Farewell to India

Today’s our last day in Hyderabad – how the hell did that happen? I spent the afternoon at the pool reading more of A Discovery of Witches and later tonight we’re having dinner at a hotel in Banjara Hills. Our flight leaves really early in the morning so we have to get up around 4 a.m.

Well, it’s been a crazy adventure and I’m going to miss it here. I know that I have barely scratched the surface in just a month’s time, but I’m certainly leaving with a greater appreciation for this country and its people. The people we’ve met have been so welcoming, from T’s coworkers and the hotel staff to random people we've met along the way. T left work early today and just brought me a gift that his team bought for me - a beautiful jewelry box. They really didn't have to go out of their way to get me something so I was really touched.

I have a feeling that I’m going to be very confused at home. People are driving in the lanes? No one’s honking or banging on the window trying to sell me a sun shade or a bug zapper?! Suburban life just might be a reverse culture shock – haha.

Definitely going to miss the shopping, too! Earlier this week I bought three handmade wooden bangle bracelets, a table runner, earrings and a purse for a total of 25 bucks! If I had more time (and money) I would have bought more clothing here because I love it all. Unfortunately I’ve found that clothes aren’t so cheap, but the fabrics and colors are gorgeous. I especially love the outfits on my Indian soap operas. I wish that I spoke Hindi so I could understand what they’re saying L

On that note, I’ll leave you with the last Bollywood video. I thought it was appropriate!

Thanks for listening to my rambling thoughts over the past month - now it's time to head off to Wills & Kate land…xoxo.

Taj Mahal

This week has been kind of crazy trying to finish up work and plan our itinerary before we leave for London. I can’t believe that tomorrow is our last day here…a month has flown by. We packed our bags today so we’re not scrambling tomorrow, since we have a dinner reservation at a nice restaurant to celebrate our last night. It’s kind of sad! I’m going to miss it here, but I’m ready to leave at the same time.

Last night I met T and two of his coworkers at a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was interesting because one of the guys just returned from NYC for a few months, he was working in the office over there, and the other guy (who I met at the wedding) worked in New York about a year ago. We were discussing their thoughts on America and also the misconceptions T and I had about India before arriving. They were talking about how a lot of Americans are scared to come to India, yet Hyderabad is actually a much safer city than Philadelphia or NYC; I actually read this before arriving here, but India has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world. We were telling them how people get murdered almost every day in Philadelphia and their eyes got really wide. The guys were telling us how they were nervous about being in New York because they know some people carry guns and there are frequent murders; it's really rare for someone to get murdered here in Hyd. On the other hand, we don't need to get wanded down every time we enter a building and get checked for bombs back home (although it's probably a good idea), so I guess it's a trade-off.

So back to the Taj Mahal. We made sure to set the alarm on T’s phone AND get a wakeup call from the front desk, just in case. There was no way I was going to oversleep again! The best time to visit the Taj Mahal is at sunrise, so we had to meet our driver downstairs at 6am. I didn’t even mind getting up so early again because I was ridiculously excited to see the Taj. On a random note, the alarm on his phone says (in a strict-sounding female British voice) “It’s time to get up. It’s five o’clock. It’s time to get up. It’s five o’clock.”

Our local guide in Agra, Kishore, met us in the lobby. He was really cool, but Jimmy is still my fave! We stopped at an ATM along the way since the Taj doesn’t take credit cards and we didn’t have enough cash left. It was a quick drive and we got out at a little tourist office. Kishore went in and bought our tickets and then gave us a little gift bag with a water bottle and some type of tissue looking things in a plastic bag. We didn’t know what they were so we threw them out. This proved to be a mistake, which we’ll get to later…

Anyway, they don’t allow vehicles in the area right outside, so the driver left and we waited for a bus. You also could take a horse-drawn carriage, but it was extra $ so we opted for the free bus. The bus had possibly the world’s smallest seats – you could barely fit the two of us on one seat. They dropped us off on the end of the street leading to the Taj Mahal and you have to walk a couple of minutes to get there. The street is lined with a bunch of random stores but none were open yet, so at least we didn’t have people trying to sell us things.

The line to get in the gate was already really long, and it was maybe 6:30am at that point. We watched some monkeys playing on the gate and cows and dogs sitting in the colored Holi powder. Some lady was petting a cow and he was lifting his chin up like a cat – haha.

There were separate security lines for men and women so I had to split up from T and Kishore. I expected the ladies line to go much slower, but it turned out I finished before them because some guy held up the whole line b/c he brought a bag full of iPods and stuff. They don’t let you bring anything in besides a camera and basic items like your wallet, cell phone, hand sanitizer or whatever. You can't bring any food and definitely not gum (the girl in front of me had hers confiscated). We heard this loud crashing sound and realized one of the monkeys had jumped down on the makeshift roof over the metal detectors – it scared the crap out of everyone - then he jumped down into the crowd! We had already gone through security at that point so I’m glad he didn’t jump on us.

Kishore told us some of the history behind the Taj Mahal as we walked toward the entrance. Shah Jahan built it as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died while she was eight months pregnant at age 29. She traveled all the way from Agra to Delhi (which even by car today is about a four hour trip) to consult her husband on the battlefield…it took her 30 days to get there and she started to experience bleeding problems. The baby survived but she died. Shah Jahan was devastated and promised her that he’d always remember her and everyone would know her name…so he ordered construction of the Taj Mahal later that year. It’s amazing to think how they built this so long ago and it’s still standing and looks in perfect condition.

We finally got to see the Taj Mahal a few minutes later – you walk through this huge gate with a big archway and you can see it through the arches. I’m going to do a very poor job of describing the experience, because you really can’t understand unless you’ve been there. I saw a few people around us wiping tears away; seeing it for the first time is pretty emotional. Photos don't do it justice and the monument is seriously HUGE! We took a bunch of pictures right away and then continued down to the garden area to sit on a bench with Kishore and learn more about the building.

He told us how it took 22 years to build the Taj and how the marble is inlaid with semi-precious stones like jade, coral, turquoise, mother of pearl and lapis. All of the little flower patterns in the marble are made from these stones. Next we went over to this platform in front and Kishore pointed out that Princess Diana had taken pictures on this particular bench when she visited. Being a big fan of hers and English royalty in general I was super excited to get my photo taken on the bench. Unfortunately when I Googled for the picture later it seemed she was sitting on the bench right behind the water, and not that one. GRRR!!! It’s weird because there are tons of other pictures of people online sitting on the same bench as me, so I wonder if they moved it or something. Either that or all of the tour guides have no idea what they're talking about, because there was a big line of people to take photos on that bench.

Next we went to go inside, and Kishore asked us if we had our booties to cover our shoes. They don’t let you inside without covering your shoes (to protect the marble). We looked at each other with confusion. Booties? Then there was the moment of realization…we threw them out. Shiiiiit!!

Kishore said that it was no problem but we would either have to take our shoes off and walk barefoot (gross) or take used booties and put them over our shoes (also gross). We took the used booties and the germaphobe in me was slightly freaking out. We went inside and Kishore showed us the detail on all of the flowers using a little pen light, since it was pretty dark in there. Some of the flowers were made out of 30 or more little petals of jewels, and some were so tiny that the craftsmen had to use tweezers to inlay the stones. The tombs are in the center of the room, but it turns out they’re fakes. There were some really creepy falling-apart looking steps that were blocked off; Kishore said that’s the way to get down to the real tombs, but it’s currently closed to the public.

He left us to have free time so we walked around and took a ton of pictures and then met him back at the gate to leave. It was definitely an amazing experience. If you have the opportunity to go, don’t pass it up!

We went back to the hotel for the breakfast buffet, packed up, checked out and headed out at 9am to drive to Agra Fort. It was more of a walled city/palace and is where Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal lived, along with their children and many other rulers, concubines and servants. Humayun, whose tomb we saw in Delhi, also lived here. It was in excellent condition, definitely better preserved than Golconda Fort in Hyd. We saw the rooms where Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal lived, and where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son in a tower for eight years. The rooms looked a lot like the Taj Mahal (white marble, inlaid stones) and you could actually see an amazing view of the Taj from the windows.

The fort wasn’t crowded at all, maybe because of Holi. An Indian family came up and asked if we’d take a picture with them, so T and I posed for a shot. Kishore explained that they were tourists from a part of India where it was very uncommon to see white people, so they were excited to take a picture with us and show people at home.

After the fort we headed to a marble factory to see the process of inlaying the stones in marble. Of course they had a store, too, and we went through a similar process as the Dr. Butt carpet store. This guy wasn’t quite as pushy, and he even threw in a free elephant figurine, which was nice. We ended up buying two coasters with lapis and coral and a few other stones shaped into flowers.

We had about two more hours to kill before leaving for Delhi; our flight was not until 8:40 pm and Kishore advised us not to get on the roads until 1pm because of the Holi festival and people being rowdy in the streets. We saw a bunch of people dancing and covering each other in the colored powder. Some guy threw a water balloon at our van and at first I thought it was a rock because that's how hard it hit; it actually made a dent. Then I realized why Jimmy didn't want to take us into Old Delhi.

There weren’t any other things to see in Agra since they were closed for the holiday, and we didn’t want to shop…so we had them drop us off at the hotel and we hung out in the gazebo for a while and took a walk around the grounds. We ended up leaving at noon and I was kind of sad that the weekend was over since we had such a good time.

With the holiday we were told it could take five or six hours to get to Delhi, but the roads weren’t bad at all. In fact we made better time than Saturday and ended up in Delhi at 3:30. That’s right, we got to the airport five hours early.

T and I headed to Café Coffee Day, which is kind of like a Starbucks, and sat down for a while. Delhi’s airport is pretty nice and has some decent stores (Accessorize! My favorite accessory store in London). I bought a couple of Taj Mahal magnets, since we didn’t buy any souvenirs in Agra – the only places to get them were from randoms on the street and everyone tells you not to buy from hawkers.

I read for a while and listened to my iPod and then finally they announced our gate. We were definitely the first people at the gate and then this guy who T met in the bathroom came and talked to us. He was telling us how he was from Agra and works in the postal department, and had come to Delhi for training. He was so excited about his job and telling us all about it, and how the young people want to work and are motivated to do a good job. He was so happy and proud talking about the new services they're offering in the post office here. T was saying how the guy didn’t know how to use the automatic sinks in the bathroom, so I am guessing it might have been the first time he’s been in a big city. It’s funny because if a random came up and talked to us in an airport in the States I’d probably think they were a) crazy b) trying to sell me something or c) trying to steal my purse. People here are so genuinely friendly, it’s refreshing.

The flight back was uneventful and we arrived in Hyderabad around 11:30 p.m. Our driver popped a CD in as we hit the road and I nearly died laughing…out blasts “EVERYBODY GROOVE TO THE MUSIC…EVERYBODY JAM!!!!”

He was listening to the Backstreet Boys! Yesssssssss! The perfect way to end our last weekend in India.

Delhi and the road to Agra

Saturday morning we left for our big adventure to Delhi and Agra. We set our alarm for 4 am since we had to leave the hotel at 4:45; our flight was at 6:30. The airport isn’t very far from the hotel, maybe 30 minutes or so, and they only make you check in an hour in advance.

Well Saturday morning T rolls over and says "SHIT, it’s 5:30!!!!!"

AAAAAAH!!!! We were going to miss the flight!!

We jumped out of bed and frantically threw our clothes on, shoved things in the safe, grabbed our bags and ran downstairs. Considering we booked the car for 4:45 and the front desk knew we had a 6:30 flight, I was pissed that they didn’t call up and see where we were. Especially because they accidentally called us at 7am on Friday saying our car was ready (we hadn’t even booked our airport car at that point and had no car booked for Friday). It was obviously a mistake, but really??! They called us on Friday to come down for a car that wasn’t even ours, but when we were about to miss a flight they didn’t call us! Annoying. Not that it was the hotel’s fault we overslept (the alarm here doesn’t have a snooze and we must have turned it off in a daze), but that’s something I’d expect from a hotel. Grr.

Anyway, we asked them if we could still make it and the driver says, “I think so” and proceeds to drive like a bat out of hell to the airport. This is one time I was happy that you almost never see a cop car here and there’s not really a speed limit (or an enforced one, at least). He definitely deserved a huge tip because we made it to the airport a little after 6am. The problem was that our ticket said they closed boarding 20 minutes before the flight and we still had to get through security.

We grabbed our bags and ran through the terminal “Home Alone” style until we got to security. Luckily we weren’t checking any bags and had already checked in online, but just kidding. When you fly here they make you get a little tag for your carry on bags, which they stamp once it goes through security. You can’t get on the plane if your bag doesn’t have the stamped tag. They also have to stamp your e-ticket. We didn’t know this so we had to go back to the check in desk to get them. At this point I’m like there is NO WAY we’re making this flight. Neither of us had missed a flight in our lives so we were freaking out; the next flight to Delhi didn’t come until later in the day so we would have completely missed our tour.

Thankfully the security line was fairly short, and when an employee saw us running he asked which flight we were on, then called the gate with his walkie talkie and told them to hold the plane! He then escorted us to the gate while we all half walked/half ran. I’m fairly sure this would never happen at PHL - I’m still amazed we made this flight.

We flew Kingfisher, which was a great experience. Kingfisher is a beer brand here but it’s kind of like Virgin where they have a bunch of different brands. The plane was really nice and had TVs at each seat; I’ve only ever seen these on international flights so that was a nice touch. And they actually had full meal service (with real silverware) even though it was only an hour and 40 minute flight. The flight attendants had sassy red skirt suits and matching pearl jewelry and red lipstick. They were all really, really pretty too. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Catch Me if You Can” it kind of reminded me of that. Everyone was so glamorous!

Unfortunately my experience wasn't exactly glamorous because I spent half of the flight in the bathroom. It was the first time I had stomach issues since I've been here, and of course it had to happen on our one and only weekend trip away. Ughhhh. I popped some immodium and started to feel better; I was a little concerned since we had a very long drive ahead of us to Agra, but luckily I was okay the rest of the day.

Once we arrived in Delhi we met our local driver, Sanjay, outside. He didn’t speak much English but he was super nice. On the way out of the airport I tried to take a picture of T's "large coffee" which was actually smaller than a small at Starbucks or DD. It was really funny because I have no idea how small an actual small coffee would be. It was then that I realized my SD card wasn't working. It was saying "memory full" but I had nothing on it besides a folder with wedding/honeymoon pics...I deleted every single pic from India the previous day and filed them in folders on iphoto - there was no way it was full!!! I was starting to think the trip was cursed. It was a small miracle that I'd asked T to bring the extra SD card, just in case, so I popped that in and had no issues. The thought of not being able to take photos at the Taj Mahal sent me into a mild panic attack!

We drove into the city to meet Jimmy, our tour guide. Jimmy was CLASSIC, we loved him! He’s a grandfatherly type and also speaks in the third person a la Jimmy on Seinfeld. (“Jimmy wants you to enjoy yourselves but Jimmy also has a responsibility to keep you safe!”) He was definitely one of the best parts of the trip to Delhi.

Delhi is definitely a different world than Hyderabad. First of all, people actually (sort of) drive within the lanes there! The roads are much more modern looking and everything just seems more organized, or at least “organized chaos,” as Jimmy says. He told us that it will take many years for Hyderabad to get to the point where Delhi is, just because it’s such a very old city and they are still getting things up to modern speed. Parts of Delhi actually reminded us of Washington, DC.

The old part of Delhi is more like Hyderabad and not a modern city like New Delhi, but we didn’t get to go there because of time issues and also because of Holi. The festival of colors happened to be the weekend we were there; it’s celebrated all over India and people throw colored powder and water at each other. People were walking around with pink and blue hair and color all over their faces and clothes. Unfortunately, “the rowdies” as Jimmy called them, get drunk and ruin Holi sometimes, and there are incidents where people get hurt from things being thrown, etc. Because of this we weren’t allowed to go in Old Delhi b/c of safety issues. We also had to get on the road to Agra after lunch because Jimmy did not want us on the roads too late.

Our first stop was at Humayun’s Tomb. It was situated in this beautiful park and it was so peaceful…you’d never know you were in the middle of the city. Humayun was a Mughal emperor and the tomb was ordered to be built by one of his wives. The tomb was huge – it slightly resembles the Taj Mahal in the style, and Jimmy actually told us that the Taj was inspired by the design of this tomb. We walked around the gardens for a while and sat on a bench while Jimmy told us about Humayun and the history of the tomb. He waited in the garden while we took free time to photograph the park and go inside. We noticed there were a ton of Americans and British people there, waaaay more than in Hyderabad. Then again Delhi is the capital, so it makes sense. It’s definitely a more popular tourist spot.

The inside of the tomb was pretty bare, not much decoration, but we saw the tombs of Humayun and his wife and their servants and other people while some guy tried to get us to give him rupees. That’s one of the things that is frustrating when you go to a tourist site; people constantly try to get you to give them money if they walk up to you and say “oh look at this carving, that means so and so” “or that’s Islamic design.” He kept following us and it was getting really annoying because we didn’t even have any small change to give (we definitely weren’t handing him a 100 rupee bill). Finally he got the hint and we went out to meet Jimmy and go back to the car.

Next we drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan, India’s equivalent of The White House. This is actually the largest presidential home in the entire world; it was really beautiful and had hedges in the shapes of elephants and other things out front. Very cool. We weren’t able to go inside, but we stood outside the gate and took photos.

Next we went to India Gate, which looks a lot like the Arc de Triomphe. It’s a war memorial and has an eternal flame. It’s also a popular spot for protestors; there was a silent protest about some environmental issues going on and tons of men, women and kids were walking through the area. There also were a lot of people trying to sell stuff like crazy hats and wind up snakes. Speaking of snakes, there was a snake charmer there but you have to pay him money to take the snake out and no way in hell was I going to do that. We didn’t see anyone else do it, either although an American family with two teenage sons almost did.

After India Gate we headed to a store called Kashmir Cashmere (love it). Even better, the guy who runs it is called Dr. Butt! Seriously, I couldn’t make this up if I tried. Dr. Butt was classic and had a white beard and showed us all kinds of carpets and pashminas. They’re all handmade by people in the Kashmir region (this is where pashmina wool comes from). The carpets were amazing – like the kind that cost 5 or 10,000 dollars back home – and most were less than a thousand. They had free shipping anywhere so it would have been worth it to buy a nice rug for our house, but we really didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a rug after all of the stuff we’ve already bought and money spent on this trip. We ended up getting a really pretty small (doormat size) carpet that we plan on hanging on the wall. They were able to fold it up into what they called "a flying carpet" package so you can bring it on the plane. It's like a super small burlap wrapped bundle. I also bought three pashminas. It was funny because I said I only wanted two and the guy kept dropping the price if I added a third and I kept saying no. Finally Dr. Butt threw it in for only 8 bucks extra. I love haggling J

After shopping we went to a restaurant called Waves, which specializes in organic Indian food. It was a set menu with naan, butter chicken, rice, some different sauces and a potato cake type thing, which was excellent. We had vanilla ice cream for dessert and both of us said it was the best ice cream we’ve ever had. Seriously, it was amazing…kind of like real Italian gelato (not the crap they pass off as gelato in the States).

After lunch we said goodbye to Jimmy. I wish he could have come with us to Agra, but we had another local guide waiting for us there. Sanjay hit the road and we saw some interesting things along the way when we weren’t sleeping. The drive was a little over four hours, and there were tons of people out and about. We drove through some fairly small towns/villages and some more “highway” type roads with random roadside stands and motels. It actually reminded me of the Black Horse Pike driving to the Jersey shore. We stopped at this hotel/rest stop for a toilet break and there was a guy at the entrance with a monkey on a leash wearing a dress. We drove by too fast though and I didn’t get a pic, boo. The bathroom wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be and even had toilet paper. We got back on the road and went by this huge white marble temple. There were a bunch of stalls selling various things like live chickens, the streets were flooded with people and everyone was staring at us. To add to the scene I was listening to “Everybody Dance Now” by C+C Music Factory, so just picture a bunch of people in saris breaking into dance in the middle of the street, because I totally did.

We got to Agra about an hour or so later. Jimmy said that no one would ever go to Agra if it wasn’t for the Taj, and that we’d be saying “Jimmy was right!” when we got there. Of course I repeated this throughout the weekend. The city is pretty run down and besides the fort and the Taj Mahal, there’s not much in the way of things to do. I also wouldn’t have felt comfortable walking along the streets there, but that had partly to do with Holi and everyone being kind of rowdy.

Sanjay dropped us off at our hotel around 5:30 pm and we checked in. We stayed at the Orient Taj Hotel, which just opened about three months ago. I wanted to stay at the Oberoi Amarvilas, which is one of the top five hotels in the entire world, but at over $700 a night, that wasn’t happening. We looked up the rates at home but I guess the rate we saw was a special advance rate and you had to book 30 days or more ahead of time, so that wasn't an option when we tried to book it here in India. I was sad about not being able to stay there, but fortunately the Orient Taj exceeded my expectations. Everything was covered in marble, hand painted flowers and gold, and they had gardens modeled after the Taj Mahal gardens. There were flowers, fountains and gazebos everywhere.

We booked a junior suite and it was seriously huge. The best feature was the pimped out shower. If you’ve ever seen the home and bath show specials on HGTV, it was one of those high-tech shower stalls with a radio, colored lights, jets shooting out of the wall and a huge rainshower fixture from the ceiling. It also had teak flooring and a teak ceiling. I definitely want one for my house now!

We got settled in the room and then walked around the grounds and took pictures. Everything was so calm and pretty; it really felt like being on vacation at a resort rather than living in a business hotel like in HYD. We had dinner in the hotel; we hadn’t thought ahead to book a table anywhere else and I forgot to bring nice clothes, so I felt like a slob going to the Oberoi (I also figured I’d be too depressed if I went there – lol). I had chicken biryani as per usual and T had some sort of Asian chicken which he said was amazing. After dinner we tried to get money out, then realized there wasn’t an ATM in the hotel. Very annoying, especially for a five-star property. It’s not like we could wander out on the streets looking for an ATM, so we were told that there was a 24-hour ATM nearby that Sanjay could take us to in the morning.

We were both exhausted and had to meet Sanjay at 6am to go to the Taj Mahal, so we went to bed really early. Next up, Taj day!

Wedding day

I haven’t had time to blog in a while, so today I’ll be playing catch up…

So Thursday was the day of T’s coworker’s wedding and I went to pick my sari up on Wednesday night. I attempted to try it on @ the store but the blouse's hooks were hard to fasten and I didn’t have anyone to help me with it, so I figured I’d just do it at home. Plus, it was made to my specific measurements so why wouldn’t it fit? Bad assumption.

The blouse was so tight that T could barely even get the hooks fastened, I thought they were going to pop off. Plus I could barely breathe…I felt like a character in one of my historical fiction novels wearing a damn corset. The store was obviously closed at that point so I called first thing Thurs morning when they opened at 11am and explained the situation. The guy who sold me the sari in the first place answered and told me to come over right away and they’d fix it on the spot, so I threw clothes on and hopped in a car. Luckily they were able to make it bigger since the tailor left some extra fabric inside.

While I waited I watched one of the guys sewing tiny beads all over a bridal sari, it must have cost a few thousand dollars but it was amazing. The people in the store were really nice and chatting with me about America and how I liked Hyderabad. Everyone is so friendly here and genuinely interested in making conversation, something I don’t experience too often back home.

Anyway I had a lady at the hotel come up and help me wrap the sari that night, since it’s kind of a complicated procedure. The driver stopped at T's office to pick him and R, his Indian coworker, up at the office and then we headed to the hotel where the wedding was taking place. It was about 30 minutes away but with rush hour traffic it took forever. The wedding started with the bride and groom welcoming everyone and taking photos. They stood up on a stage covered in flowers and took a picture with every single guest. As you can imagine this took a really long time (and it’s common for Indian weddings have 1,000 guests or more). This one was smaller, but it’s hard to say how many people were there b/c a lot of the guests show up to say hello and congrats and leave after a little while, so there were always people going in and out.

The bride’s mother was super cute and she came over and hugged us and led us over to a table where they had flowers and different things. She put some red colored powder on our foreheads and then tied some flowers in my hair. Then she took this rosewater sprinkler thing and threw water on us (not sure what the significance of this is). We took seats with R and another one of T’s Indian coworkers and his wife in front of the stage and watched the couple take more pictures, then it was our turn to go up. We gave our gift to them and took some pictures and then went to go eat.

They had an Indian buffet set up in another room so one of T’s coworkers went through the line with me and pointed out what everything was and was very excited to have me taste the different foods. There weren’t really tables in the room – just 2 or 3, and then a few chairs lining the walls, so we all stood in the middle of the room and ate. I tried a few new things but didn’t really like them. As anyone who knows me can attest, I’m not an adventurous eater, so at least I tried.

T’s coworkers were asking a lot of questions about how American weddings were different and it was funny because they were DYING LAUGHING when we told them that in America you send an RSVP card and the person has to say whether they’re coming and to check off whether they want chicken or beef or whatever. R was like “I’ll have one of everything!” Lol. They also enjoyed the concept of “open bar” (a lot of Indian weddings don’t serve alcohol – this one didn't). R explained that the weddings are different according to the region and the particular religious traditions, etc. This wedding only had vegetarian food for example, but R is from Delhi and said that at his wedding they would have only non-veg food and would have alcohol.

The actual wedding ceremony wasn’t until 10:53 p.m. – R told us that they choose the time based on astrology so a wedding could be held at any random time like 2:09 a.m. or 1:54 p.m. depending on what the astrological stuff says. Unfortunately they all had to go back to the office, so we weren’t able to stay for the ceremony part. The event is over after that though, there’s not dancing or anything else. We left around 10 and got back to the hotel at 10:30 since rush hour was over and the roads weren't nearly as bad. A lot of people in the hotel complimented me on the sari and they seemed happy that I was wearing the traditional dress. Overall we enjoyed seeing the different traditions and it was really nice that we were invited. Everyone was so welcoming and kind to us and I’ll never forget that!

Ramoji Film City

We met our driver downstairs at 9:30 am on Sunday to head out to Ramoji Film City. It’s the world’s largest film studio and they shoot many of the Bollywood movies there, unlike when you go to Universal Studios in Florida and it’s really just a theme park.

The film city is a little over an hour outside of Hyderabad central, and with traffic it was a fairly long ride. It was nice to see a different part of the city though, and we had a different driver that day who spoke English really well (probably the best so far) and pointed out plenty of things along the way and told us different stories. He also showed us where the homes of a few film stars are in Banjara Hills, which is my favorite part of Hyderabad. We saw some seriously huge houses that would rival mansions in LA. Once we got closer to the film city we saw a big fruit market and a place where they sell live chickens, and then a ton of people living in tents. (moreso than around our neighborhood).

Finally we arrived and went to the ticket office. They had two options and the more expensive one included an air conditioned bus tour and lunch at the luxury hotel on property, so we selected that one. Knowing the park was HUGE, I realized there was no way I could walk around in the heat all day. After we finished at the ticket gate we got back in the car and drove into the actual park, which was actually kind of far from the ticket area.

Our driver told us that Ramoji Rao, the man who owns the film city, is a major businessman and owns newspaper companies, clothing stores and tons of other businesses. There’s actually a village on the land around the park, so I guess he bought the road that goes through it (was a little hard to understand the whole story, but I think that was the gist of it). We got out of the car at this little office and went inside to check in and wait for our bus. It basically looked like an old person’s living room; they had maroon couches, some newspapers and a TV and everyone was sitting around waiting for their names to be called. When we got our tickets they gave us a passbook with tickets for each area of the park, for lunch and so forth. The guy in the front of the room ripped off our tickets and handed us two souvenir baseball hats. They were white with a red brim and totally 1980s looking. Neither of us were planning on wearing them, but we felt bad saying we didn't want them. We tried to leave them in the room but the tour guide noticed! I said we could give them to some poor people but we ended up forgetting them on the bus in the end. Oh well.

Anyway, T and I passed the time by reading the matrimonial ads in the newspaper. People place ads looking for suitable matches, basically like a personal ad in the States, only they aren’t just looking for a date. The sections are arranged by caste and usually state the person’s education, looks, etc. A lot of them said things like “looking for fair, beautiful girl” or “tall, handsome, educated man.” They also list acceptable ages, usually by year, as in “first preference given to 1985 and 1986-born girls.” One of them said “innocent divorcee, marriage not consummated.” It was really interesting to read through all of the ads. I think most Americans view arranged marriages in a negative way, but I was saying that it probably makes things a lot easier than just hoping you’ll meet someone eventually.

Anyway, after at least 20 minutes or so our name was called and we proceeded to the bus along with about 15 other people. The “AC bus” definitely didn’t have AC and was more like a small shuttle type vehicle. Our tour guide introduced himself (he spoke in English, but between the accent and how fast he was talking we really couldn’t understand much of what he was saying) and we drove into the park and got out at this cave area. He didn’t explain anything so I don’t really know if they film anything in it or if it was just part of the theme park area. It was made to look like an Indiana Jones type temple. We took a few pictures outside and then walked through the cave, where they had a random “one-minute show” involving a hologram on the wall. The tour guide was very excited about taking our picture and kept telling us to give him our camera so he could take more pictures of us in front of various places.

We piled back into the bus and drove through more of the park, where the guide pointed out different film sets and explained which movies were filmed there. The rest of the people on the bus were oohing and aahing with recognition and getting really excited. I only knew two of the films he mentioned but it was still kind of cool to see the gardens and street scenes where they make the movies. Some of the buildings had four sides so they could be used for many different shots; one building had an airport façade in the front, the other side was a church, the back was a hospital and I think the last side was a bank. We drove through Indian market sets, London street scenes and a bunch of really elaborate gardens. I wish we could have jumped out to take pics, but we weren’t allowed.

The bus let us out in the main area of the theme park, where they had a section with kiddie rides, a mechanical bull and a giant creepy blue head. Our guide ripped off our tickets for the “bumping cars” and told us to go on them. We explained that we didn’t want to ride them, and he looked v. confused. One thing we’ve noticed here is people don’t seem to understand why you don’t want something that’s included in a package or if it’s free. Finally we explained that we’d rather give the tickets to some kids (if you don’t buy the VIP package you have to pay to go on any rides) and he eventually understood and gave them to some children. The guide told us to wait in the shade and the bus would take us to lunch instead.

We ate at a hotel called Sitara, which was very fancy in an over-the-top, covered in gold kinda way. Anyway, we had a lunch buffet of Indian food in the restaurant there. I stuck with veg biryani and naan, while T tried some sort of fish and a bunch of other stuff. After lunch we got on a different bus that was much nicer and had air conditioning. The driver let us out at a different area of the park, this time it was Hollywood-themed and they even had a big Hollywood sign up on the hill. We proceeded over to the Spirit of Ramjoi dance show, which was in a big building. I’ve never been in an indoor theater without air conditioning, but there’s a first time for everything. They had some ceiling fans (but only four of them) so it really didn’t do much considering the amount of people in the room. It was quite possibly hotter in there than it was out in the 90-some degree sun. The show began with some traditional dancing, then moved on to three guys in clown outfits dancing to “Cotton Eyed Joe” (so random) and doing some corny tricks, then went back to traditional dancing. We basically ran out after it was over to get some fresh air, along with everyone else.

Our tour guide moved us on to the movie making show, which thankfully was in an air conditioned building. We watched a short video with Mr. Rao and then moved into a room to watch a demonstration of green screen technology. They picked a volunteer from the audience to sit in a horse-drawn cart (without a horse, obviously) and to pretend she was holding the reins, using a whip and stuff. Then they showed the actual background and everyone was hysterically laughing. It was definitely funny but I guess being jaded Americans we didn’t think it was exciting as everyone else.

We moved into another room, or in the case of everyone else, ran, pushed and shoved into the next room, to watch a demonstration of a sound studio and the different tools they use to add sound to movies. Lastly they showed us the full movie of the girl in the cart with sound. The guy running the show was speaking in mostly Hindi, mixed with some English, so we only understood every few words. It would be something like hindi hindi hindi “watch this” hindi hindi hindi “it takes many people to make a movie” hindi hindi hindi. In the rest of the park they made the announcements in English and even the movie with Mr. Rao was in English.

I had to go to the bathroom the entire show so I ran out to find the first one before we moved on. As expected, no TP and I was again glad that we brought Charmin to Go. The bathroom stalls had water all over the floor so I kept looking in each one to see if there was a cleaner one, then an older lady pointed toward the hole in the floor toilets, so I figured I’d suck it up and go in the stall. I had to roll my pant legs up and the whole experience was slightly hilarious.

Next we followed our group over to the stunt show. Everyone went running for the door like it was a life or death situation when they opened up the gates, so we kind of hung in the back until the crowds subsided. The stunt show involved a Wild West set, historically inaccurate costumes, unusual sound effects and bad acting. It was definitely worth attending for the comedy factor.

After the stunt show we went over to a ride called Ramjoi Tower. As usual, we had no idea what to expect because the guide just herded everyone over and told us to go inside. It ended up being like a Tower of Terror type ride...but not really. While we were waiting we see the elevator floor numbers change, so we get in this car (very similar to TOT) and expect it’s going to be something exciting. Only once it started it didn’t actually move, a screen opened in front of you and showed a simulated “view” from the top of the tower. So it was just a motion simulator type thing, but they had some effects like water coming out at you (“I hope this isn’t from the tap,” we said) and you could feel fake rat tails on your feet, just like the one show at Disney. The ride even exited into a gift shop! Felt like home.

Next we went on a ripoff of It’s a Small World, except this one didn’t have a catchy song, just music. It was the same exact concept down to the dancing children and different countries. After that we went to wait in the shade for the bus to take us to the next area. While T was in the bathroom a bunch of guys wanted to take their picture with me like I was a celebrity or something. We didn't see any other non-Indians all day so I'm fairly sure I was the only white girl in the park. All of the people I know who have gone to India had this happen to them, so I wasn't every surprised. T came back and was standing there like “what’s going on” as I’m sitting on a bench posing with random people for photos. The tour guides thought it was funny, too.

We got on the bus and went to another section of the park, which was a Chinese theme. Here we were directed to the “thrill ride,” which was a little flight simulator capsule, like the kind you’d see at a mall or a Catholic school carnival. We went on that ride and decided to call it a day and skip tea and snacks at the hotel. It was almost 5 p.m. at that point and we were exhausted and really, really hot. The tour guide had to call our driver and tell him where to meet us, and we got back on a different bus. This one resembled a Winnebago from the 1960s complete with orange décor. There were little fans at each seat, even though the bus had AC. I should have taken a picture.

Anyway, we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while before going to dinner at Ginger Court, a really cool rooftop restaurant. It was nice to sit outside and chill out for a while with a Kingfisher. The food was very good, although we ordered the wrong kind of naan and it had spices in it. My mouth was on fire! Overall it was a great way to end our last weekend here in Hyderabad. This weekend we’re off to the Taj Mahal!

Chowmahalla and sari shopping

Saturday was a busy day of sightseeing and shopping. I woke up excited to wear my floral maxi dress, because I’ve only ever worn it one time (out to dinner in Santorini on our honeymoon). So I put it on and realize that it’s REALLY see-through. Like, can’t wear out in public see-through. The dress is kind of between ivory and a light yellow and has a floral pattern down the sides and along the bottom, but you could totally see the outline of my legs/butt right through the back of the dress. Ughhhh.

My first reaction was humiliation, considering I walked around Greece in a see-through dress. I know we drank a lot of wine that night in Santorini, but geez. I didn’t feel like buying a slip just to wear this dress here and I definitely didn’t want to wear jeans after the Golconda Fort incident, so I did a bit of fashion engineering and turned my J. Crew strapless beach dress into a tea-length skirt by folding the tube top part over and wearing it with a tank and short sleeve cardigan. Fashion emergency solved, we went down to breakfast.

Our sightseeing location for the day was Chowmahalla Palace, which was the official residence of the Nizam (ruler of Hyderabad). It actually consists of four palaces so the grounds are pretty huge, but most of the rooms are closed up to the public so it really only took about an hour to tour the whole complex. Parts of it reminded me of Venice because of the elaborate architecture and pigeons everywhere. The rooms that you could go in were beautiful and had huge chandeliers and marble everywhere.

We wandered around taking photos and enjoying the fact that they didn’t have any pushy tour guides, but at the same time we really didn’t know what we were looking at, so I guess that’s the downside. It was a lot more laid back than the fort, though, which was nice.

After the palace we drove across the city, kind of near the FRO, to Meena Bazaar so I could get a sari for the wedding we’re going to this week. You can’t just buy a sari already made, you have to pick out a fabric and then they measure you and make it. I wanted to go to Meena b/c it was recommended by friends who have been here and also by the hotel, plus they have on-site tailoring; I could have found fabric cheaper elsewhere, but it’s more convenient to just have everything in one place.

I spent a long time looking at different fabrics and “trying” them on. To try on a sari it involves two guys wrapping the material around you and trying to fix it, so it’s kind of a production. One takes the fabric and gathers it up and wraps it around your waist like a long skirt. You hold it in place while he takes a big sash and ties it around you so the fabric stays in place. Meanwhile the other guy takes the right side of the fabric and drapes it over you and they’re both fussing with it to make it look like it would in real life. I tried on at least four or five and of course the one I wanted (pink and red with tons of beading) was double the cost I wanted to spend, even with the 50% off sale.

Instead I ended up getting a gorgeous bright purple fabric; I wanted something blue or green but they didn’t have any I liked in my price range in those colors. All in all it was still fairly expensive but the beading is all done by hand, which makes it cost more of course. The tailoring only cost $20 though, which is insanely cheap compared to home. I spent $75 on a simple bridesmaid dress alteration last year and here they’re making you a custom dress for 20 bucks! My sari will be ready on Wednesday night so I’m excited to go pick it up.

After that we went to the mall because we were starving and also needed to pick up a few things. The only options were Chili’s or Pizza Hut, unless we wanted to go to the food court. I don’t even eat McDonald’s in the States, so we opted for Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut here is actually better than it is at home, go figure. It was funny because I ordered a “chicken n’ corn” personal pizza and it was the size of a child’s pizza…it had four tiny slices. It was seriously the smallest pizza I’ve ever seen (but really good at least). T got a medium chicken supreme and it was pretty much the size of a personal. It’s probably a better idea considering the portion sizes are out of control at home!

After lunch I had to go to the bathroom, so I went to the one in the mall. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but they don’t use toilet paper here. Bathrooms have a little hose that comes out of the wall and you use that to clean off with water and kinda wipe with your left hand (that’s why no one shakes hands or serves/touches food with their left hand here). Of course in hotels they have TP, and when I went in the Hard Rock Café they did, but you shouldn’t expect it in a public bathroom or even at a tourist place. This was my first encounter with a bathroom that didn’t have any, but luckily I had a Charmin to Go pack in my purse.

Anyway, next we went to a store called Mangatrai to pick up a few gifts and ran into one of T’s Indian coworkers. She argued with the guy in Hindi for a bit and helped us get a better deal so that was nice. After we chatted with her for a while we headed downstairs to Hyper City, which is basically like a Walmart or Target. It has a full grocery store and also sells electronics, home stuff, toys, clothes, etc. They had a ton of American brands there and also British/European food so we bought some digestives, Pringles, Milano cookies and a few other things to keep in the room. We ended up running into two more of T’s coworkers (Americans) and saw a lot of other foreigners in the store, too. I guess that’s where everyone does their grocery shopping.

We were both really tired from running around all day (it was about 5pm when we finished at the mall) so we headed back to the hotel and ended up watching this movie called Wedding Daze with Isla Fisher and Jason Biggs. I never even heard of it (apparently it came out in 2006) but it was actually really funny. The first season of Dexter just premiered here so we watched a few episodes of that as well. I never watched it at home but I like it so far, although this show is totally messed up! I’ve only seen the first four episodes so far. We had dinner at the hotel since I wanted to have “sushi” ice cream one last time; they only have it on Saturday nights. I had my usual chicken biryani and a few other Indian dishes for dinner; the biryani at the hotel is good, but not as good as Paradise’s biryani (where we ate last Sunday). We went to bed fairly early because we had to get up early to head out to Ramjoi Film City the next day. I’ll write about that later today!

Wedding fever

So one of the couples who got married here at the hotel last weekend is having a second wedding event tonight. This time it's inside, and not in the gardens near our room. The outside of the hotel has a huge arch out front that looks like a Hindu temple, and there are cars covered in flowers. I walked down to the area where the wedding is being held and there were decorations everywhere, huge statues of various gods and goddesses, arches, things hanging from the ceiling...the pics I took are a little blurry, and people were running around trying to set up so I only took two. But you get the idea.

I'm excited to go sari shopping this weekend for T's coworker's wedding. I got a few recommendations from friends who've been here and the front desk, so hopefully I'll find something nice that isn't too expensive. Saris are very pricey here from what I've seen, but then again we've mostly been shopping at mall or upscale stores. The only place I've been able to find a reasonably priced sari is Shopper's Stop (dept store) but then it has to be tailored, and they don't offer on-site tailoring. I'm hoping to find a ready made sari so I don't have to worry about that, or at least a place that has an on-site tailor who can do quick alterations. The other option is to get a long skirt/top or a salwar suit (tunic/pants) but I don't really want to if I can help it.

It's hard to believe that this is our last weekend here and our trip is already half-way over! We're planning a trip to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is located) next weekend, and the following weekend we leave for London. T mentioned some people at work potentially getting a group together next weekend to see the Taj, otherwise we will just go ourselves. It's actually a really far trip; you have to fly to Delhi (about an hour and a half flight) and then drive about three to four hours to Agra from there. I feel like it would be stupid to come all this way and not see it.

On another note, it was awful to wake up today to see the earthquake/tsunami news from Japan. We were watching the BBC coverage and the water was wiping out houses and cars...I can't even imagine how scary that would be.

Today's Bollywood video is "I Feel Good." Why don't they ever film Bollywood videos when I go to Vegas?!

Protests...and a few videos

Today we woke up a little bit early and went to have breakfast downstairs. We usually eat in the upstairs lounge, which only has a few tables, but is open later than the regular restaurant. The breakfast downstairs was way better so I think we will be eating there from now on. They have waffles and French toast!! Now I don't have to eat Chocos cereal every morning.

I was hoping to do some shopping for an outfit to wear to the upcoming wedding here, but there were protests all over the city today for the "Million March to Hyderabad," so traffic was an issue and a lot of stores shut down. Basically, some people in an area called the Telangana region want to form a separate state. They marched today to demand that parliament introduce a bill to form the state, and they want Hyderabad to be the capital. There have been protests and strikes about it recently (there was a big strike a few days before we arrived) and this was a big one. The protests have been peaceful besides a few incidents like setting buses on fire, so hopefully they stay that way.

T had to leave for work several hours early to try and avoid the protests, but said everything was fine. We are pretty far out from the city center, where the march was happening, but it was very difficult for the employees who live in other areas of Hyderabad to get into work. The police were blocking off roads and trying to prevent people from getting into the city. Apparently that didn't really work because people broke down the barriers and protested anyway. A ton of people were arrested but from what I've read/watched on TV no one was killed, luckily. It was scary to watch all of the people running down the street in an area we were just driving through on Tuesday.

On a brighter note, yesterday I read A Discovery of Witches by the pool for an hour or so; it's been in the top four on the NYT bestseller list for the past three weeks and it's really good so far. A publicist sent it to me a while back but I didn't really start reading it until I got here since it's such a long book. Basically the story is about a modern witch who is a scholar working at Oxford University. She finds a lost ancient manuscript that stirs up trouble with other creatures who are looking for it, and ends up getting involved with a vampire. Love it.

I was looking through my camera and figured I'd post the crappy video from the wedding procession on Sunday. It's definitely kind of dark but you can get the idea. It was really cool to watch.

Instead of a Bollywood video, today I thought I'd share my absolute favorite commercial here in India. It's for a new cell phone - hilarious.

FRO

We spent all afternoon Monday and Tuesday in the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) attempting to get our paperwork. They give you a registration letter that you're supposed to keep with you at all times and you need it to get out of the country, so it's pretty important to get this taken care of right away. Since T's company takes everyone there to register they told him to just bring me w/ them, so I had to keep explaining that I don't work there when people were asking me which office I was from - haha.

The FRO is located in the old airport here - it's totally empty since they built the new airport (where we flew into when we arrived) but they set up this office in the middle of the old domestic terminal. Basically there's a bunch of white plastic folding chairs, like the ones people put on their patio, and some desks off to the side where the employees handle the paperwork. All of the closed up concession stands and airline windows are there, it's really weird. No air conditioning, but they do have fans at least. On Monday we left T's office at 1 pm and I didn't get back to the hotel until 5:40; today was worse and I didn't get home until 6:40. The red tape is worse than the DMV! There was a problem with my application so we had to come back today, which sucks because T already had his papers. Since my visa is attached to him as an accompanying spouse, he had to be there for me to go (no idea why - they didn't ask him to do anything and he just sat there all day and had to miss five-plus hours of work).

So yeah, I've basically done nothing the past two days but sit in an abandoned airport! At least I got to meet some of his coworkers. I hadn't really met anyone since I'm here at the hotel all the time and no one really interacts at breakfast. I also outlined the first 15 chapters of my next book, and read more of "A Discovery of Witches," so I did get something accomplished.

Today's video is from a film called Golmaal 3 - yep, they have sequels here, too.

Weekend #2 (part two): Inorbit, Paradise and a wedding

We planned to visit a famous palace on Sunday, but after the long and hectic day we had Saturday, neither of us felt like waking up early to brave the tourist stuff again in the heat. When we woke up they were setting up for a lavish Indian wedding outside, and we watched them prepping from the restaurant downstairs where we had brunch. There were tons of people dressed up in the hotel and some of the guys were wearing Punjabi suits and these shoes with long, curled up ends (kind of like the shoes Aladdin wears!). I later found out they’re called mojaris. We asked one of the hotel employees and he told us 8,000 people would be at the hotel for the wedding; we assumed this included all of the randoms who were outside gawking and not actually invited. Later another employee told us there were only 1,000 actual guests. We told him how a wedding with 200 guests was considered a large wedding in the States and he laughed and looked really shocked.

After brunch we headed out to a mall called the Inorbit Mall. It’s much closer to the hotel than the one we visited on Saturday, and is apparently the biggest mall in Southern India. The mall is about four stories high and has a lot of American stores, but more Indian ones than the other mall, which was nice. We went to Shopper’s Stop to look for some Indian clothes for me. I really wanted to get a sari, but never realized that most are custom made (you just buy the fabric and take it to a tailor). They don’t have on-site tailoring at the department stores, which seems odd. I opted not to buy the fabric since I had no idea where to find a tailor and getting around for me is difficult during the week w/out a cell phone. I am smacking myself for not buying the fabric, because I actually NEED to buy a sari now because we were invited to a wedding for T’s coworker next week!! Very excited.

Anyway, I tried on a bunch of kurtas (tunics) and salwar kameez (long tunics with matching pants) at Shopper's Stop and at another department store called Lifestyle, and ended up buying a kurta at Shopper's Stop and then two tops that were in the equivalent of the “junior’s section” – they have cool embroidery and details on them but they’re not exactly traditional Indian. The sizes here run VERY small and the head/arm holes are extremely small on everything compared to American garments. I actually got stuck in a kurta in the dressing room (which is called a “trial room” here) and was afraid I would rip it because I couldn’t get it off! Of course I couldn’t ask T to come in and help me since it was a women’s trial room, and after a minute or so I started to freak out. Luckily, I was able to get it off without incident after a while!

We browsed around the mall some more and went to a very cool store called Fab India. We bought some handmade bangle bracelets for some friends/family at home, and a beautiful handmade jewelry box type thing with little drawers. Everything was really cheap and the company supports local craftspeople, so I like that it gives back to the deserving people in India.

Random sighting: they have a guy who operates a motorized stuffed camel on wheels and kids can go for rides on it. The guy climbs on the camel with the kid and the mom walks behind it while they ride around the mall!

After shopping we went back to the hotel (it was around 5pm) and they were STILL setting up for the wedding, even though they had been at it all day. Someone told us that there were actually two weddings going on that day – one was in the convention center and the other one was outside. I’m not sure which one was which, but one was for a film star and the other one was for the son of some ridiculously wealthy concrete company owner. They had security checks at every door with metal detectors, guards and people checking the guest list, so there was no chance of being a wedding crasher.

We hung out in the room for a while and then went out to dinner at a restaurant called Paradise, which is close to the hotel. It took forever to get there with all of the traffic from the wedding. There were people lined up along the road watching the procession, which was happening just as we left. All of the guests were carrying what looked like torches and this awesome (and really loud) drum music was playing as they walked from the back of the hotel property across to the gardens where the reception was set up. I took a video but we were far away, and it was so dark that it didn’t turn out.

We sat outside at Paradise since they didn’t have any inside tables. This freaked me out a little b/c of the bugs, but they had fans going everywhere so it wasn’t really possible for them to land at least. They also have a landscaped area with a rock waterfall so it was a nice atmosphere. We shared chicken biryani, which is a Hyderabadi specialty and really good. We also had naan (I’ve had this in the States – it’s a type of bread) and butter chicken. The butter chicken didn’t really taste buttery at all, it’s in a reddish sauce and is fairly spicy, but tasty. The servers were really nice and since everything was family style they kept coming over and putting more food on our plates!

It took about four times as long as it should to get home, since the traffic from the wedding was still really heavy. Our driver decided to bypass this and drive on the shoulder (dirt) and we almost hit a goat, or maybe it was a dog. Dark so hard to tell. We watched the wedding going on from our window and they were shooting fireworks off all night until like 1-2 am. No dancing, just people standing around talking and eating. I guess the dancing part happened earlier in the day? We watched Spider Man 3 on one of the decent movie channels here and called it a night, but it was really hard to sleep between the fireworks and the music!

Today's Bollywood video:

Weekend #2 (part one): Charminar, the bat cave and other adventures

So we woke up early (9am! that's early for us here) on Saturday and headed out into the city. We had a driver for the whole day so he took us wherever we wanted. First stop was Golconda Fort, about 30 minutes from our hotel. It was built in the 13th century and was basically a whole walled city. Our guide told us there were 360 queens for one king (who knows if that is accurate, but he kept referring to me as "queen" throughout the tour). The fort was really interesting and reminded me a lot of the ancient ruins in Greece. It was SO hot though (98 degrees) so it was hard to climb up all of the 700-some steps, and I started to feel dizzy and sick at one point so we had to go back down. Bah. Lesson #1: always bring the big bottle of water, not the purse-sized one!

The most interesting part happened when we were walking through part of

the ruins and heard this weird screeching

and chirping. And flapping.

BATS. Mother effing bats.

The guide told me to hand him my camera and turn on "BIG FLASH!" and off he went, marching into this room full of freaking bats while us and the two Indian girls who randomly joined our tour stood there like "WTF" and

hoped none of them would fly out toward us. Actually the Indian girls covered their mouths with their dupattas (scarves) and yelled OHH!!! OHHH!!!! It was hilarious and disturbing all at the same time. FYI, the little lit up things in the picture are bat eyes. The tour guide told us that there were about 25,000 bats living in the fort. Awesome.

Since I wasn't feeling so hot we headed out of the fort. The driver told us not to pay more than Rs 500 for the tour but the guy at the gate insisted on 750 and wouldn't take less. We were overwhelmed and frustrated at this point (the guide kept asking us for more money for the tip even though we gave him a lot, and then there were kids and ladies begging outside the gate, plus the heat was really intense). Since I felt like I was going to pass out we went to the Salar Jung Museum next instead of our planned trip to the bazaar.

Salar Jung was a former Prime Minister and was incredibly loaded because everything in the museum is from his private collection -- it's actually the largest private collection of art and antiques in the world.

We weren't allowed to take photos, unfortunately, but there were tons of paintings, furniture, clocks, glassware and statues from around the world. I found a photo online of one of the coolest things there: a double-sided wooden statue of Mephistopheles and Margaretta. The man is in the front and then the woman is in the back.

Our driver actually came in the museum with us and served as an unofficial guide, which was nice. One thing we noticed was that Indians only had to pay Rs 10 (about 22 cents) for a ticket while foreigners had to pay Rs 150 (about 3 dollars). Even so, it cost less than 7 dollars for three museum tickets.

They have this really old clock that's a big tourist attraction...all of these people, including a bunch of school groups (kids go to school on Saturday here) were sitting in folding chairs and on the floor in front of the clock waiting for it to chime on the hour. These little doors open up and figures come out and drum the hour. It was really funny because everyone abruptly stood up and left once the clock chimed.

After the museum we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and walked around the GVK Mall. It's in Banjara Hills, the posh area of the city. The mall had a lot of expensive stores and people were dressed more American-style and carrying designer bags, etc. I thought maybe I could get some deals but no luck; the Fendi sunglasses were still about $400. Bah. Oh, and you have to go through a huge security process to get in the mall, just like at the hotel. I'm so used to it by now that getting wanded down everywhere I go doesn't even phase me.

After the mall we drove to Charminar, which is the main landmark of Hyderabad. It's in the old section of the city and a big bazaar surrounds it. It became pretty apparent once we entered the area that we wouldn't be going to the market. Even sitting in the car people were staring and pointing at us hardcore. While people do stare at us sometimes (mostly me, because of the hair) it's more of the interested/curious variety. This was a different story. Our driver basically said that he'd show us the monument and that we could hop out and take a photo and get back in. You could tell he didn't want us to get out of the car and walk around. I was bummed that we couldn't go shopping, but there were plenty of other places to go where it would be safer. T's coworker later told him that it wasn't really a good idea for Americans to be hanging out in that area, so I'm glad we didn't get out.

Next our driver took us to a few different stores, and we bought some jewelry and pashminas. The shopping here is awesome and I love all of the colors and fabrics. We got back to the hotel and crashed for a while, then showered and went to dinner downstairs in the hotel. The day definitely had its ups and downs but part of being here is getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing new things, so you have to take the good with the bad.

Friday!

TGIF! Not much going on today, I've been working on freelance articles all day. We're going to do a bunch of touristy stuff this weekend so I am excited to actually venture out into the city. T's coworker told him that one of the jewelry stores offers employees from his company a 35% discount so that's pretty sweet. Hyderabad is called The City of Pearls and is also known for its bangle bracelets (random) so I'm hoping to bring home some good finds.

I went outside to book the cab for tomorrow and then forgot that I had to go through security again to get back into the hotel. I've never just popped outside to ask a question so I found it interesting, but I guess reassuring (?), that I had to be wanded down, bag scanned, etc. just to go back inside.

An hour or so ago they sprayed for bugs

outside and there was a giant cloud of smoke! So far we've had a mosquito in our room a couple of times; I think they get in through the air vent. It's kind of bizarre having to wear bug spray to sit in a hotel room, go to the gym or to dinner. At dinner the other night we were swatting mosquitos left and right. The main restaurant has doors that open out to the pool area, so people go in and out and bugs easily get inside. Considering this is a five-star hotel I would love to know (ok I really wouldn't) what it's like to stay somewhere crappy. There are probably mosquitos everywhere! Gahhhhhhh.

Today's Bollywood video is Desi Girl from the film Dostana:

Pool day

Today I ventured down to the pool for the first time...I've been pretty much staying in the room and working while T's at work so it was a nice change. It's 90 degrees today, but it doesn't feel like it. There's always a breeze and for some reason it just doesn't feel that hot, even in my linen pants and long sleeve top. Over the weekend it's going up to 97! I wonder if it will feel worse in the city center with all of the traffic and people.

I stayed at the pool for about two hours and read The Lying Game, the first book in a new series by Sara Shepard (the author of the Pretty Little Liars books). If you like YA I highly recommend it; it's about a girl named Emma who finds out that she has a twin sister, but when she goes to meet her she finds out that Sutton (the twin) has disappeared. No one knows that she's missing and everyone thinks Emma is Sutton, so she has to go around pretending while trying to figure out what happened. It's totally geared toward teens, obviously, but it's a good poolside read. ABC Family is making it into a show this summer so I'm looking forward to watching it!

After swimming for a bit I went to the spa for my first-ever eyebrow threading experience. It hurt, but not as much as I thought it would. The girl did an okay job, not great, so I'm not sure I would go back. At least it was only Rs 44 (98 cents!!) with the discount we get from T's work. I ended up giving a 50 percent tip since it was so cheap. Back home it costs at least $10 for eyebrow threading so that was pretty crazy.

Last night we went to the midnight buffet for the first time. We learned from our $48 lunch buffet mistake and ordered off the a la carte menu instead. T had a burger and it was actually made out of buffalo instead of beef. The cow is sacred here, so people don't eat beef and a lot of them are vegetarians. It works well for me because most the menus here are filled with chicken dishes or vegetarian options. I stuck with ice cream since I already had dinner from room service (thin-crust margherita pizza, which was surprisingly awesome). They don't have a ton of Indian dishes on the menu and the ones they have aren't things I would eat, so I've been eating mostly Americanized food. When we venture out in town I'm sure I'll be able to try more things. I'm excited for the weekend so we can go on some excursions and eat somewhere besides the hotel!

So today's Bollywood video (I've decided to share a new one in each post) is from the same movie as the one I posted yesterday, Tees Maar Khan. I know almost all of the popular songs by now since I keep the one music video channel on all day while I'm working.

Day in the life

Slowly getting into a normal schedule here. Last night and the night before I pretty much slept straight through, went to bed at 2am and woke up around 10/10:30. Somehow I'm still pretty tired all the time; T's coworker said it will take us about a week to get adjusted.

The days go by pretty fast here. We get up, go to breakfast, hang out in the room and watch TV or take a walk around the hotel grounds, then T goes to work and I start my work. Later in the afternoon once everyone's up in the States I usually Skype with my family/friends or chat on

IM/Facebook for a bit, eat dinner and then after T gets home we go to the gym. I've realized that if I go to bed too early I get up in the middle of the night so staying up later has worked so far.

Since we've been so tired and waking up late, there's no time to do any shopping or sightseeing before he has to go to work, and neither of us feel comfortable with me wandering on my own just yet, especially since I don't have a working cell phone (we're going to the store again this wknd to get the SIM card so I can actually use it). Once we are feeling better and getting up at a normal time we can do some short excursions during the week, even just to go outside of the hotel for lunch or something. I think I mentioned before that our hotel is kind of in the boonies; from what I can tell it's at least a 20 min cab ride to the city center so it's not like we can just pop out and go somewhere easily, especially when there's only a couple of hours between breakfast and when the car comes to pick him up for work. His company has everyone stay here because of the proximity to the office, but otherwise the location kind of suck

s. I can't complain though, because it is a really nice hotel.

I'm looking forward to the weekend when we'll have our driver all day Sat/Sun and can do some exploring. One of T's Indian coworkers also offered to take us out and show us around the city so that would be cool.

So yeah, I'm afraid there's nothing exciting to report since I've spent all week in the hotel, although I did go to the spa here yesterday. I got a neck and back massage and it was really cheap (equivalent of $33 with tip - crazy). I went through the spa menu and they have eyebrow threading for Rs 50, which is about a DOLLAR! I'm definitely getting mine done tomorrow or Friday. The masseuse did a great job, although she was wicked strong - wasn't really expecting that since she was so small! It was kind of random because they didn't play any music in the treatment room like they do in other spas I've been to, although they were playing the same instrumental version of "White Flag" in the lobby of the spa, hahaha. I thought I had escaped this song because they didn't play it at breakfast yesterday, but then I heard it at the spa and again this morning at breakfast, lol.

I went down to get a snack a little while ago and browsed through the little shop in the lobby. I had only went in once really quick but today I looked through everything and they have some really pretty table linens, purses and handmade journals. The prices were good but I know I can get things cheaper at the markets so I'm going to wait and compare. Plus the mosquitos were getting on my nerves (yes, there are mosquitos even during the day, and inside). However, I did end up buying a set of really pretty handpainted notecards. The photo doesn't do them justice.

So today I'll leave you with this: an interesting commercial they play all the time here, and one of my other fave Bollywood videos.