Homeward Bound

I'm going to get a little wordy here as I have a lot to describe in case other travelers stubmle across the blog and find it useful. If it annoys you, sorry!  Wait for the next post.

My return trip began with an unremarkable flight from Delhi to Hyderabad.  I arrived Hyderabad around 10:15 PM, and made my way to the Premier Plaza hotel that is built into the airport.  I was pleasantly surprised by my choice.  Before paying, they showed me my room, which was exactly what I wanted -- a comfortable bed, a clean bathroom, and otherwise very efficient.  It was small, yes, but paying for square footage was silly given I was just staying overnight between flights.  Add in the convenience of staying right in the airport with included wifi access and meals (though I ended up not eating since I was expecting a good meal in Emirates business), I couldn't have been happier with my selection.  Below are some photos of the room.

Clean, modern bathroom

This is literally the entire room.  The 3 walls surround the bed.  The
spot where I stood to take this picture is the hallway to the tiny bath.

Again, clean and modern.

Once inside, I proceeded to the Emirates desk to get my boarding pass and baggage tags.  Yes, that's right -- even if you carry on, you need to get bag tags for each one that you bring onto the aircraft.  After passing through the x-ray machine, they stamp your tags which are then verified as you board the plane.  It is an additional measure of security that was added after some terrorist attacks in India a few years ago.  Anyway, I proceeded to the Emirates desk, where they sent me to the First Class line, even though I had a business class ticket.  The agent handed me some bag tags, which I handed back to her since they said "First Class" and I was flying business.  The agent smiled and said I'd been upgraded!  Not sure why, but cool!

I haven't really covered the security measures, so I thought I'd run through it briefly.  Firstly, there is a men's line and a women's line -- a prudent measure given the slightly more intrusive measures here than we are accustomed to in the US.  There is an x-ray machine to check your bags, just like in the U.S.  However, they want us to take out all electronics such as cameras and lenses (not just laptops), unlike in the US.  Secondly, no need to take off belts or shoes.  After walking through an old-school metal detector arch (not the imagers like we frequently have in the US now), you stand on a podium as a security agent manually searches you using a handheld metal detector and, a brief pat down.  As you board the plan, your boarding pass and bag tags are checked at least 4 times by airline agents and security guards before you finally board.

I walked up to the gate a little late and people were already boarding, so I edged to the back of the line when a nearby employee recognized me from the check-in desk earlier, perhaps because I was one of two white guys in the entire airport.  He immediately ran towards me, gave a warm greeting, and escorted me to a separate entrance for the first and business class customers.  Not used to such privilege, I felt a little awkward, but at the same time enjoyed it very much.  When I got to first class I was astounded by the accommodations.  My seat was unbelievably huge and had everything one could wish for.  My own mini-bar, a power outlet, an easy-to-navigate entertainment system, very comfortable seat complete with built-in massager, and even a nifty reading lamp (if I actually read).  Even with my feet fully extended in front of me, there was still a good 18 inches between my toes and the seat in front of me.

How the "others" travel

This was the beginning of the most pleasant flight I have ever had.  The attendants were incredibly helpful the entire way.  The meal was the best I'd ever had on an airplane, and better than most restaurant food.  It started with a sea bass and scallop appetizer.  I selected a roll from the bread basket brought around, and the attendant encouraged me to take some garlic bread as well, so I took his advice and accepted.  Main course was some mashed potatoes with lamb.  With the exception of the lamb, which was cooked medium-well (should have been medium-rare), everything was cooked to perfection.

One page from the drink list.  Really
nice options to choose from.

In case you're interested in the lunch options,
here they are.

Sea bass and scallop with a chile lime sauce

Rack of lamb with mashed potatos

 The flight attendants were very attentive and never missed a thing (thanks Paula in particular!).  Though I did not order dessert, the attendant suggested I get the "rosemary cake" and I am glad she did.  It was absolutely amazing; arguably one of the best desserts I have ever had.

Rosemary cake with chocolate sauce, plus a couple of bonus
chocolates in case it wasn't enough calories already.

They offered an amazing St. Emillion Grand Cru that I had.... lets just say more than one glass.  Hey, when you find a great wine you need to strike while the iron is hot.  Especially when you're not paying by the glass!  Combine all of this with a guilty pleasure movie (Anchorman 2), and this was easily the most enjoyable flight I have ever had.  If only I had my wife next to me, it would have been the perfect flight.  Hopefully I will get to share the experience again with her one day.

We landed in Dubai ahead of schedule, and that is where I'm going to end this post since it's so long.  Next, the city of Dubai and return home!

Nice Graveyard

Since I last wrote, I wrapped things up at work and hopped a plane up to Delhi before i head back to the states.  My friend, Sapeksh, picked me up at the airport around 6:45 on Friday and we quickly headed to a local microbrew pub while happy hour was still going.  Our mugs were quickly filled with a very nice summer wheat while we munched on some insanely hot Chinese chicken.  I kept sipping beer to cool off my mouth, only to find that with each additional swig the pain only got worse.  Thankfully, as I reached my breaking point the waiter arrived with our egg rolls, which had enough bread to instantly squelch the inferno.

We then hopped into the car to head back to his condominium that he shares with his parents and younger sister.  They were eager to meet me, and perhaps even more eager to feed me.  So, I politely ate as much as I possibly could on an already-full stomach, and greatly enjoyed the meal.  Sorry honey if I come home with more "baggage" than I left, I'm sorry.  Between the "bad" food and not being able to eat much fruits and vegetables here, my options are thin.  Plus, Indians seem to like to feed others a lot.  

Sapeksh's parent's do not speak English very well, so conversing with them is somewhat difficult and tough to find a rhythm.  However, they are very nice people and were extremely nice to have put such a nice welcome together.  His father was very interested in the election (India just chose a new Prime Minister on Friday), so we spent a good chunk in the other room with the T.V. and made his way over to visit with us every so often.

We awoke early on Saturday morning to get an early start to Taj Mahal.  It's not terribly far away, but after accounting for traffic it quickly swells to a 3 or 3.5 hour trip.  Additionally, a movie filming was taking place next to a vital bridge which inspired much gawking, and it made for lots of time in the car.   Time I could spent taking pictures of cattle, for example.  Lots and lots of them in this city (Agra), just hanging out, walking around on the roads.

I could really go for a burger right now

When we arrived at Taj Mahal, we were immediately assaulted by an onslaught of vendors offering a buffet of services: rides from the parking lot using camels or rickshaws, personalized tour guide, photo prints, slippers for our feet, etc etc.  That is when I saw a side of Sapeksh that I have never seen.  Though Sapeksh was born and raised in India, he has so many Western tendencies that it is sometimes surprising to me that he is actually Indian.  However, I found his deep rooted heritage in his ability to negotiate/haggle with the merchants.  Perhaps it was more awe inspiring since it was in Hindi, but even his sister was clearly enjoying watching him confidently and consistently wear down the salesmen.  A 1km ride to the Taj for the 4 of us, 50 rupees (less than a dollar).  Personalized guide, 220 rupees (about $3.60). 

The guide was full of all sorts of information which was difficult to track.  There were so many names of kings, wives, second wives, etc, but here is the basic gist: Taj Mahal means "Crown Palace."  However, it is not a palace at all, as it was built to be a mausoleum for the Mausal (group of Muslims) king's third wife who died in 1631 during childbirth of their 14th child!  The Taj construction began in 1632 and completed in 1653.  It is supported by red sandstone, and covered completely in white marble that was brought in from some 250km away.  Covering the marble in detail, inside an out, are extremely detailed inlays of various types of stones.  Anyway, here is me and Taj:

Weird guy at the Taj

Apparently my left leg is longer than my right

After Taj, we did a little shopping and hopped on an auto-rickshaw (called "autos" for short) to get us back to our car.  I was excited as it was my first time in one of these death machines, so I checked it out to make sure it was road-worthy before we left.

we went to this monstrous fort called "Agra Fort."  It took forever to walk around it, after which I learned that 80% of it is closed off to the public as the rest is used by the military!  Wow.  It is basically a huge walled palace that the Mausals built and kept adding to during their 500 year reign.  It's so big that I can't really capture, but I was especially impressed by the outside fortifications.  I can't imagine trying to mount an attack on this place, surrounded by high walls, a moat filled with crocodiles (it is currently dried out), and many posts for archers to easily shoot you while coming in.

Agra fort walls

After Agra we headed back to Delhi to grab a bite to eat and turn in for the night.  Here are a couple of other random pictures.

Clearly, the best brand of water around!

Needs some photoshop correction, but beautiful sunset on the way home.

Wedding Fun

On Sunday we headed to the wedding of Nikhil's wife's cousin and his bride.  Our taxi got in an accident on the way to pick us up, so we lost a lot of time and nearly missed the "exciting" part.  Unfortunately, this also meant I didn't have time to put on my Mundu, only the shirt.  I had regularly heard about how long Indian weddings are and so forth, but the "I do" part is really really fast, so it's a good thing we weren't any later.

We arrived at a large building that I would liken to an American Legion club, only larger.  There were two main rooms, one that was completely open and filled with chairs that hosted the ceremony, while the other was a large dining hall for after.  We entered into a sea of people amidst loud drumbeats and music from two oboe-like instruments called nadaswaram.  They played throughout the entire ceremony. 

I needed a wider angle lens to do the crowd justice.
Probably 2000 people were here.

The "Indian" wedding singers

Since Nikhil was family, we quickly pushed our way through the crowd up to the front near the projection screen where they were showing a live video feed via the onstage cameraman.  It was immediately evident that this was as much a wedding as it was a production.  There were over a dozen people with cameras onstage, complete with photographer's light umbrellas going the entire time.

Bride and groom making the 3 rounds under the lights and camera

When I got there, the bride and groom were starting their "vows" if you will.  I'm not sure what else to call it, but what I found interesting is that the bride and groom never say a thing to each other.  Not even once.  No, "to have and to hold" or "with this ring."  Instead, everything is done through actions and symbolism.  It's a three step process: first, they tie gold chains around each other's neck (as if the bride needed more... more on that in a minute), then they lay a necklace of flowers around the neck of each other, and finally they exchange rings.  Again, no talking, just drums and nadaswaram.  It all happened very fast.

Next, the bride and groom make three laps around the stage for everyone to see what they have done.  Then, they sit down and family members take turns "feeding" the bride and groom spoons full of sugar and milk mix.  This is to show the family's support and provide them sustanance for starting their lives together.  Finally, anyone who wants to can come up, greet the bride and groom, and have a picture with them.  It just so happens that nearly everyone wants to do that, so the bride and groom pose for pictures literally for hours.

Yummy milk stuff

Through all this, I have to give props to the bride.  I knew that Indians liked gold, but what I witnessed was unreal.  Even the Indians seem to think it's a little much as they frequently laugh when they talk about the bride and all the gold she carries.  Nikhil said that for a fairly "comfortable" family such as this one, the bride would typically wear about 30-40 thousand dollars worth of gold!  Holy cow.  Necklace after necklace, tiaras, rings, and bangles half way to the elbow.  And then to take that and put her in the hot room, under the camera lights, etc.  She must have been absolutely miserable.

Mr T wannabe

Shortly after the "vows" many people bolted to the dining hall to eat. They laid out banana leaves which act as a plate, and then different servers come around and dish out rice, curries, and various chutneys.  According to Sapeksh, a "traditional" wedding meal is supposed to include 27 different foods, but this one had maybe 15.  This was the second time I attempted eating with my hand, but it was much more difficult as it was a rice dish.  There is a certain technique that I failed to master, and ended up taking me much longer than my companions.

After the wedding we headed to a huge earthen dam -- me, Nikhil, Sapeksh, Nikhil's son and wife (Amrutha), and her sister.  It was quite the site, and extremely long.  We rode a special vehicle on it, which is in the video below.  See if it seems familiar to any of you.  When we were ready to go back, Nikhil and Sapeksh went to get the car while I stayed with the girls.  I got a kick out of all the looks we were getting.  First, I was the only white guy I'd seen in Kerala since we arrived.  Second, the girls were fairly dressed up with gold and beautiful dresses since we just came from the wedding.  Combine the two of us with the fact we were at the earthen dam, and the locals couldn't stop staring, trying to understand exactly what was going on!  Funny stuff.

Later that evening we went to a reception at the groom's house, which is customary.  Shortly after arriving I was given a rose by one of Nikhil's wife's cousins.  I didn't know what to make of it, but I think she was just being friendly.  We had more food, of course, and more pictures for the bride and groom!  I again tried eating with my hand, but the rice at this meal was not sticky at all, and was just too difficult so I tracked down a spoon and fork.

Maybe I was on a secret Indian version of
"The Bachelorette" and didn't realize it

Most important thing to have when cooking for 500
people is a ginormous bowl.

Though I had a flight booked to head back on Monday morning, due to all the driving over the weekend, we discovered it would be far less effort and driving for me to just take a cab directly from the wedding to Bangalore.  Unfortunately, it was nearing time for "the forest" to close, which is a national reserve due to the wildlife who live there.  If you don't get into the forest by 9, you wait until the next day, and there is nothing you can do about it.  So, my cab driver sped over 100 km/h the entire way to the forest. Weaving in and out of people, cars, and everything else at that speed frightened me to my very core.  Ultimately we made it into the forest in time, but not by much.  

During the transit we saw some wild elephants just hanging out by the road, but it was too dark to get a picture.  We rolled into Bangalore by 1 AM, and my driver didn't know the location of the hotel.  My GPS wasn't working, so I had to pull up google maps and try to give him directions.  We made it, but I will admit that we stopped on the road to ask random people if they knew where we needed to go.  The hotel was crazy nice, as it was a former English government building/palace from when the English ruled.  This picture doesn't really do it justice, but anyway.  That was my day!  

One wing at the ITC Windsor in Bangalore.

God's Own Country

Before I begin, if you have trouble seeing some of the pictures (there are 16 in this post), please install the codec from the following link.  I captured some in this format and am unable to convert them right now.   www.nikonimglib.com/nefcodec/    

On Friday I left work late in the day to head to Kerala, a region at the very southernmost part of India.  There was no direct flight, so I had to take two very short one hour flights on a small Turbo prop plane known as an ATR.  It's so small that you take a bus from the terminal out onto the tarmac and board it via the stairs.

I arrived in Coimbatore airport in Kerela at 9 and embarked on a 3 hour drive to Nikhil's house with Nikhil, his brother and my friend Sapeksh.  By the way, it is not "Nikhil's parent's house" as apparently property is considered the family's.  They would actually chuckle and correct me if I referred to it as his parent's house.  I quickly learned that driving in Kerala was quite scary.  While Hyderabad is known for it's crazy traffic, Kerala sports tiny roads with an expectation of constant passing and being passed.  And, of course there are lots of people on the roads, tiny "auto rickshaws" (the tiny 3 wheel taxis that are everywhere), and animals.

They have their own well.  When the power is out, you need to fetch water with a bucket  :)

Nikhil using a cool device to open coconuts

Pointed on the top, the point is pried apart by the lever on the side.  He cracked this in about 20 seconds.

Nikhil's house; his father is on the porch.  Men down here traditionally
wear a Mundu, though pants are often seen as well.
They wear it ankle length in more formal situations, but will
oftentimes wear it knee-length.  Yes, it does look very much like a skirt.

From left to right, Nikhil's dad (Jayakumar), his sister in law, Nikhil,
his mother (Chandrika), me, Sapeksh

We got up early on Saturday morning to travel to a city near the wedding, called Wayanad.  Before we left, Nikhil's father and I exchanged gifts.  I had brought some fine chocolates from the US, and he gave me my own mundu and shirt for the wedding.  On the way we stopped by Nikhil's wife's house where we had breakfast and strolled through the property.  They don't really have yards here, but the trees are thinned out a little bit.  In her back yard there were a few mango trees (we had fresh mango with breakfast), palm trees (they put coconut in absolutely everything down here), and cashew trees, too!  The cashew itself hangs from the fruit that the tree grows. I enjoyed speaking with her grandfather, and ate with my hand for the first time.  I did well, and actually her family asked if I'd done it before.

The fruit from a cashew tree with the cashew itself attached on the right hand side.

Beautiful view on the way to Wayanad

Lots of monkeys by the side of the road.  Cute baby!

After about an hour of driving we arrived in Wayanad.  Nikhil had arranged for our stay at this amazing place, which was basically a coffee plantation with a couple of cabins on the rainforest hillside.  We didn't see any other guests while there.  It was wonderful to see how they had blended their business with the environment.  The owner -- Rajesh and... his wife, were incredibly nice.  They made the most amazing chicken curry for our first meal.  I asked what was in it, and they started naming spices and pointing.  Every single ingredient came from a tree or bush a few feet away.  They raise their own chickens and have their own cows from which the produce ghee and other ingredients.  As such, the flavors were strong and fresh.

Chicken curry and fresh mangos

A cow eating in the rain forest.  Strikes me as funny.
Interesting fact, if he eats from the coffee plants he produces cappucino  ;)

Our cabin on the hillside

Nikhil and his wife had some family business to tend to, so Sapeksh and I decided to drive to a local site.  It was a cave on the top of a mountain that had been inhabited by cave men and had lots of inscriptions and drawings on the walls.  The hike was very very steep and hot, so afterwards we made it a mission to find some cold beer to bring back to our cabin and drink on the porch.  Ice is evidently not used much in Kerala as we had a very difficult time tracking any down.  In a comical turn of events, we found ourselves at an ice cream factory, buying an enormous block of ice.  Fortunately they had a chipper, and we walked away with a monstrous bag of ice for 100 rupees (roughly 60 rupees to the dollar).  Beer was not a problem as folks from Kerala really enjoy a drink.

Ice cream factory worker extracting a block of ice
from the in-floor freezer.

Massive ice chipper.

Eating a banana on the porch of the cabin.

Red bananas.  Nikhil prefers these, and I did, too!

And that is how we spent our evening, sitting on the porch and talking while drinking some cold ones.  It was precisely what I needed after a very long week.  I went to bed at 10 with a good night's rest ahead of me.  Tomorrow, the wedding!  I hope you enjoyed all the pictures today.

Tomorrow... not so much

So, the days have gotten away from me, so sorry I haven't been able to post for a while.  I'll try to backpost and catch you up.

The days have been pretty predictable.  Get up, go to work, return to hotel, sleep a little.  Very little.  Each night I've gotten about 5 hours of sleep, whether it be due to late work, early travel, Target.com outage, getting my schedule flipped or any combination of the above.  So my world has been constrained to the office and the hotel.

Anyway, last time I mentioned the very busy traffic.  Well, if that wasn't enough, I have now seen the addition of livestock to the mix.  Yes, that's correct, water buffalo frequent the highways as well.  I guess they have places to be as well.  And, no, there is no one to take care of them.  Apparently first thing in the morning the owners will feed the buffalo and care for them, then the buffalo will just mill around town for the day and return home at night.

Everything here has amped up security.  At the hotel we have to stop at a security gate where guards check out our vehicle for anything naughty, and the same happens at the office.  We also have two security guards that sit by the entrance to our floor, who apparently think highly of me.  Every time I walk by, they stop what they are doing and stand up.  I didn't really notice it for the first day or two, but it quickly became obvious.  My coworkers get quite the kick out of it and give me a hard time.

One other thing that has come as a surprise is the picture below.  Any guesses?

This is the Indian equivalent of a bidet.  Yes, it's handheld.  Next topic.


A couple of other brief observations.  Litter is everywhere, unfortunately.  It seems to bother the local residents, yet everyone does it. I will frequently see people unwrap something and just throw the wrapper in the middle of the street.  I even saw our toll booth operator take our slip of paper, glance at it, and then throw it in the street before taking our money.  It's really too bad.

Next post will be about my weekend journey to Kerela.  There should be PLENTY of pictures and interesting stories.  Talk to you then!

Will post tomorrow

Super long day and not a lot of sleep; will post in 10 hours or so.

First Day in India

I woke around 5:45 local time after being asleep for meerly and hour.  I tossed and turned for the next couple of hours until I finally fell soundly asleep and awoke with a start at 8:00 AM.  My coworkers here don't start until 10:00, so this was perfectly acceptable.  I made my way downstairs and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  Aside from "eggs to order" the breakfast options were different than what we typically have -- lots of rice, peas, pita bread kind of stuff.  I asked the person at the egg station if they could make an omlet, to which she replied "Oh, yes... scrambled, fried, over easy?"  So I went we three eggs over easy, some rice with green pea sauce, and a croissant.

Novotel Lobby

The main manager in India, Sukumar, came to pick us (my Boss Dave and I) up at 10 and brought us to the office.  It wasn't far, but took quite a while due to all the traffic.  I quickly became convinced that all of Hyderabad's 8 million residents are aspiring Nascar drivers.  About half the vehicles on the road are little motorcycles.  Another 10% are these little 3 wheeler golf cart cabs (literally, they are the size of a golf cart), another 30% small cars, and the remainder are pedestrians or stray dogs walking around.  You end up with this complete stew of vehicular chaos where everyone is cutting someone off all the time, and in extremely close quarters.  Insanity.

Even I was a little stressed by this

Work today was good.  We had some meetings to discuss what we're going to talk about for the next two weeks.  I got to meet just about everyone and am doing my best to remember all their faces.  They are super friendly and so accomodating.  I can't get over how welcome they have made me feel.

I tried my first real Indian samosa today, which is basically a large wanton stuffed with potatos and curry of course.  Very spicy.  For lunch we went to the food court, very similar to what we have back home, just different restaurants.  I asked Sukumar what would be safe for me to eat, and he advised me to stick with Domino's and forgo the rest.  So, pepperoni pizza for lunch!  It was pretty much the same was what we have in the U.S. only it came with little packets of extra spices that we could add to our pizza for extra kick.

Samosa

Since I am still recovering a little bit from jet lag and my boss leaves town very early in the morning, we opted to eat at the hotel "Mexican" restaurant.  It was about what I expected -- Mexican names, but with a serious Indian influence.  Even the mexican rice was spicy!  I sure am glad I brought my tums!

After a nice dinner with Kelmer, Sukumar, Pranay, and Sreekanth, I retired to my room and video chatted with Flip and Beth for a little bit.  It is 11:42 now (1:12 Central), and I am beat.  Fortunately, everyone here goes to work at 10 so I still have a full night's sleep within grasp.