Keralite snake charmer!!

You really should go....

Bangkok.

Yes, you should go.

Really.

I'm serious.

If you do, I know a good tailor and he'll pick you up at the airport and feed you beer.

Yeah, I'll be going back there before I leave....

This is India!

Okay, so I am about a month behind in my blog posts, but I know you are all so very excited for me to get caught up, so here goes.

Very early in the morning on February 23rd, 2:30 am to be exact, Jeff, Anna, David and myself hopped in a cab and made our way to the airport to begin our journey up to Amritsar. I am sure that most of you have never heard of this place, but it is in north eastern India in the Punjab state, about 30 km from the Pakistan border.

We had a layover in Delhi and on top of being super tired from the early morning departure, my stomach wasn't feeling so hot. God damn IndiJoe's! I am so never eating there again. Suffice to say, the toilets at the Dehli airport are most definitely not the pristine, porcelain commodes one would wish for while in that state...

Anyway, we hopped on the plane from Dehli to Amritsar just after sunrise which really was gorgeous. Furthermore, I was very excited about the plane that would be taking us there. It was a smaller, propeller plane that looked like it was right out of Indiana Jones.

We landed in Amritsar at about 10 am to be greeted by security guards carrying automatic weapons. Stuff you just don't see in the states. We exited the airport and made it to the pre-paid taxi booth that was actually just a dude sitting in front of a makeshift table just outside the airport. We grabbed a taxi and headed out to the hotel that Anna had booked a couple of weeks before.

When we arrived at the hotel, it looked pretty nice, but in traditional Indian fashion they had misplaced our reservation, and we ended up booking a room at another joint. The rooms were okay, the price was good, and plus, we were only going to be there for one night.

Since we didn't have much time, we decided to hop to it and had the hotel book us a driver for the day. The driver was a nice enough guy whose name consisted of an 'A' followed by a bunch of consonants which I couldn't even begin to pronounce.

Since we really hadn't eaten anything we decided to head to a place that was recommended in Lonely Planet called Pizza Point that was about a kilometer away from the Golden Temple.

Now this was my first time traveling in India outside of Hyderabad, and this was not a big city. There were people everywhere, but it was definitely not as developed as Hyderabad. A very new and novel experience for me.

We were able to find Pizza Point which was a hole in the wall that looked very suspicious. It had a rather strange smell and cleanliness was most certainly not the first thing that came to mind when we stepped in. On top of that the waiter looked like one of the Munsters' long lost Indian cousins who wore platform shoes and pants that were pulled up way too high, but I must say, he is to this day is one of the best waiters that I have had so far in India.

The kitchen was nowhere to be seen in the restaurant and after my IndiJoe's experience from the night before I was skeptical to say the least, but our waiter emerged from what looked like a closet door with pizzas in hand which weren't half bad.

After scarfing down the much needed sustenance, we head over to the Golden Temple which is the holiest of all Sikh shrines. Before you enter, you must remove your shoes which you check in at this sunken locker room-ish area just outside of the temple complex. Now this place is packed with hundreds of people who have just taken off their shoes and I can tell you, when you have this many feet in a small place the smell becomes worse than dirty foot smell and actually smells more like dog shit.

In addition to not being able to wear shoes, men and women are required to cover their hair. For 10 rupees, we each bought a head scarf, washed our feet in the little pool at the entrance and headed in.

Now I have never tied a head scarf, and didn't really know what I was doing. The gang decided to let me look like an idiot for about half of our time there before helping me out. Such friends. :)

The Golden Temple, the Hari Mandir Sahib, is located in the middle of the sacred pool, the Amrit Sarovar, and to reach the Golden Temple, you must wait in line on the Guru Bridge which leads to it. Within the Hari Mandir Sahib lies the original copy of the Guru Granth Sahib which is the holy Sikh book. Throughout the day, four priests inside the temple keep up a continuous chant that is broadcast throughout the complex via loudspeakers.

The complex itself is really quite breathtaking and made of all white marble. We ended up spending a few hours wandering around, taking everything in. I hadn't expected to be as impressed as I was.

Also, since we are pretty far north, I don't think many western tourists make it up here and the locals seemed very eager to meet us. Everybody was very friendly and wanted to take pictures with us, especially Anna.

After the temple, we headed back to the hotel to relax for a couple of hours before heading to the Wagah border. As I said, Amritsar is right next to the Pakistan border and each evening, the border patrol on either side puts on a show for their respective countries. In fact, both countries have built little stadiums that hold a couple thousand spectators each to enjoy the show.

For those of you who aren't up to speed on the current status of the India-Pakistan relationship, these two countries don't like each other too much, and for years have been fighting over where the border between the countries actually lies in the state of Kashmir.

When we arrived, we each bought an India visor and a couple of India flags to show our team spirit and sat down in the VIP section. As we sat there the excitement began to mount, they blasted music and people danced. Meanwhile, the border guards who wore the most outrageous outfits and all sported these ridiculously hideous mustaches, prepared for the show.

The show began with the emcee shouting into a microphone, trying to get the crowd riled up. People were pulled from the crowd and ran up to the Pakistan gate carrying the India flag. The head guard then started a chant and the guards took turns high stepping their way up to the Pakistan gate to do a little dance full of bravado and machismo.



This went on for quite a while before they opened up the gates, and a Pakistan guard and an Indian guard came face to face as they performed a ceremony while raising their respective flags.

The show ended as they lowered the flags, closed the gates, and the guards high stepped their way back to center stage.

Afterwards, made it back to our driver and started on the drive back to Amritsar. Now this was perhaps the scariest car ride that I have had so far in India. It was dusk and we were headed back along with the hundreds of other cars that had just left the show. The road we were on was a two lane road and in India, just because there are only two lanes, that does not mean you have to stay out of the lane which belongs to oncoming traffic.

So it's getting pretty dark. I have pretty good vision, but even I couldn't see too well. However, the driver could apparently see fine because he didn't turn on his headlights despite the fact that we were driving on the wrong side of the road half of the time to get around slow moving buses, narrowly missing the cars or tractors that were coming towards us, who also had their lights off!

As soon as we made it back into town and I started to feel a little more comfortable, a dog jumps off the median directly in front of us. Anna screams, but the driver doesn't even slow down. Somehow we miss the dog and the driver laughs and says 'This is India.' That statement sums up so much of my trip that you can't even believe it.

We found a nice restaurant that served continental food and some things called 'Cheesy cock rolls' which we found highly amusing and had to order. There was so much stuff on the menu that looked good that we each ordered 3 or 4 items and pigged out.

We headed home, went straight to bed, exhausted from our long day.

The next morning we got up and headed to Jalainwala Bagh which is a park where the English massacred over 2000 Indians in 1919. They have now set the land aside as a memorial to those who died. Some of the buildings still bear the marks from the British bullets. For those of you that have seen the movie Gandhi, you probably remember the scene that took place here.

We were going to head into the Golden temple again, but decided against it and instead wandered around the market looking for some souvenirs before heading to the airport.

We had a 4 hour layover in Dehli and decided to make the most of it by getting a taxi and heading to the Oberoi which is a very, very swanky hotel and grabbing a bite to eat at the restaurant. Since it was a nice restaurant, they had beef on the menu and I ate my first burger since leaving the states. It was fantastic.

After dinner and a couple of drinks, it was back into the taxi, into the airport and on a plane back home to Hyderabad.

Middle Eastern Adventure

Well, I am a little late at getting this post up. It has been a hectic couple of weeks and the good ole' blog ended up moving to the back burner. However, I figured that I'd better upload this story to cyberspace before any of the details fade from memory.

We left for Dubai on February 16th which happened to be a Indian holiday. What better way to take advantage of a three day weekend than to head to the Middle East? We flew Emirates which was pretty cool. The flight attendants have pretty horrendous uniforms, but overall the flight was good.

On a little side note, I have decided that Emirates' tag line is my favorite of all of the different airlines that I have flown. It isn't just catchy, it's a command.

'Fly Emirates'

You can't get much more direct than that. It's way better than the tag lines that some of the Indian airlines have.

Air Deccan - 'Have you flown Air Deccan lately? It's WOW'

Pretty awful, huh. Anyways, I'm getting off track.

We arrived in the Dubai airport which is very nice and the whole time I couldn't stop thinking, 'I'm in the Middle East.' The Dubai airport is very modern and we soon came to learn that the rest of the city is, as well.

Until I had arrived there, I was not exactly sure what the UAE was. Well, for those of you who don't know, it consists of seven different emirates that are each independently ruled by Sheiks. These seven emirates have banded together to form the infrastructure of the country, but other than that they have their own rules and the respective Sheik governs each one.

We headed to our hotel on Sheik Zayed road, which I came to know very well as it is the highway that is used to get just about everywhere in Dubai. We were staying at the Novotel, which is a fairly nice place, but much more reasonably priced than the 5 star resorts closer to the beach.

On our city tour we learned that Dubai is currently trying to become the premier tourist destination in the world . The city which has about 2 million people is made up of over 80% expats. By 2010 they would like to increase the number of tourists that visit to over 16 million which is a 200% increase from 2006. They are expanding their airport to accommodate this increase and by the time they are done, the airport will be bigger than the city of Hong Kong!

After checking into our hotel, we hopped on the shuttle to the Mall of the Emirates which is the second largest mall in the world. On the shuttle with us was a group of European consultants who had been in Dubai for a while and gave their insight into the UAE. They described it as 'a bunch of rich kids playing in the sandbox who are always trying to do one better than the other.'

As evidence to this Austrian's view of Dubai, they are currently building what will be the tallest building in the world in Dubai, the Burj Dubai. When construction began it was set to exceed the height of the Taipei 101 in Taiwan for the tallest building in the world. However, the Sheik in Qatar got wind that Dubai was going to have the tallest building so he set out to build a building that was just a few meters taller to claim the title. The Dubai Sheik wasn't having any of this and had the plans for the Burj Dubai altered, had a few stories added and voila, back to number one.

We reached the Mall of the Emirates and I was blown away by the size. It was ridiculously huge and the entrance was flanked by just about every type of high end car you could imagine. You'd think that simply building a 500+ store mall would be enough, but no. This mall had an indoor ski resort. No joke.

David, Jeff and I decided we couldn't pass this up and for about $60 you got 2 hours on the lift with snow gear and skis included.

There was a legitimate ski lift that took you up to the top and gave you the option of 2 different runs, and despite the fact that we were in the middle of the Middle Eastern desert, it was freezing inside. After about an hour, the novelty began to wear off and the cold was beginning to bite so we headed in, but what an experience!

After tooling around the mall and grabbing dinner, we headed back to the hotel. It was pretty late, so Mahin and Anna went to bed, but David, Jeff and I headed down to the jazz bar in our hotel. The band was okay, but what I found most interesting was the fact that there were like 4 hookers just hanging out at the bar.

Now I have been to Vegas, and I have seen hookers, but this is a Muslim country. Most of the local women you see on the street are wearing burqas, many with a niqab covering their face, and in our hotel, we have hookers?! So strange.

After an extremely overpriced drink, David headed up, but Jeff and I weren't ready to end our first night in Dubai and headed to a sheesha bar that Jeff had located in the Lonely Planet. The joint was located over by the airport and as the taxi driver dropped us off, we asked if he knew anything about the place. He took one look at us, chuckled and said, 'Yeah, it's an old Arab place,' implying 'silly westerners'.


The taxi driver was right. The place was somewhat empty when we arrived, but there were still a few families there, kids and all at 1:30 am. Ohh yes, and Jeff and I were most definitely the only Westerners. That was very clear. We ended up staying until the place closed at 3 am, headed back out to the front to catch a taxi.

Now this place was pretty much directly off of Sheik Zayed road which is effectively a highway. It's 3 am. We are a couple of Americans in the Middle East and have no idea how to get home. There are people still up, but depending on whether they are a guy or a girl, they are either wearing a thobe or a burqa. We ended up flagging a taxi and made it back to the hotel, but it was a fantastic way to end the first day of our Middle Eastern Adventure.

The next day we slept in a bit and headed down to Jumeriah beach next to the Burj al Arab hotel. Now the Burj al Arab hotel is the self-proclaimed only 7 star hotel in the world. The rooms start at $1000 a night and to even get in to the place you have to have a reservation for something, whether it is tea for $100 or a $60 drink. We didn't make reservations far enough in advance, so had to settle for the view from the outside on the beach. I went for a dip in the Persian Gulf and grabbed some shells from the beach. The fact that I had a chance to do that still kinda blows my mind.

Just a funny little factoid... The maps in Dubai do not refer to the gulf as the Persian Gulf as I have always heard it called. They call it the Arabian Gulf. Makes sense. They're Arab. Just to clarify, I asked one of our drivers, "Is that the Persian Gulf?" He responded, "Yes, that is the Arabian Gulf."

After the beach, we met up with the girls, did a quick jaunt through Kamara where they sell all the counterfeit goods, and then headed to the ultra-high end mall underneath the Emirates Towers for lunch at the Noodle House before our desert safari.



Rashaun (sp?) our desert safari driver picked us up at about 2 pm and we headed to the desert outside of Dubai to romp around in the sand dunes. We had booked our desert safari with Orient Tours and met up with about 30 other matching, tricked out Toyota 4Runners at a gas station before actually heading into the desert. The desert safari was definitely fun, but Rashaun let us know that there are red sand deserts about an hour outside of the city where the dunes are much bigger and made of pure red sand. When I make it back to Dubai, I'll make sure to give it a whirl.

After the desert romp, we quickly stopped at a camel farm and then headed to the camp where the final activities were planned. They had sheesha, camel rides, a falconer, a henna artist, and food, followed by a belly dancer. All in all, a pretty great deal for $55.

Reshaun dropped us back at the hotel and we cleaned up and headed to the marina just outside of Internet City, and to the Grosvenor Hotel. When we arrived, I was simply amazed by all of the construction that was going on.

I commented on it, and the taxi driver said that 5 years ago there was nothing there. Now it was packed with high end hotels and condos rising hundreds of feet above the desert floor, and the foundations laid for many more to come. To give you an idea about how fast Dubai is growing, Jeff read that they currently have 1/6th of all of the world's cranes in Dubai which they are using to construct the tens, if not hundreds, of skyscrapers that are popping up everywhere. If I have a chance to make it back in five more years, I have a hard time imagining what it is going to look like.

Inside the Grosvenor, we headed to the top floor to Bar 44 which is possibly one of the swankiest bars that I have ever been in. However, we couldn't get a table which was probably for the best because I'm guessing would have cost me an entire paycheck for a drink. We then headed downstairs to the Buddha Bar which is a chain with locations in places such as Paris, NY, and Hong Kong.

Now this place was cool! Awesome styling, good music and a great atmosphere. We stuck around for some overpriced appetizers, drinks and desserts, and then decided we wanted to check out a club.

Now finding a club on a Sunday night proved to be more complicated than we had expected. A club at the Jumeriah Beach Resort had been recommended to us, but happened to be closed that night. The club next door which appeared to be popping wouldn't let Mahin in with her head scarf which I found very strange considering we were in a Muslim country.

Mahin and David ended up heading home, but Jeff, Anna and I were able to find a Euro-trashy cub in the Crowne Plaza Hotel that played bad trance, but we had a good time.

The next day, we woke up, headed to a local restaurant for some lamb shawarma , hummus, and baba ghanoush. Ohh I was in heaven. Soooo good.

We had booked a city tour with the same company that had offered the desert tour which ended up being pretty informative. One of the more novel things that we learned was that the license plates of the cars in Dubai are indicative of the status of the Sheik who is driving. The ruling sheik then has license plate '1', second highest '2' and so on. The highest we saw as '96.'

The tour took us to a museum at Al Fahidi fort and then up to Diera which is the other half of Dubai located on the other side of Dubai Creek. Here we went to the spice and the gold souks and got a feeling for what the real people of Dubai lived like.

We ended our evening with another round of really great shawarma at a hole in the wall, and were very amused to learn how women wearing niqabs eat in public. I bought myself some authentic Arab wear, joking that I will wear it when going through US customs on the way home.

We headed back to the hotel and then to the airport to fly home to Hyderabad.

Out of Order

Well, I am going to have to enter this blog post a little out of order. You will hear about my Dubai adventures soon, I promise.

We went to City Center tonight. To Firangi Paani. It is this kind of British-ish bar that serves bar food with an Indian twist. I ordered a roasted chicken sandwich. Do you think it tasted liked roasted chicken? If you think so, you haven't been reading my blog. It actually tasted just like the chicken croissant sandwich I talked about like 4 posts ago... Spicy.

Anyway, we were meeting up with one of the Dubliners who was about to leave town and a bunch of the locals came to join in on the festivities. Good times.

People here are so welcoming. I am used to the US where you have to prove yourself to some extent before you can make it in the circle. You know, to make it into the clique?

Friendly people. Dancing to hits from the US and UK from the 70's to 07.

Good times.

I can't complain.

Soooo cool, I had to post it

What I am doing on Saturday:

This tour departs in the afternoon across the desert with several photo-stops during an exciting dune drive to the first destination - the camel farm. The drive continues across the desert. Watch the beautiful sunset in the desert, reach our campsite where you have the opportunity to do camel riding, sand boarding and try out a henna design on hands or feet. After working up an appetite enjoy a delicious barbecue dinner and a shisha (the famous Arabic water pipe). Before returning watch our belly dancer performing her show around the campfire by starlight.

Hair cuts in India

So I got brave and had my hair cut today. For those of you that know me well, I am a little fearful of letting new people cut my hair. Since my junior year in high school, I think there have only been four different people who have given me a haircut.

Since I have been here, I have heard first hand of three different choices for getting your hair cut:

1. Greg got his hair cut at a barber shop. If I remember correctly it was only like 50 rupees (If you haven't learned the conversion rate yet from reading my blog, that's really f#$#ing cheap). The guy gave him a head massage, and offered him a drink and a cigarette afterwards.

2. Neil got his hair cut at a place where the barber was literally wrist deep in a plate of Indian food just before he started cutting his hair, and figured that simply wiping his hands off on a towel before commencing to stick his hands in Neil's hair would be sufficient clean up.

3. Jeff got his hair cut at a salon by a guy named Vinod who doesn't really speak English, but did a good job.

I opted for choice #3. The barber with the sweet hospitality sounded good, but I have an aversion to places that only use clippers, and #2 definitely wasn't happening.

Vinod did a pretty good job. Pretty much looks the same as it always looks. It was damn cheap, too. 240 rupees including a 100 rupee tip. (Yeah, I'm a generous guy)

One thing that I did find mildly amusing... Even half way around the world, in a culture that doesn't really accept homosexuality, the hair care profession seems to attract men of the same sexual orientation as it does in the United States. Who knew?

Mebaz Revisited

After work, we made it back over to Mebaz so Jeff could pick up some pants he had made, and Greg and Scott could get fitted for some clothes. The service tonight was tremendously better and I think I will definitely be having some clothes made there.

It's pretty crazy. They have all of this Dolce & Gabana, Emporio Armani, and other high end fabrics with which you can have fitted suits made for anywhere from $250-$500. I definitely am going to be having a couple of suits, a blazer and a few shirts made. Gotta wait till all this work at the gym kicks in before I get measured, though. What good is a fitted suit that doesn't fit, right?

However, I am not sure what suits I should get. I have a brown pinstripe, and I was thinking I should get a black one, and maybe a gray one. Also, since it is totally custom, I can choose where the pockets are, how many buttons it has, the lining, etc. I'm open to suggestions, if you have any. Aunt Tami, if you are reading this, I need some high class advice, please drop me a line. :)

Afterwards, we we had dinner at Greg and Scott's favorite restaurant in Hyderabad. A cart that sells these Indian flauta like things called Frankie's. I had a Tawa chicken one and a vegetable one. They were fantastic!

You think eating off of a food cart in India is any sketchier than in Mexico? I'll let you know.

Chillin' in my home town

This weekend was relaxing. Ohh so nice.

Got off to a late start on Friday, due to a late night on Saturday. Travis and I hopped in a taxi with Srinivas and headed over to a cricket match. The journey was pretty amazing. Travis and I hadn't driven through the city during the middle of the day when traffic is in full force. My God it is crazy!

We were like a couple of little kids just ooh'ing and aah'ing at all of the near collisions and the sheer volume of cars, trucks and motorcycles teeming through the streets. We were so glad that it was just us in the car, and not a couple of other expats who have more Hyderabad experience because I'm sure they wouldn't have found the journey nearly as amusing as we did.



We got to the cricket match just in time to see Brendan, the Australian, head up to bat. For some reason, I had always thought that cricket was supposed to be a super hard game to understand, but I picked up on it pretty quickly and actually found it pretty interesting. I even tried pitifully to learn to swing a cricket bat. It's a lot harder than you might think. There are so many different kinds of swings you have to know depending on how the ball is thrown and where you want to hit it. It's nothing like swinging a baseball bat. That's for damn sure.

Afterwards, we decided to hit up McDonald's to grab a bit to eat. Now McDonald's is a bit different over here. You know, that no beef thing, so there definitely isn't a Big Mac. Instead, they have a double decker, chicken sandwich called the Maharasha Mac. However, I wasn't really feeling like a curry chicken sandwich, so I stuck with the plain ole' McChicken sandwich.

We then picked up Brendan and headed over to the Tombs, one of the 3 hot attractions in Hyderabad. Here they have built some pretty large temples over the tombs of Persian Kings and Queens that ruled over this area about 4 centuries ago.

Along with learning a small bit about the history of the city, we also learned an important thing about traveling in India. After we had paid at the gate to get in, there was another gate, and the man that opened that gate, Abdul, and walked up to us offering (more like insisting) on giving us a tour.

He hopped in the car, took us to the first tomb where another Indian man who appeared to be watching over the tomb gave us a demonstration of the acoustic properties of the building by standing next to this wall and chanting. It was quite amazing. The way these guttural tones resonated within this giant tomb was amazing.

Abdul then led us to the next tomb where he quite deftly operated our three different cameras, as he had us pose every 100 ft or so. He then walked us around to the back of the tomb where he informed us that the tour was over and it was going to be 500 rupees a person!

I said no way, told him I would give him 500 total. A poor counter offer, as I later learned. I really need to work on this bargaining thing.

We then went to Golconda Fort which is a rather impressive, massive fort that overlooks the city of Hyderabad. After our last tour guide experience, we managed to make it past all of the would-be tour guides and wandered around the fort on our own.

One of the great things about this place was the fact that you could wander anywhere. There was all of these dark tunnels that led to different parts of the fort and up to the roofs. We even managed to find ourselves a little bat cave, and although it was too dark to see the things, You could definitely hear them. Pretty damn spooky.



We made our way to the highest point in the fort where we got a pretty good look at the entire city and also, how flat this part of India is. You could see as far as the eye could see. Well, as far as the pollution would let you see.

The highlight of the weekend came after we left the fort, however. As we were about to hop in the car, to head back to the apartments a couple of kids with camels showed up and asked if we were interested in a ride. For 200 rupees, the three of us got to ride a camel. I looked like a stupid little kid with a monster grin who just had a big, giant ice cream cone given to him.

And damn, those things are tall! Sitting on it I was taller than the buses we walked past. I wish I had my camera when I was riding, though. The kids' faces as they looked up at me with the stupid grin on my face was priceless.

After the camel rides, dinner at Hai King. 40 year old Chinese food place. Decent food, cheesy decor and coy fish over the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. That's about all I have to say about that.

Afterwards, Neil and I went to a bar called 10 Downing. It was a locals bar that had music playing loud and King Fisher on tap, just like everywhere else. Bars are strange to me here. The bar was pretty crowded, but there was a grand total of about 15 girls who are being watched like hawks everywhere they go by the group of guys they are with.

You don't really see a bunch of girls that went out for the night to cut loose. The singles scene seems to be virtually non-existent.

Bars here close at midnight, so Neil and I were trying to figure out something to do afterwards and met a cricket player from Bangalore who knew about a late night club called Treasure Island. Unfortunately, he knew nothing more than the name and we ended up heading home.

Sunday was rather uneventful. Gym in the morning and went to the Taj Krishna for brunch. Super swanky place with a pretty impressive brunch. The highlight, however, was most definitely the Indian mariachis who serenaded our table with a lovely rendition of 'Hotel California' (pronounced 'Hotel Californee').

Afterwards, met up with Travis and Neil, hopped in a car with Srinivas and went to Meebaz to look into getting some custom clothes made. Since I plan on getting myself into some pretty damn good shape before I leave, I'm going to hold off on getting fitted until a little later in my trip.

The fabrics were nice, but service was bad. They had made some pants for Neil that looked like baggy, hip hop jeans and the tailor insisted that was the way they were supposed to be. Neil had to argue with the guy for like 10 minutes before he said he would alter them.

Followed that up with dinner at an Indian/Irish pub, very interesting. Guess what my barbecue chicken sandwich tasted like. You guessed it... curry. I should have known.

I then made my way back to the apartments for some computer time, all for your viewing and reading pleasure. ;)

Hyderabadi Week End

Tonight was a good night.

I went to dinner with a bunch of the expats at a chinese restaurant called Aroma right next to good ole Indi Joe's. However, this was an infinitely better dining experience.

I would have to say that this was probably the most enjoyable meal that I have had so far in Hyderabad. We ordered more appetizers than you can imagine! Fried shrimp things that looked like corn dogs, crazy tasty little mini corns, and a variety of other things that I had never tasted, but thoroughly enjoyed.

Beyond the food, the conversation was great. Since most of us are around the same age, much of the dinner was spent talking about pop culture moments of our late childhood to early adolescent years. The favorite cartoons, the memorable 80's songs and ohh yes, of course, those early childhood crushes where we started to realize we weren't so innocent anymore. You know, that crush where you realize you might want to do more with a girl than run her down on the playground and smack her one cause you like her?

About half of us followed up the evening by heading over to a club/lounge called Touch where I met my flat mates who had spent the evening packing for their trip to Varanasi. I had planned on going this weekend, but I found that I could get my flight for a couple hundred dollars cheaper at a later date and have decided to check out the sites in Hyderabad, instead.

Along with being a club/lounge, Touch is a hookah bar, so we spend the remainder of the evening drinking King Fisher and puffing away on some coffee flavored tobacco. For those of you who haven't tried, hookah is a very tasty experience that I highly recommend, even to you scoffing non-smokers out there.

Perhaps the highlight of the night was the fact that Travis was not going to be able to get into the club because he had on flip flops. We took him back down to the car so he could catch a ride home, but our driver, Gopal, wasn't having any of that and came upstairs to talk to the bouncer to make sure he got in. We thought that 100 rupees in the bouncer's hand would do the trick, but after that failed, Gopal wasn't about to let Travis head home and swapped shoes with him so he could hang out for the evening.

So classic, but at the same time I really feel that it speaks for the people here. The unabashed, willingness to be genuinely generous is so commonplace here, it has taken me some getting used to. I keep waiting for the catch, but there isn't one. I wonder what that says about where I come from.

Anyway, to my chagrin, Touch closed at midnight and everybody has gone to bed. So I guess I will take their cue and do the same. A good end to a rough week, with high hopes of an exciting and interesting weekend.

Where the hell is Kuala Lumpur?

Well, it's been a while since my last blog post. I am a more settled in my India digs, have a cell phone and even know where I go to get the free dinners, but I haven't been able to get myself to type as things have kinda pretty rough, personally... Being here has definitely has been a catalyst for personal growth, and with that has come insight into what I want and a realization of where I have been mentally for quite some time now. However, this clarity happened to come just a tad too late, and in turn, has in some ways marred the beginning of my adventure. Well. Living. Learning.

Enough of that, it's time to catch you up with what I have been up to. I hope you have some spare time because this is going to be a long one.

Last Thursday, about 10 of us expats went to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Laguna. Don't ask me why and Italian place is named Laguna, but it was nice. Many of the nicer restaurants in Hyderabad are located on the top floors of these newly constructed buildings. In fact, this building wasn't completed on the bottom, but the restaurant was quite swanky and on the top floor. We had a large table that was on this raised pedastal that was surrounded by a little stream with floating candles in it (ahh, Laguna. I got it). Like I said, pretty swanky.

I ended up having pizza which turned out to be a good choice as most of the people that ordered a regular entree weren't all to pleased with their meal. My flatmate, Scott, ordered what was labeled as the filet mignon, but it was suspect from the get go as it only cost 350 rupees (~$8) and it is generally pretty hard to find beef in India since cows are sacred to Hindu people. Yes, you do see them wandering around in busy traffic and mingling amongst the locals just as I had always heard. Of course, this filet wasn't beef. Water buffalo. I guess there might be a cut of filet mignon in water buffalo, right?

The next day was super hectic as I had to make sure I finished all my work so I could catch the plane and leave my laptop behind. With 7 of us going, we had a pretty good sized crew making the journey to Kuala Lumpur. We hopped in the taxis and made it to the airport around 5:30. Security at the Hyderabad airport consists pretty much a single x-ray machine and dudes with AK-47s scattered here and there.

We hopped our first flight on Spicejet to Chennai, where we were to transfer on to a Malaysian airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur. After we had made it though customs at the Chennai airport, I had my dinner which consisted of Pringles, a sketchy vegetable samosa and a can of Heineken from a little concession stand in the airport. Ohh yeah, my stomach is brave now.

We waited for the flight, sitting on probably the dirtiest floor I have ever sat on. By the time we made it on the flight it was close to midnight and I was looking to catch some sleep since we would be arriving in KL at about 5:00 am. But of course, it wouldn't be a true plane flight in Asia without a screaming baby. Plus, they kept all of the lights on in the plane until about 20 minutes before we landed. Rad.

The Malaysia airport was so clean and modern. Even after having been in India for only a week, it was very novel. We booked a van and made the hour long journey to Kuala Lumpur. Some of the crew slept, but I couldn't. I WAS IN MALAYSIA! It was such a trip.

Right as we neared the city, we could see the lights at the top of the Petronas Towers. I decided I had to wake everybody in the car up, so they could see.

We arrived at our hotel, the Mandarin Oriental, which happened to be directly next to the Petronas Towers, and damn, it was nice. We were definitely high rollin'. Anna and I had booked two separate rooms, but we learned that we weren't going to be able to fit as many roll away beds as we would have liked in two separate rooms, so we ended up splurging a tiny bit more and getting a two bedroom suite.

Wow! This suite was sweet (I know you are groaning over that one)! It had two rooms with 2 bathrooms, a big living room and even a full kitchen. Plus, since we were staying in such a swanky place, they let us check in at 6:30 am. None of us thought we were going to get any sleep that night and we ended up resting up in this super posh room.

The next day, we woke up around 11 and went over to the mall in the Petronas Towers. This mall was also super nice. Six stories and every high end store you could imagine, as well as, the more reasonable joints. It was like Santana Row on steriods, plus Valley Fair and Oakridge all in one.

We grabbed some lunch from A&W (Yes, they had A&W) and wandered around for a bit. I bought some cheapy flip flops since they were the one thing that I forgot in Hyderabad, checked out the Nike store that had some pretty cool stuff that we don't have in the US, and watched some Taiko drummers perform in the center of the mall.

Afterwards, we ventured to the Cental Market which was kind of like a high end, indoor flea market. They had some pretty cool stuff and I ended up buying an handmade Malaysian mask, and trying to haggle for a cheap watch, but the guy just wouldn't go low enough.

Next we headed to China town, which was more like China Street, where you could buy all manner of counterfeit goods. Clothes, watches, belts, purses, DVD's, you name it, and all of it dirt cheap. I ended up buying a t-shirt and found my cheap watch which I probably should have haggled a bit more for.

The place was packed full of people and there were some very interesting smells there to say the least. There was this one old lady who had a stand with some newspaper clippings touting the quality of the candies she was mixing and cutting up. Well, at least I think it was touting the quality, but I'm not quite sure since it was written in Chinese.


The candies kinda looked like raw fish and she was taking this big hunks and cutting them down to smaller pieces and mixing them in crushed up peanuts. Apparently, it was home made mochi and Jeff bought a box of the lychee flavored stuff. Being that it looked like big hunks of raw fish that had been sitting in the sun in the middle of this crowded dirty market, I was a bit skeptical, but I tried it. It was alright. A little too squishy for me, but definitely interesting.

After China Town, we headed back to the mall next to the hotel where I wandered around and did quite well for myself in search of bargains. I was able to get a Diesel polo, Diesel jeans, and three dress shirts for about 250 ringgits which is just a bit over $70. Not too shabby.

Everybody then rendezvoused at the hotel room and we went out for Jeff's birthday dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. The service was horrible, and I am still not quite sure what Malaysian food is, but from what we had, it is a bit Indian, a bit Chinese, and a bit south east Asian. We finished off the meal with a piece of durian cheesecake that they brought for Jeff's birthday. If you haven't tried durien, I highly recommend that you go to your local Asian food market and pick one up.


After dinner we went to what was supposed to be the hottest club in Kuala Lumpur called Zouks. Zouks is actually two different clubs right next to each other, one electronic music, the other hip-hop/R&B. We went to the R&B club which was totally dead and freezing inside. I made quick friends with the bartender by tipping him a ringgit (30 cents). He made sure I was taken care of for the rest of the night.

The place started to liven up, and the crew decided to get a bottle of Jack and do the night right. Soon enough, the dance floor was packed and we were having a great time. The rest of the crew left somewhat early, but Jeff and I stayed until the club closed at 4 in the morning getting to know a couple of locals.

The next day Anna and Travis grabbed tickets to the Petronas Towers, and we all went right after Jeff and I got up. Now, these towers were really all I knew about Kuala Lumpur before I got there, but they are actually pretty impressive structures. They are the tallest twin towers in the world and are very attractive. The aesthetics of the buildings really do seem to fit with the city. They don't appear to be giant buildings that were built just for the sake of being giant. If you check out my album, you'll see that I was able to grab a couple pictures of them.

Unfortunately, they only let you go up to the sky bridge that connects the two towers which is only about half way up. There isn't a whole lot to see, but it was interesting, nonetheless.

Afterwards, we checked out of the hotel, stowed our bags and headed back to the mall for lunch at CPK. In India, they only really have Indian food. Even things that aren't Indian, are. Domino's pizza even has a bit of an Indian twinge. CPK tasted just like CPK back home and everybody ended up getting two dishes each. Spinach artichoke dip and a garlic chicken pizza for me. Ohh yeah, baby.

The group then split up and Jeff, Anna and I decided to go do a little bit of sight seeing. We talked to the concierge at the Mandarin, and he let us know that we had done pretty much everything there was to do in town, but pointed us in the direction of a mosque that he said we should check out, and you guessed it, more malls.

We hopped on the subway and made our way to the mosque which ended up being very interesting. Anna was wearing a dress and Jeff and I were both wearing shorts, so we didn't think there was any way we were going to be allowed inside, but when we got there, this extremely friendly Malaysian man gave us these graduation robe-esque garments and a head wrap for Anna, and let us walk around.



We couldn't go in the mosque itself, but we were allowed to walk around the grounds and take pictures. It was a really neat experience. The friendliness of the gentleman at the front gate surprised us all. On television in the US the only Muslims you see are angry, charged up, Muslim men yelling in front of the camera. To meet this man who welcomed us so openly to the mosque was surprising, unfortunately. It really made me think about how other parts of the world are portrayed through the lens of American television cameras.

We then took the L to another part of town where we quickly cruised through a couple of malls, but didn't find anything of interest. Jeff and I decided to get a massage at one of the places we had passed. Super cheap massages seem to be an indulgence of all of the ex-pats, so I decided that I would give it a whirl. Jeff opted for the hour long foot massage while I went for the full body massage. I know what you guys are thinking, so just to clarify, it was not one of 'those' kind of massages. I know. Cheap massage, Southeast Asia, but no, and for $20, it was one hell of an hour long massage. I can tell you that. Afterwards, I wanted to head straight to bed.

Back to the hotel where we caught a cab to the airport, and then on the plane for our direct flight to Hyderabad. Arriving in the airport was just as much of a trip as it was the first time. Make sure you take a look at the pic of what it looks like when you exit the airport. Even at 1 am on a Sunday, it is jam packed with people waiting for new arrivals.

This week has been pretty trying and I have managed to get myself to the gym in an effort to get my mind and body in better condition. The construction that starts at 6:30 every morning does definitely help me get out of bed.

We did have a good time last night for Travis' birthday. A very large crew of us went to Indi Joes which is pretty much American food (of course with an Indian twist). The meal was pretty good, but the AC was broken and I swear it was over 100 degrees in there. It was the hottest I have been so far in India.

About half of us then went to a bar called Twisters where they have all you can drink pitchers of King Fisher for 300 rupees a person. It was kind of dance clubbish with a DJ spinning some Indian trance, but it was good times for all.

Well, I hope you took a snack break while reading through this monster of a post. This weekend, I'll be staying in Hyderabad, so get ready for more stories from my new home town.

First Night Out!

Well, after a somewhat overwhelming and intense weekend Hyderbad is starting to have the beginnings of that good ole' home feeling.

Today was my first day at work, and I had the chance to meet my roommates who had just finished vacationing for the weekend in Chennai. Two pretty cool cats, Scott and Greg, who definitely helped me feel at home half way around the world.

Made it into work which is only about a 3.5 minute walk from my apartment, including the 5 flights of stairs (I'm only on the third floor, but the first is -2). Everybody I that I work with is super nice and very welcoming , but I do feel a little bad that I don't remember about half of their names. I'll get them all eventually, just give me some time.

After work, I had a really great evening. Went out with my flatmates and a few other expats to a restuarant called Serengeti. My first dinner out! Aren't you excited?!

Getting there was an adventure as always. I don't think I can describe to you how insane the traffic here is. It is something you have to experience to believe. It really is like organized chaos. People going every which way, honking, and on everything from bikes to cars to autorickshaws to massive dump trucks. Somehow everything just works fine. I really think it has something to do with the timing of the honk. I think that is the key.

Anyway, Greg and Scott had ventured out to get a haircut before dinner so I met up with a few other expats (Suzie, Anna, Alexa and Liz) all of whom have much more India experience than I. We took one of the Google taxis to Serengeti where we had a sumptuous dinner of lobster, prawns and chicken. Ohh yes... and of course naan bread. I love naan bread. Soooo good.

Now, back at home, it's time for bed.

I made it!

This is going to be a short email, because my computer is about to die and I am soooo tired. I won't go into details, but suffice to say there were at least 2 children screaming for 19 of the 22 hours of flying. Thank god the Google doctor prescribed me some Ambien.

My layover in Singapore was pretty cool, but I was kind of disappointed with the tour I took. I took the free Singapore airlines tour, and although we did get to see a decent amount of the city, it was mostly from a bus or a boat so I didn't get to walk around at all. Plus, since our tour was a guided tour put on by the airport, we never officially entered the city and I never got a stamp on my passport. :(

However, if I had wandered off on my own, I would have been soaked by a tropical storm, so I guess I can't complain.

Getting off at the airport in Hyderabad was pretty crazy and I can definitely say that I haven't been to any place remotely like this. Even in the most rundown parts of Europe that I visited, nothing was as run down as this.

The airport looked like it was built in the 1940's and there hadn't been any changes made to it since, and when I walked outside there were like 500 people just crowding the exit waiting for new arrivals. Luckily my driver was there right at the front and I didn't have any problems.



Even after midnight there was still a lot of traffic, and traffic here is crazy. No rules, but nobody seems to crash into each other. If you want to get an idea of what it is like, go to youtube.com and search for 'India traffic' and take a look at the first video that pops up. I swear, it is just like that.

The driver took me to my place which is actually pretty nice. I share a flat with two other guys who are not here at the moment (I think they are in Nepal), but I have my own room with my own bathroom. We have a downstairs and an upstairs living room, a balcony, kitchen and marble flooring. Pretty cool, except it kinda smells like mothballs.

Well, I must head off to bed. Tomorrow, when I am recovering from my jet lag, I will upload the pics I have taken so far, so everybody can check them out. Since I will be adding them as I take them, I won't be filtering or labeling them, and it is highly likely that there will be a bunch of sub-par photos that you will have no idea what they are. However, I'll send out the link so you can feel free to take a look if you like.

Time to catch some zzzzz's on my rock hard slab of a bed.