatically uneasy. We found one taxi driver who was willing to let us cram 6 people into one taxi -- 2 of us in the front and 4 of us in the back. This is highly illegal and the driver was highly cautious. We got lots of amused smiles from people as we drove to our next destination.

2:30pm - Haji Ali's Mosque. It's a shrine that contains the tomb of the Muslim saint Haji. The location is pretty cool. After standard security checks, you pass by about 100m of street markets, and then walk 300-400m along a strip pathway that leads to the mosque. It was dry at the time, but it's actually supposed to be surrounded by water. At high tide, the pathway is covered up, and the mosque becomes an island. Unique, huh? Since it's a holy place, we had to take off our shoes to go inside, and women and men had separate entrances. I felt a little uncomfortable being a tourist inside a holy place where people were actually praying. In fact, I always do when people are actually worshipping, because I know I'd probably be a little upset if I was in prayer and suddenly people were just looking around and oohing and ahhing and taking pictures. I stayed around for a few short minutes before heading out. It was just enough time for me to see the colorful tomb with intricate decorations around it. Women were getting splashed with what I assume was holy water, before kneeling in prayer or meditation. It was an interesting sight.

On the pathway to the mosque. The contrast of the poor on the path, high-rise in the background.

The mosque.

3:30pm - After this point, we were no longer able to convince any cab drivers to let us have 6 people in one car. They all thought that we were crazy, or panicked when we attempted to squeeze in. We wanted to stay together to prevent separating and getting lost, but we were luckily able to find cabs in 2's so that we could split 3 and 3. Luckily we had Pris, who is the queen at negotiating and getting us cabs at a reasonable rate. We found two cabs and were again on our way.

4pm - Banganga Tank. This was a holy tank (basically a pool full of water) with surrounding temples. It was hidden inside a village, so the cab had to drop us off from the road and we had to wander our way in. I would have probably called the village a slum, but I don't think it was a slum by India standards. What's interesting is that despite it being poor, you still feel quite safe. I don't get that feeling in the States -- if I walk through a poor area I'm scared for my life. But here in India, people are generally nice and friendly (and of course curious). This village wasn't heavily populated, so it was easy to walk through.

We eventually found the tank. From the Lonely Planet book: "The wooden pole in the centre of the tank is the centre of the earth - according to legend Lord Ram created the tank by piercing the earth with his arrow." It was a peaceful scene, and there was lots of small temples surrounding it. In a few meters in one direction, we were able to walk out to some rocks that overlooked the sea water. We also encountered a family with an adorable girl who loved having pictures being taken of her by Pris. I was personally intrigued by the narrow walkways, and these tiny rooms with sewing machines that literally couldn't hold any more than the sewing machine and the person at the machine. The ones I passed had men sewing clothes for little kids. It was interesting to realize that that's how they make their living, and there I was, witnessing it in their living conditions.

The tank.

I've heard that despite their living conditions and the caste system, the Indian people are one of the happiest people in the world. And I believe it. There's nothing more simultaneously warming and heartbreaking than seeing these children on the street smile and light up when they see you. But they genuinely seem happy.

5:30pm - Chowpatty Beach. Well, almost. Some of the guys weren't feeling well due to the heat (and perhaps the earlier meal), so we stopped by a cafe for soda and tea. The sun was starting to go down, so it was starting finally cool down.

6pm-ish - Chowpatty Beach, for real this time. And we'd just missed the sunset. Haha. Well, it was still setting, but it was already behind the buildings. It was still a nice sight though. Mumbai actually appears to have two skylines -- you could see the outline of buildings to the left and the right from Chowpatty Beach. That just goes to show how many high-rise buildings they have spread out throughout Mumbai. We walked on the sand for a bit and enjoyed the view.


7pm - Back at the apartment and exhausted. We freshened up and took naps, in anticipation of Mumbai night life.

8pm - Dinner time. We wandered around, looking for something friendly and easier on the stomach (mentally) than the National Hindu Hotel. We ended up at Leopold's Bar, a touristy spot which served the usual mix of Indian, Chinese, and continental food. As usual, I got my fries. I also shared some chicken tikka masala and naan with the others. Nothing special, but decent. The waiter was actually really nice and funny. Instead of trying to trick us into ordering too much food, he was honest and let us know that we were ordering way too much. He also made jokes -- when we asked for the bill, he said "No bill, it's free." In fact, he did that twice. Unfortunately we didn't run with the joke and leave, because he did eventually come out with the bill. ;)

10:30pm - Time for the Mumbai nightlife, right?!?!? So we choose to go to Polly Esther's, which sounds just like the ones back in the States - 70s/80s/funky music, complete with afros. Except there were no afros, and in fact, no people. Apparently 10:30pm is still too early, and people don't arrive until around midnight. I was skeptical when the door guys told us that, but sure enough, the club grew from 7 people to 100. We had our share of fun. The club played lots of songs we could sing along to: "I Will Survive", "You're the One I Want" etc. Toward the end, they played more dance-ish music, and you can bet that I got uber-excited when they started playing "Bebot"!! Seriously, Bebot? Again? The song must be popular if that's the second time I'd heard it in the club. (I later found out that the Black Eyed Peas are in fact very popular around here and the song does get a lot of air play.)

1am - Long day. We went to the hotel and slept. :)

Alright, you still with me? Now that's just day 1. Still one more day to go!

Sunday ...

10am - We decided to sleep in. I woke up starting around 8ish, but by 10am I was up and showered.

11am - We had brunch at the Taj Mahal Palace (the hotel). It's an incredibly nice hotel. In fact, it's so nice, it has its own wikipedia entry, and deservedly so. It's supposedly the first of the Taj hotel chain, and the place is gorgeous, completely with a swimming pool, beautiful fountains, fancy chairs and tables, and every other nice thing you could possibly imagine. I enjoyed some waffles and toast (but unfortunately the caramel topping they gave me cooled down and hardened).

12pm - Crawford Market. Or not. That's where we wanted to go, but upon stepping out of the Taj, we found out that there was a Muslim holiday and all of the markets were closed!! Really disappointing isn't it? The markets are supposed to be really active and busy and fun, with the narrow walkways and numerous stands that you would expect at any market (except more crowded since it's Indian). That really dampened our day (and not to mention, ruined our schedule). We ended up just walking around the Colaba and Fort area for awhile, taking stops at random things like the Mumbai University or the little shops on the streets.

Mumbai University

3:30pm - At this point we were just trying to kill time. We grabbed our belongings from the hotel, and then stopped by a cafe to grab more coffee and a snack. This was probably the closest I've gotten to Starbucks around here (but it still didn't quite hit the spot the way Starbucks does). I forgot the name of the cafe, but I think it's just a chain. There's actually one just next door to the office, but I haven't been to it yet.

4:45pm - We decided to take a quick stop by the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat on the way to the airport. This is the world's biggest laundry machine -- man-powered, that is. There were basically tons of stalls, and people just beating the dirt (literally) out of the clothes. Interestingly, the clothes did appear to be sorted out and washed by color. Whites over here, reds over there. We had an aerial view from the train station. We also took a quick stop into the surrounding village area, where I immediately felt uncomfortable being surrounded by tons (ok, 15) of curious people who wanted to know who we were and where we from. I'm used to the occasional person questioning me here and there, but having several people surround me at once was quite overwhelming. Thankfully, Alon gestured that we should get out of there, so we left the village and back to the top area while we waited for the others to finish taking pictures. Unfortunately the crowd seemed to follow us, so we crossed the street to get away.

The Dhobi Ghat.

5:30pm - After getting bumrushed from an oncoming procession (and I was quite upset that someone may have snuck in a quick touch or two ... but it happens), we rushed into a cab and were on our way again to the airport. This time the trip was super trafficky -- apparently the Prime Minister was coming! We panicked because a) we thought we'd miss our flight, and b) we couldn't figure out which airport to go to! We said we had to go to CST (which is what's written on our itinerary), and the driver said that that's the international airport, but we were taking Kingfisher which is a domestic airline! Because the airports were 4km apart and we were running late, we only had one chance to get it right. We called around to confirm that it was in fact the domestic terminal that we had to go to, and we found out that both of the airports have the same name (CST), but only the international one is referred to as CST while the other one is referred to as Santa Cruz. How dumb is that?!? Seriously, give your airports different names, please. But whew, at least we made it to the right one.

7ish - Aboard the Kingfisher flight to Hyderabad. Can you believe that on a one-hour flight, they still served us dinner? And it was a good dinner too! I had some sort of Chinese-saucey chicken, veggies, and a brownie. I was happy. Kingfisher is apparently the way to go around here. :)

9pm - Finally home. Time to relax. I told you it was a busy and tiring weekend. And you wonder why it took me so long to post about it .....

Bebot, bebot.

Finally, a day to rest and relax and update my blog!

Last Thursday several of us went to an excellent restaurant called Fusion 9. It had a little bit of everything -- many review websites seem to refer to it as "world cuisine." I'll call it "world delicious." Granted, I'm a very picky eater, but I sampled some fantastic chicken appetizers and ate a great pasta dish (although a bit more spicy than I would've liked). I've also been addicted to french fries, and the fries there made me quite happy. But what REALLY takes the cake there is, well, the brownie -- this exquisite, rich, chocolate brownie that I have never tasted anywhere else. One bite, and I swear my eyes lit up. I've had favorite brownies at Claim Jumper's and Buca di Beppo, but this brownie could possibly beat them all. I would recommend anyone and everyone to go there to try the dessert brownie at the very least. I'm definitely going back sometime before I leave.

After dinner, we tried out a lounge called The F Bar. The cover was 1000 Rs per couple, which was a little more expensive than I would've liked, but at least the cover charge goes toward your drinks. To my surprise, there were a ton of other expats there. I kinda wanted to ask where they were from, but of course, a noisy lounge isn't really the best place for that type of conversation.

The music was great. It started out with some good, familiar hip-hop and then eventually transitioned more into more techno/house stuff. I was dancing with a fun bunch -- we did all the classics (the q-tip, the lawn mower, the Roger Rabbit), and we did a few rounds of "guess who I'm imitating." (Yes, it's a bit immature and I made the game up myself, but it's entertaining to people-watch and imitate the inebriated.)

Of course, my favorite part of the night was when they played "Bebot" by the Black Eyed Peas. I'll be honest -- an India nightclub was the last place I expected to hear a Tagalog hip-hop song. That song doesn't even get any airplay in the States! (Or, maybe it does and I just don't get out enough.) In any case, the hyperness took over me, and you know I did my best to represent the Filipinos with my energy and pseudo-rapping. Now if only I really understood Tagalog ....

Good times, and both the restaurant and lounge go on my "recommended" list.

Trip 1: Hampi

Who: Me, Marina, Brian, Pris, Steven
Where: Hampi
When: Jan 12 - Jan 14
How: Car/driver rental, 8-9 hr drive
[All pics in this post are courtesy of Marina and Pris, cuz I don't have a good camera]

To date, Hampi is the most beautiful place I've seen. Large ancient temples, a gorgeous river, endless rice fields, a lively culture -- words cannot completely depict it, but I'll try.

We rented a car [and driver] to make the journey from Hyderabad to Hampi. While it may not have been the most cost effective way to travel, it was certainly a great experience. I was able to experience the driving that we would consider to be crazy in the States -- honking, driving fast, and playing chicken with oncoming cars just so you can pass the car in front of you. Oh, and people drive on the left side here, so the steering wheels are on the right. It's still not natural for me yet.

While the first hour or so had me on the edge of my seat, I calmed down eventually. Along the way we passed several villages. I think the locals were highly entertained by the van full of foreigners. On the stretches of road between villages, we got excited every time we passed a herd of sheep or ox. We really don't see that back home. The driver had to maneuver his way around/through the herds so as to not hurt anybody. It was fascinating though -- if you honk, then they know to move to the side. Along the drive, we also witnessed a very beautiful sunset right in the middle of nowhere. That's when nature seems to be at its best.


When we arrived on Saturday night, we looked for accomodations and found 2 available rooms at the Shanthi guest house inside the Hampi village. (Keep in mind that a room is really just a double with a mosquito net on it, and the bathrooms have no cold water!) We then ate dinner at the New Shanthi restaurant, which was really enjoyable. The service was great, and there was this lounge area where you could lie down with a bunch of cushions and pillows and be surrounded by a bunch of religious Indian paintings and just relax. Because Hampi is very religious, alcohol is not allowed in the village. However, we found out that the restaurant would serve their juice "special with happiness", meaning with vodka mixed in. That pleased the crowd.

We kicked off Sunday with lunch at the Mango Tree, the recommended restaurant in the Lonely Planet guide. It required a short walk through banana plantations, but it was definitely worth it. At the Mango Tree, you take off your shoes and then sit on bamboo rugs at a table (no chairs), looking out over the river. This place was designed for nature and relaxation. We spent a lazy hour or two, just eating and drinking and enjoying the scenery. From Mango Tree, we could see the village across the river, and we could watch people play/bathe in the water or take boats across.


There was even a swing for me to swing on.



We then took the boat across the river to Virupapur Gaddi, which is mostly a hippie area full of guest houses and restaurants. We booked two rooms at Sri Lakshmi Golden Beach Resorts, which, as glamorous as it sounds, again were just doubles with mosquito nets and cold water. There was supposedly a pool somewhere, but we never saw it.

The river:

After dropping off our stuff and taking the boat back across, we were ready to explore. We first started with the Virupaksha Temple in Hampi, which is basically a huuuuge tall temple that the village is pretty much built around. Unfortunately we only explored it for 15 minutes because we went in at around 12:45pm and didn't realize it would temporarily close at 1pm. (Of course they wouldn't have told us that -- we had to pay to get in.)

Virupaksha Temple:

We then took an autorickshaw (sort of the equivalent of a taxi, but much smaller and slower) to the Krishna Temple and several parts of the Royal Centre (e.g. Queen's Bath and more temples). Honestly, once you've seen 2-3 temples, they all start to look alike, so we stopped going to temples after awhile.

The "marketplace" ruins:

After an hour of the ruins, we then went up a smaller path and took a 20 minute hike to a bunch of boulders over the water. We were actually expecting waterfalls, but it was still nice. The guy who was leading us scared us a bit by telling us that there were tigers and snakes and even black panthers. Maybe he was exaggerating just to scare us.

Waterfall? Maybe not:

Finally we were exhausted, so we went back to the Hampi village and back across the river. The girls and I treated ourselves to one-hour massages -- they weren't as relaxing as I would've liked, but were pretty much worth what I paid for. Then we went out for our meal, played some cards, and called it a night.

The next morning, we had one final adventure -- Anegundi and Hanuman Temple, perched atop the Anjanadri Hill (aka Monkey Hill). Why is it called Monkey Hill? Oh let me tell you why ... monkeys galore!!! To be honest, I was terrified of the monkeys. I'd heard stories of them being quite vicious if they saw that you had food or a banana on you, but of course if you just acted normal then they probably wouldn't hurt you. The monkeys were actually quite cute, but at one point a local wanted to demonstrate interacting with them for us, so naturally I became nervous when there were suddenly 15 monkeys within a 20 foot range.

Monkeys aside, the view from the Hanuman temple was slightly hazy, but still beautiful. We had to climb probably 1000 steps to get up the hill (and my thighs hurt from it -- it was like doing a 30 minute stairmaster workout). Once we got up there, we could see everything. The sun, the mountains, the river, the rice fields, the roads, the ruins. It momentarily made me upset at the U.S. for not having anything ancient to look at. There aren't many places where you can get this kind of view.


A few more temples and a lotus pool later, we were back at the guest house and packing up our stuff. We did one last meal at Mango Tree, took a few more pictures, and we were on our way back home for another 8 hour drive.

I won't miss the bugs and mosquitoes. Despite the hot weather, I actually wore long sleeves the entire time to minimize my chances of getting bit. (I ended up leaving Hampi with only 2 bites.) And I was certainly eager to return to my hot water.

In the end, fantastic first trip, and I recommend that everyone should visit Hampi if they come to India.

And now, I leave you with a picture of something I only saw in cartoons:

Party like a rock star.

Last night a bunch of us went to a bar called 10 Downing Street. It was a lot of fun, and I'd recommend it as a place to go if you're looking for a place to just hang out ... especially on Thursday night which is karaoke night!!! We were so hesitant to get up and sing at first because everyone up at the mic sounded so good. No seriously, they must practice or something, because the person singing a Leann Rimes song sounded like Leann Rimes and the person singing an Enrique Iglesias song sounded like Enrique Iglesias. They were that good.

Of course, after a few drinks, we were ready to do some damage at the mic, and the whole group (7 of us) kicked it off with "Baby One More Time," complete with sassy choreography. After we let the locals take their turns with more power ballads, we realized that they don't ever choose rap songs, so we gave an encore performance by doing Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise." Because, you know, we've been spending most of our lives living in a gangsta's paradise. Word up. The performance was even complete with the C-walk and some "yeahs" from yours truly. (Don't hate -- I make a great hype man, er, woman.)

Now we're all rested and taking some time to sleep in before our first trip to Hampi tomorrow. So, don't expect to see any posts from me for the next few days. :)

Oh .... and as promised, here are some pics of my apartment, courtesy of Priscilla. You really only see about half of the apartment from these pics -- you don't see the kitchen, the living room, or any of the bedrooms. It's a really nice place.

This is the main area. On the left you see a couch set. Far back is the dining table. Between the couch and dining table is the kitchen entrance. The walkway in the rocks leads to a little outdoor area enclosed by glass walls in the middle of the apartment. Out of sight is the living room, the hallway to the bedrooms, and at least 2 more couch sets.

A close up of the dining table. You can see the outside area in the back right.

My bedroom. Stitch and the little brown bunny are happily perched atop the bed. (The guest house staff actually placed them like that, which I thought was cute.)

The shower in my bathroom. It's a pathway embedded in a bunch of white granite rock. Isn't that crazy?

To end, here are some other random tidbits I've learned over the past week:

• Hindi is the official language of India. Telugu is the local language in Hyderabad.
  
• The majority of the channels on my TV are in Hindi, or dubbed in Hindi. I was watching Disney's "That's So Raven" dubbed in Hindi. I actually found it a little entertaining.
• Every time I take a malaria pill on an empty stomach, I get sleepy and nauseous. I should always take them after a meal.
• Driving in India is like the Philippines: lights and lines don't matter, and honking is a way of life. In fact, in the U.S., honking the horn is more defensive and usually means "Watch out! I'm over here!". In India, it seems to mean "Watch out! I'm coming through!"
• It seems like Americans are the odd ones out -- we don't use the term "holiday" to mean "vacation" or "day off". We only use it literally for holidays. So when someone says "I'm on holidays" it really means "I'm taking the day off."
• India has a caste system. This may explain why some are harder for me to understand than others.
• All food tastes like Indian food. Even the Chinese and Italian food tastes like Indian food. It makes sense since they have different spices here.

All right, that's a nice long post for you loyal readers. Now it's time for bed!

See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the sari queen.

Today at work was Sari/Kurta day. Thanga was kind enough to let me borrow one of hers (it was brand new too) and it fit perfectly!


(Yes, the pic is slightly blurry. I will buy a dedicated camera soon.)

It took 3 people to help me wrap the sari and put it on. I felt like a doll because I would just stand still with my arms up, and they would wrap the sari around me as if playing dress-up. And I've never liked dress-up growing up, but this was really interesting to watch!

For those of you who don't know, the sari consists of a skirt, a midriff blouse, and then a 5-meter rectangular piece of cloth wrapped on top of the skirt and blouse. There's a technique to creating all of the folds and pleats, and the style of folding differs in every state.

Throughout the day, I received tons of compliments about the sari. I'm sure I stood out because I was the non-Indian wearing a sari, but I didn't mind. In fact, I think everyone was pleasantly surprised. It was a little difficult for me to walk around though because it fell right above my feet. Walking on a flat ground was fine, but walking up the stairs was a horrible mess. I also kept rolling my chair on top of the sari, so I must've gotten stuck and fallen over at least 3 times.

At the end of the day, there was a contest to announce the sari queen and kurta king. When asked to guess who the winner was, everyone started saying "Diane". (!!!) So whaddaya know ... I won!!!

I AM THE SARI QUEEN!

Not bad for my first time, huh? :)

I couldn't have done it without Thanga, who loaned me the sari, as well as Ipshita and Pavarthi who wrapped it and checked on me throughout the day to make sure I was okay.

Wearing the sari was fun. I've vowed to buy one before I leave India. I think it costs about 600 Rs, and someone said they'd be willing to go with me to buy one sometime after work. They'll also give me simple instructions for folding it, since there are like 100 ways to do it. So, if you have a chance to wear a sari, you should do it. They're so pretty, very cool, very fun.

I never thought I'd see the day that I would wear a skirt to work.

Wow, I've just been relocated to the most ridiculously amazing apartment ever. I had submitted a request to relocate for a few minor reasons (e.g. no full kitchen in my house [but I didn't know I could use the neighboring houses] and faulty internet), and they granted my request in a day! My apartment is gorgeous. I promise I will take pics soon. I don't think you all will believe it.

I'm having a lot of fun here. It's a very small world! I've met several people who know other people I know. It's like playing 6 degrees of separation, except it's only 2!

Today was "twin day" on my team, so I dressed up as a twin with another coworker. (I'll post the pic later.) We simply wore jeans and a black top. That's my kind of wardrobe. Tomorrow is sari and kurta day! I don't have a sari, but someone said I can borrow one! I'm so excited -- I've never worn a sari before.

I'm still a big jetlagged. I'm always super sleepy around 3pm, but I force myself to stay awake and I crash aroud 10pm. Yet, this morning I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't go back to sleep! And during the previous nights, I've been waking up every other hour or so. Not sure what's happening, but it's probably just the jetlag.

This weekend, I'll be planning a trip to Hampi with some other expats. To give you a taste of Hampi, you should check out http://www.pranav.info/photos/main.php . The place is gorgeous! Hopefully I'll have some pictures of my own to share.

And yes, I know this would be a much better blog if I did actually post pictures in it. I know, I know. :)

One step at a time.

I was hoping to make this post at the end of the day (cuz I still have a few hours to go), but the internet has been poor at my house. I'll just update this post later if I can get it to work.

I'm doing baby steps. Slow baby steps, but definitely baby steps going toward progress. As tempted as I was to just sleep the day away and hide until the first workday arrived, I woke up today with a mission: to step outside of my house.

And I think I did a pretty good job of it.

I woke up at 7am, showered, and was determined to not fall asleep again until it was at least 10pm. This should help me to adjust my sleep schedule.

At 10am, I finally mustered up the courage to step outside. In a matter of 5 minutes, I had found a driver who took me to the office just down the street. It was my first time seeing Hyderabad during daylight.

At this point, I was already feeling a little discouraged because I had difficulty understanding several of the people I'd spoken to. I also got myself lost the first time when wandering through the office building, such that I got myself locked into a stairwell and had to use the exit door to come out of the back side of the office, and then walk to the front again to re-enter. The security guard who saw me the first time gave a smile and he tried to tell me where to go, but unfortunately I still couldn't understand. What I did make out was the word "left". So I went left, found a different staircase, and finally made my way into the office.

After making a few calls home to the States and utilizing the reliablie internet, part of me wanted to just go back to my room and hide again. I was feeling pretty uncomfortable with my situation, and you always want to run and hide when you're uncomfortable right? But JC reassured me that I'm better than that, and that I chose to come to India and should be able to handle it, and he was right. So, I called the driver and went to the store and buy some toiletries.

From the trip to the store, I was really able to see more of Hyderabad than just the corporate area I'm in. Lots of people walking, crazy driving, dirt and construction with random nice buildings in between. It's easy to see that Hyderabad is under a lot of development -- there's construction everywhere, even right across the street from my house and outside the office. This place has plans to boom. I can feel it.

I went back home, only to find that the internet was down for several hours. I decided to channel-surf and, to my delight, found some American channels, but became bored soon after. With nothing to do and the internet down, I started getting sleepy and decided to head back to the office to get back on the internet and stay awake.

Which takes me to where I am now. It's still early -- only 4pm -- and I've obviously been making very long blog posts because I have nothing better to do. (I mean, I could do work but ...) I may soon head out with my housemate and another expat to either grab dinner or try out some really cheap massage place.

And then of course sleep. And prepare for the first day of work tomorrow.

Day 2 - Lazy Day

So much for successfully adjusting my sleep cycle. I didn't go to sleep last night until 6:30am, and I slept until about noon. Then I went back to sleep around 4:30pm and woke up at 10:30pm. And of course, now I'm wide awake at a time when I should be preparing to go to bed. Sigh. I'll try again tomorrow.

Obviously I didn't leave the house at all today. I still have to unpack my stuff, so I have plenty to do. The house manager stopped by earlier today to introduce himself and answer some basic questions. Without a phone, it's nearly impossible for me to contact anybody!

So far, I have one housemate, Bryan, who lives on the second floor. He was heading off to the office and said he'd contact me in case he meets up with another coworker later for dinner, but I unfortunately overslept. I'm sure I'll have plenty of other opportunities to meet up with fellow expats. I'm just taking it easy for now.

On that note, I've got to start unpacking, and then I'll try to sleep again to fix my sleep cycle. Tomorrow should be a more eventful day.

I made it!

That's right folks ... I'm in India! I'm sitting in my lovely guest house as we speak -- er, I type -- and I must say that my accommodations are pretty nice! I've got myself a nice king-sized bed, ample closet space, my own bathroom, a mini-fridge, and a TV! Not bad ... it's more than what I have back home!

Here's a pic of me right before I departed from SFO, holding my plane tickets. Steve said that I shold take a picture of myself before and after my trip to compare and see if I get skinnier or darker. Haha. I guess we'll see what happens after 3 months.

The flights went very well. People were telling me that Lufthansa has great service, and they were right! My first flight to Frankfurt had an extremely smooth landing. I was seriously impressed at how smooth the transition was. All of the meals that were served (I had one breakfast, one lunch, and two dinners) were quite decent, and they provided [almost] real silverware! Of course, they were greatly dulled down so as not to pose a risk, but they were actually made of metal. That's something.

On my second flight between Frankfurt and Hyderabad, I became acquainted with the guy sitting next to me, whose name was Naga. He was very friendly, and since he lived in Hyderabad, at one point I asked him if he had any tips for me. He said, "What kind of tips?" and I said "Like things to visit or check out." At this point, I realized that I have to be careful about using slang or idioms, or it will result in very confusing conversations. His response was, "Checkout? Don't worry, you'll be with me, so you should be fine."

I'm very grateful that he actually stuck with me throughout the entire arrival process. We braved the crowds together, and he even found a cart that we could share to place our luggage on. Our luggage came toward the very end, so we probably spent at least half an hour just watching the luggage pass us by.

Finally, we were ready to go through customs and exit the airport. However, I just knew that such an easy travel would be too good to be true. Sure enough, when we handed our slips to the custom officer, he took a look at one my luggages and said, "Go see the customs officers" and he pointed to a bunch of desks. I was wondering what that weird white mark was on my luggage.

The guy behind the desk told us that our luggage had be scanned. Really, it was just my one piece of luggage that was marked, but they scanned everything including Naga's. At this point, I was already feeling bad that Naga had to go through all of this, when he could have easily just walked through customs without me and left. While looking at my luggage, they questioned the liquids ("no, it's not alcohol"), a cell phone ("it's just a cell for personal use"), and several control pads for a computer.

The control pads are what gave me trouble. I said that they were for work, so because they exceeded the Rs8000 personal allowance in total, they wanted me to pay taxes on it. I was fine with paying taxes on it because it's for the company and I could just expense it, but then they started giving me a hard time about the cost of each control pad. They wanted to know the cost of each one so that they could calculate the appropriate tax to pay, but silly me, I had no idea and I'd left the invoice from the package at home. How was I supposed to know that I would still need that invoice?

I estimated that each control pad was about $7. It's probably more, but to me they're just extra computer peripherals. Of course, the officials (3-4 of them) doubted me. "How do you know that it's $7? Do you think they're $7? What made you come to that decision? Do you just think that 7 is just a nice number?" Sheesh. And when I tried to explain why I thought it was $7, they just kept interrupting me or wouldn't listen. I'm sure they just thought I was some stupid foreigner.

Thankfully Naga was there to talk with them and help repeat what they were saying when I didn't understand. At first they said they would just detain them, and I could come back the next day with a proper invoice, but of course they didn't really want to go through that. We said that they could just calculate whatever taxes and we'll just pay it so we can go, but their estimate came up to a ridiculous amount somewhere around $140. I'm fairly positive that the cost of the 7 control pads didn't cost that much, so there's no way the taxes could be that much too.

They wanted me to pay in cash. I did not have $140 in cash, neither in US dollars or Indian rupees. I asked if I could pay by credit card, and they said no. It was obvious what they were trying to do. Naga tried to offer them my $20. That was all that I had, and there was no way for me to get cash. Their proposed alternative was that I go to the duty-free store right next to the desks and purchase alcohol -- and they wouldn't give me a receipt for the taxes. However, I could pay by credit card there. At this point, I didn't have much of a choice.

Per Naga's advice, we purchased a $20 bottle of alcohol. We knew that this was not enough, but he said that I had to be tough. If they said it wasn't enough (and they undoubtedly would), I'd have to say something along the lines of "But I did what you said. If you don't want it, then give me my receipt." The situation was very confusing to me, and it was hard for me to be tough about something when I didn't understand what was really going on.

While I finished paying for the alcohol, Naga went to give it to them, and of course they told me to go exchange it for a $50 bottle instead. I'm sure that Naga did his best to persuade them, but he whispered to me that we might as well do it since they're not giving up and letting us go. So we did. We exchanged it and gave them the bottle of alcohol, and they finally signed off our slips.

So after one hour, $50 spent, and lots of confusion and exasperation, we finally went through customs.

I looked into the crowd for a driver that would be holding up a sign with my name, but no luck. Naga had found his family, and they were kind enough to let me use their cell phone to call the Head Driver and inquire about my ride. The Head Driver said that my driver should be there and he would follow up and call him. Then Naga's family said that they'd seen someone waiting with a sign that had my name on it. Sure enough, I'd dug into the crowd once more, and there was someone with a sign with my name on it. He had been worried because I had taken so long that he had gone up to the Lufthansa office to double-check. I wish that I'd had a way to inform him that I was still stuck in the airport so that he wouldn't have to worry.

After all that, things were finally on their way again. The driver helped me carry my luggage to the car and drove me to my place. Again, I'm now comfortably resting in my bed. I'm also wide awake -- it's early afternoon back home, and I had a lot of rest on the plane, as well as adrenaline in my system.

I'm just very very thankful that I met Naga and that he was kind enough to help me through the whole endeavor. I would've most likely been stuck in a more difficult bribe, as well as lost at the airport trying to find my driver. I gave him my email address and told him to contact me if he ever wants a job at my company. Sadly, it's all that I had to offer.

It's crazy. I didn't even step out of the airport and I had to deal with the corruption. But at least I made it. This will be an interesting 3 months.