13 mi run

Back in California, Still Doing Yoga

I started doing Bikram Yoga when I returned home. I didn't get to do much yoga in Hyderabad because the time schedules never fit with mine. Bikram yoga is the hot yoga where you do poses in a 110 degree room. It sounds like you'd faint, but you get use to the heat after a while. The idea behind Bikram is to allow for detoxification of the body (sweating) and for flexibility. I can't do 75% of all the poses above ...but I'm working on it :)

Alvida India! (Farewell India)

Saying good bye was one of the hardest things I had to do. I will miss India SO SO MUCH!!! Especially the people. The friends I've made, I will remember always. Each person I met has impacted my life and work so much, words can hardly convey. I became so "Indian" over the course of the last 5 months. According to Mahin, I'm a Bollywood critic and I've seen 3 movies, I eat Indian food, dress in Indian fashion and have learned to be humble and appreciate life just like all the Indian folks here. More importantly, I've learned about a new culture and experienced a new kind of life. It's been an AMAZING several months, I would never trade it for the world.

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Rainbow School Part 2

5th Grade Class

On Wednesday Anna and I went to Rainbow School to begin second phase of our project. Our project: take pictures of the children and have the photos printed for picture frames. Using old DVD cases as frames, one side was for the photo itself, other half was to slide a drawing done by the student. The 5th grade class loved it! Unfortunately I won't be there to see through the rest of the project but Anna will be sure to finish most of the classes. I'll miss these kids a lot, they have so much character and potential. I'm really glad I got to see them all before I left.

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Our Drivers

Left to Right: Niranjan, Gopal, Ismail, Akbar, Ansari, Jafar, Srinivas, Nayeem

Thank you to all our drivers, especially Ismail who handled all coordination (in orange.) We wouldn't be able to see India without these wonderful drivers. I'll miss them all!

Team Yellow Strikes Again!

Inside joke...
Whenever we all travel together and the 'yellows' (Asians) sit together, we call ourselves TEAM YELLOW! In KL last weekend, team yellow struck again! (Me, Jeff, Selin.) The first time was in Varanasi (Me, Simon, Jeff) -- haha!

The original Team Yellow

Kuala Lumpur

Petronas Twin Towers at night



Getting ready to go out for Jeff's birthday



In Club Zouk



Grapes at Chinatown, yummy!



The crew on the 41st floor of Petronas Towers



Awesome side angle view of Petronas

Over this past weekend, Anna, Stacy, Selin, Jeff, Zack, Travis and I headed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the weekend. It was another short quick trip, but a great trip to be my last before I head home. We flew in Friday night and arrived to the 6 star Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 80m from the Petronas Twin Towers (one of the tallest towers in the world.) We landed a sweet 2 room apartment at the hotel, sure was NICE!

Saturday we checked out Suria KLCC mall (adjacent to the Towers and the hotel), then headed to Chinatown where they had DVDs, delicious fruits and tons of discount clothing and goods. Afer we went BACK to the mall for more shop. That night we ate at Bijan for Jeff's birthday -- a good Malaysian restaurant. Unfortunately, the dessert was NOT memorable. They gave Jeff Durian cheesecake... and if you're never had Durian I don't suggest doing so. Durian smells like stale garbage! Haha. After dinner we went to Club Zouk to dance the night away. The club was great, played good hip-hop and R&B all night.

Sunday we went up to the Petronas Twin Towers -- but they only allow you up to Floor 41 of 88 floors. What an incredible view though! After, I went to lay out by the pool and met with the others for more shopping. The shopping was good, but nothing comparable to BKK! (Yes I said it Simon, BKK is the B-E-S-T!)

I would love to visit Malaysia again, this time see the beaches and the rest of the country. For more info on Kuala Lumpur, click here.

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Awkward Asians

Courtesy of Anna! Ever heard of a Tripod??? Haha, these are great.

Farewell Dinner at Laguna

Farewell Expats!

Thursday night was my Farewell dinner at Laguna, a new Italian restaurant near our apartment on Road No. 1. We all dived into really good Italian food, I had a super good pear salad. We celebrated my farewell, Walter's farewell (a guy from Dublin who was here for 2 weeks) and Jeff's bday. Once again cake was delivered to me, AGAIN saying Happy Birthday -- courtesy of Anna and Mahin, haha. Walter and Jeff got the same birthday cakes.

We reminisced over our trips and fun stories, I'm going to miss this group so much!

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My Teams

Team 1: (Top Right clockwise: Sailesh, Shyam, Shannon (who is visiting), Me, Anna, Padma, Sirisha; Divya, Parul, Sravani, Soumyajit)

Team 2: (Top Right clockwise: Jitendra, Yasmin, Jessie, Padma, Me, Rubin, Urvi, Tina)

Team Dinner at Indi-Joe's

Last night I went to dinner with my team, we went to Indi-Joe's -- an American style pub serving TexMex, Sizzlers and Pizza (no Indian on the menu!) We had a great time, it's really nice to have dinner with a small, intimate group of people. We went home full and smelling like sizzling platters!

Another Surprise, This One Was For My Farewell!

Being fed cake!

My team!

Yesterday at work my team surprised me with a farewell - cake and gifts! They got me a really beautiful silk stole (pashmina), a hand stitched kurta, two gorgeous pillow covers, a necklace and earring set and a lovely tapestry. It was really sweet of them all, I'm going to miss them all so much!

Salaam-E-Ishq (con't)

A reply from Mahin:

Mahin: hahahaha, nice!
youre not just a critic, you are a bonified Indian!

Salaam-E-Ishq

I went to see Salaam-E-Ishq ("A Tribute to Love") on Tuesday night. GREAT MOVIE! It takes the place of 6 different love stories, and how they all come together at the end like the movie "Love Actually." The soundtrack is super good - it went well with the dancing and theme of the story, I've been downloading it and listening to it at work! Mahin thinks I'm a Bollywood Critic now, silly girl. Here is the link to the movie (music is available on the website too): Salaam-E-Ishq

Last Full Week in Hyderabad

Can you believe my time in India is almost over? Yep, this is my last full week in Hyderabad :( Am I ready to leave? Definitely not. There is so much MORE of India I'd like to see and experience before I go, there just isn't enough time in the world to do it. There's also a lt of the world left to see and again, just not enough time to do so. I've had a great time here, it's been challenging but extremely rewarding. I've learned so much about the world and about myself being here, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I will miss the people the most, my friends at the Google office here and my friends from other Google offices (Mountain View, Dublin.) In my last week I plan to:

• Go to the tailor and get all the last things I need to be stitched
• See one more Bollywood movie
• Eat at my favorite Hyderabad restaurant
• Go to Malaysia (we're going this weekend to Kuala Lumpr for Jeff's bday)
• Shop as much as I can because everything is SO CHEAP!
• Soak up every bit of India I can: the food (well, not really), the sights, the colors, the people
• Spend time with friends
  

Naveen and Varsha's Wedding Party

Here's a video of us dancing to drums

Saturday night I attended a wedding party -- at first I thought it would be a traditional wedding reception, where everyone would dress up and dance to traditional Indian music. This party was far from it. Naveen and Varsha, the wedding couple, invited only young friends to this wedding cocktail party. They transformed an empty farm house into a huge party set-up. There was a big dancefloor, open bar and an awesome DJ who played a mix of American mainstream hip-hop and Indian pop! I had a great time, this was my first wedding event and a fun one nonetheless. We danced our hearts out til dawn :)

Golconda Fort

Finally, I made it to Golconda Fort! I know, I'm about to leave Hyderabad and this is the place most people first see, but I finally made it here. It's 4 forts together located on the outskirt of the city, with a beautiful view overlooking all of Hyderabad. Simply breathtaking. When we first entered there was a clapping room -- you stand in a specific spot and the sound of the clap resonates throughout the entire fort. It was believed that the clapping notified the king when visitors arrived. Then, we walked deeper into the fort and entered a room with echoing walls. If you stood at one corner of the room and another person stood at the opposite end, you can hear each other if you speak into the wall. Amazing! We then wanted to see the top of the fort, climbed over 1,000 stairs in the blazing heat to get there. A HUGE workout but well worth the exercise, the view of Hyderabad was incredible. For more info on Golconda, click here.

Surprise Birthday!

Happy Birthday Charise McDreamy, 30th Birthday!

No no no it's not my birthday, not even my half birthday but according to my friends, it is! We went to eat at Golden Dragon chinese restaurant in the Taj Krishna hotel (where we have Sunday brunch.) I went to the restroom and returned to a cake being delivered to my plate and everyone singing! The cake said "Happy Birthday Charise McDreamy 3o years old!" When Mahin made the reservation they asked if it was for a special occasion and she told them it was my birthday, 30th birthday! McDreamy, well that's a small side joke...I got her hooked on Grey's anatomy and now we joke about Derrick Shephard's name (McDreamy in Grey's.) Anyway, to tip off the birthday cake, the restaurant lit fireworks outside the window! It was crazy but SUPER funny hahahahs! What a fun way to end a long week. And, Shannon and her boyfriend, Pratap, came to dinner. She's in town for a couple weeks with Pratap attending a few weddings.

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Guru

I went to watch Guru tonight, a new release Hindi film (with no subtitles.) Without understanding a single word said, I found it to be a remarkable and extremely captivating movie. Granted, I had translation throughout but the acting was phenomenal nevertheless. It is a story of a man named Guru who starts a textile company from scratch and becomes India's wealthiest and most powerful business man. The movie also shared a lot of Indian culture (wedding scenes, religious scenes) that helped me visualize a lot of cultural practices. I was told I had to watch a few Bollywood movies before I left even though it'd be in another language, this was well worth the adventure! For more info on the movie, click here.

Adorable Cuties from Mumbai

Courtesy of Mahin, she captured this picture when she was in Mumbai last weekend walking to Haji Ali Mosque. They're ADORABLE!

Cricket Playoff Game

Look who's the allstar cricket player now???



Getting some sun at the game...

Me, Stacy, David, Jeff, Greg, Scott and Christina went to watch the Google cricket team play in a quarter final tournament. It was during the afternoon so this time we stayed for the entire thing! We all had a lot of fun, sitting out in the sun, lazing on a Saturday afternoon with beers in hand. Greg and Scott hit the field during half-time and showed off their cricket skills to the rest of us (show-offs!) Unfortunatley the team lost :( but they played great nonetheless. I'm sure there will be many more tourneys that will come out with wins!

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Celeste Goes Home!

Last night I sent my sister off to the airport, I'm going to miss her SO much! It was really nice to have my family and someone so close to me nearby. She starts school in a few days, she will like the last few days to unpack all my stuff she lugged home (thanks Celeste.) I love you, have a safe flight :) India misses you already!

There she is!



At Angeethi restaurant

Here are photos from her last dinner at Angeethi with a few other expats. She did well and even tried Pan. Way to go Celeste!

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The People of Thailand

Here are some shots of the people of Thailand...

Ladyboi's (aka Trannies)





Buddhist monk

Bangkok

Blessing myself with a lotus flower

Tuk-Tuk ride!



I'm having fun with mirrors

After Ko Samui, Celeste and I went to Bangkok (BKK)! We were sad to leave the islands but really excited to see the city life and SHOP! First thing we noticed was everyone wearing bright yellow collared shirts. Why yellow? On everyday of the week there is a lucky color. The current king was born on a Monday and Monday's lucky color is yellow, so the people wear yellow out of respect. Tuesday is pink and so forth.

So we arrived at our hotel in Siam Square, Holiday Inn, and went straight to Suan Lum night bazaar. We took our first Tuk-Tuk ride to get there (which is basically the same thing as an auto rickshaw here in India.) The night bazaar was cracking -- lots of people shopping around, there was an entertainment area where performers were dancing and singing to popular songs, we saw a ferris wheel ride and there was TONS of food. We had our first dose of Thai food that night at a hawker stand. The prices were dirt cheap also, we got 4 dishes for less than $10USD. We tried hard not to shop too much but of course we failed :)

Celeste and I doing the 'Same Same' pose



Me and Wat Pho (Reclining Buddha)



We tried to make them laugh

Friday morning we woke up and took a tour of some temples and the Grand Palace with a tour guide, Chuckie, my uncle recommended. We saw the Golden Buddha, Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho), standing Buddha, Emeralad Buddha (yes there are hella Buddha's everywhere, probably because 95% of the Thai population are Buddhist.) We also visited the Grand Palace, where the king and his administration use to live. When entering temples, it was required we take off our shoes and wear clothes to cover our arms and legs. Some tourists forgot to wear long pants and long sleeves so they make you rent clothing, we saw a bunch of people wearing these funny Thai outfits (obviously rented.) Mahin and Jeff arrived that night, and we went to this club/restaurant called 'Bed.' You can predict the ambiance from the name of the club. Yes, we sat on beds and had dinner with pillows on our back.

On the way to RCA



Partying thugs

Saturday morning my sister and I laid by the pool. That afternoon we went shopping (I know, more) to some of the malls in Siam Square. There are 5 HUGE malls all located next to each other, offering goods from designer clothing labels to DVDs and electronics. So much to shop for in Bangkok it's really insane. That night we met with our coworker's cousins, Shaohua and Yang-Yang to have dinner at a cute little Thai restaurant, and then went out to check the club scene. We went to RCA, which is a strip of clubs aligned next to each other. What's cool about these clubs is they have an outdoor patio area where you can lounge and have drinks. Fun times!

Sunday we headed to the infamous Chatuchuk Weekend Market in Bangkok. Biggest market I've ever seen. Imagine stalls and stalls and stalls smashed togteher, housing over a 1,000 or more stores, selling EVERYTHING from remade clothes, to fake tennis shoes, boutique dresses, handicrafts, textiles, fabrics, and even puppies! We spent 5 hours there and came out with BAGS and BAGS of stuff. The fun part about it all was it was all super cheap, you would never find this kind of shopping in the US. That night we had dinner at this enormous food court in Siam Paragon mall, the best food court I've seen. Sunday night after dinner Mahin and Celeste wanted to see some 'ladybois' -- we missed a caberet showing so we went to Patpong, which is a redlight district in Thailand. Nothing to brag about, they saw what they needed to see in the most disgusting way possible, haha. On our way out, we all got 'Same Same - but Different' T-shirts, a saying used by everyone in Thailand.

I had a lot of fun in Thailand, I wish I had more time to explore the rest of the country. What I love most about the country is everyone is super friendly and there is a sense of community among all the people. Everyone LOVES the king and wears yellow shirts to show their respect. There is a lot of shopping (which I love) and the food is super good, oh and the massages feel great and are super cheap! I can't wait to go back!

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Ko Samui

Fun hats in Chaweng beach, Ko Samui



Lovin' the artwork



Poolside

Celeste and I went to Ko Samui for 3 days, it was BEAUTIFUL! Just like Hawaii, except warmer and more exotic. We stayed at NovaSamui and spent all three days on the poolside tanning, getting $7 massages, shopping and eating delicious Thai food. There was a lot of shopping in KS, you can imagine all the cheap stuff they have in Thailand in general ... but we held back (as much as we could) and saved our $$ for Bangkok. It was nice to be in a tropical place in a different country. We did not want to leave!

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NYE and Thailand

I won't be online for a while because I'll be celebrating NYE away from Hyderabad and going to Thailand for a week! For NYE, I'm taking my sister to Mumbai and Alibag and meeting a few friends. In Mumbai I plan to take her on a slum tour, to shop on Colaba (markets!) and eat sushi. Alibag is a beachy town a few hours south of Mumbai, there we'll play on the beach and enjoy the sun. On Jan.1 we head to Ko Samui in Thailand for a few days, then to Bangkok! I'm really looking forward to a nice, long vacation. Happy New Year everyone and see you in 2007 ~

Rahul and Sonu's Birthday

Being fed birthday cake!

Last night my sister and I went to Rahul and Sonu's birthday party. It was held at 6th Element, a pub about 10km from my apartment. They brought cake out and as part of Indian tradition, the birthday person feeds cake to all party attendees. Since it was technically Sonu's birthday (Rahul's was a few days back), she fed cake to all of us! Happy birthday!

The People of Goa

Goa

Celeste and I went to Goa for Christmas weekend, it was a really nice trip. The weather stayed above 90degrees F the entire weekend, so we spent a lot of it by the pool tanning :) We headed towards Northern Goa, where most tourists head during this peak season time of year. Lots and lots of tourists from Europe were there, making it a crowded and packed weekend -- also increasing prices which I wasn't too happy about.

We stayed at Neelam's the Grand, the hotel was OK, not the BEST (considering ants in our bed, stained shower door, pad locked door) but it's India, gotta love it! The hotel facilities were nice however, they had a HUGE pool and lots of Christmas decor. It was nice to see Christmas in Goa, allowed us to be in a festive mood. There are a lot of Christians in Goa, so Christmas is celebrated widely. Here's an article on Christmas in Goa, click here.

Tapestry of Goa

King crab at Souza Lobo's restaurant (Calangute Beach)

The first day we arrived, I took Celeste to get her first Ayurvedic massage, it sure was an experience! We ate at this restaurant called Souza Lobo's and had the best, biggest king Crab with garlic sauce. That night we went to the famous Ingo's Saturday night market, where thousands of stands gathered to sell textiles, artifacts, tapestries, jewelry and more. We spent way more than we should have :)

Merry Christmas!



Laughing at the fireworks!



Adorable kids singing Christmas caroles at the hotel party

Christmas Eve the hotel hosted a grand dinner and party. There was LOTS of food - both Indian and continental, we seriously stuffed our faces til we were blue. They had lots of entertainment too, fire dancers, music, fireworks - a nice way to ring in Christmas. I'm really happy my sister was there to spend it with me!

In front of the biggest church in Panjim



Sipping some hearty hot chocolate on Christmas night

Christmas day we tried to visit some churches in Panjim (state capital) but they were all closed (surprisingly.) The drive to Panjim allowed us to see a lot of buildings made with Portugese infludence, since they colonized Goa years ago. Nice drive it was... We closed off the night having the best Goan fish at this delicious Italian restaurant called J&A's Little Italy -- the fish literally melted in our mouths. All the wait staff were wearing Christmas hats and red shirts for the holiday!

Tuesday we both treated ourselves to pedicures and headed home. I had a great Christmas weekend! For more info on Goa, click here.

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The People of Goa

Some of the people of Goa...

Celeste and Chandras, hotel staff



Cute little princess at the hotel



Massage lady and pedicure lady

Dress Night!

Anna, Mahin and I bought these SUPER cute dresses in Hampi last weekend. Since it was the last day in the office before Christmas vacation, we treated ourselves to a massage then dressed up for a night to dinner! Check out the fun...!

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Merry Christmas!

Friday I received a lot of nice gifts and sweet emails from my team wishing me a happy holidays -- above is a picture sent to me. It was good to be in Christmas spirit around the office, they even put a tree up!

And Celeste arrived to India last night! We are going to Goa for Christmas weekend. I plan to take her to the beach, introduce her to India and Indian food and relax after a long quarter of work. Have a Merry Christmas everyone! We'll be thinking of you in Goa :)

The People of Hampi

Some pictures of Hampi folks...

Fellow passengers on the river boat



Kids in an autorickshaw on the way to school



Waiting for video games to come to Hampi



Haha, this guy was totally modeling his bike



A Rajasthani tailor altering my kurta in Hampi



Keeping cool by the wall

Hampi

Ready for the train!

This past weekend, David, Stacy, Anna, Mahin, Jeff and I went to Hampi! Hampi is about 450km away from Hyderabad -- guess how we got there? BY TRAIN! Yes, we toughed it out for 12 hours there and 12 hours back on an Indian train! Being that I've never been on a train before, I wasn't expecting the best...but it wasn't so bad. We actually really enjoyed the experience. In our Tier 2 AC train they provided blankets and sheets, and let us know when we were arriving so that was nice. Heading to Hampi on the train we killed time by playing trivia games (Wies has a bunch of these up his sleeves.)

Morning we arrived to Hospet station where a driver for our hotel was awaiting. It took about 45mins to get into Hampi. Hampi is a village town in the north of the Karnataka state. Created from the previous Vijayanagara empire, tons of temples and ruins (a little too many) surround this village town. That afternoon we shopped and shopped (til we almost dropped.) I got a LOT of cute clothes! Hampi attacts a lot of hippie tourists (esp. from EUR) so the shops cater to hippie-style clothing. I fell in love with the style, and purchased myself a few tie-dye items. To get to Hampi from the hotel, we had to take a river boat (10Rs each way = ~10cents.) I also bought friendship bracelets for everyone and asked them to keep it on til it falls off. Brought me back to elementary school when friendship bracelets were a hit!

Paisley aladdin pants and a tie-dye shirt...what am I thinking?




Anna, Stacy and I on the river boat



Shopping for friendship bracelets

We ate lunch at this place called Mango Tree, where you have to walk along a path of banana trees to get to the restaurant. The food was great! That night we ate at the hotel, where they had complimentary dinner and bonfire. We went to bed early because we all hadn't slept that well on the train.

Next morning I enjoyed a nice morning jog around Hampi Boulders hotel. After breakfast we went back across the river to rent scooters for the day! It was really fun! We were lucky only to have one accident for the day (Jeff!) On our scooters, we stopped by Vitala Temple (most reknown), an underground temple and cruised on the open highway. It was a trek to get to Vitala temple, for a while we thought we were Lost! Finally found it, it was amazing as described. On the way back we hitched a ride on a basket boat. Midway the ore broke so the boat driver had us wait on an island for a rescue boat! We laughed about the thought of actually getting LOST on an island. At sunset, we returned our scooters, lugged our bags across the river and headed back to Hospet to catch a train back home.

Scooooooooooters! They were so much fun!!



Me and the Hampi boulders



The basket boat that brought us back from Vitala Temple



Me, Mahin and Anna "LOST" on the island when the ore broke!



Carrying our luggage back and forth across the river



At the underground temple

It was a great trip, much different than the posh, luxurious trips I've taken in the past. I felt like I was finally 'roughing' it! For more info on Hampi, check out this link.

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Only in India (8)

Only in India...will you find a policeman standing in the middle of a cross-section (NOT directing traffic) and trucks with bumper signs saying to "Please Sound the Horn." Love it India!

People of the North

There are some snapshots of the people in Northern India...

Cute lil guy at Amer Fort

Making clay

Nice place to be hanging out



Boy selling Taj Mahal snowglobes



A photographer at the Taj Mahal

Golden Triangle

This past weekend Stacy, Karen, David (aka 'Wies') headed to the GOLDEN TRIANGLE! It was one of my favorite trips so far. The famous Golden Triangle of India covers three beautiful cities -- Delhi (the capital of India), Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) and Jaipur ("Pink City" and land of Rajput kings.) The forts, palaces, architecture, color, art and history epitomizes India and its beauty. Each city is unique in its own, all three remain popular tourist destinations for tourists like us and are easy to drive to (5hr drive away from each.)

Agra

Friday night we flew into Delhi and drove to Gurgaon to stay at Karen's house. Saturday morning we drove to Agra, 250km north. I felt like I was taking a road trip down highway 5. We stopped at a little trucker stop which looked just like any other trucker stop -- food, overpriced goodies, lots of tourists stretching their legs. The hawkers along the truck stops (and in all of northern India) were really aggressive and tried to get you to pay them for anything. One guy had a bear on a rope dancing in hopes that we'd take a picture! It was really disturbing.

We arrived in Agra, Stacy and I stayed at the Trident Hilton which was a nice, quaint hotel about 1.5km from the Taj Mahal. Wies and Karen opted for the Oberoi which overlooked the Taj from their window. The Oberoi is by far the classiest hotel chain in India, look at my webalbum for photos, it's extremely illuminating and beautiful. I shopped a little in Agra with our driver, Ram Babu, then headed to the Oberoi for a massage and dinner with everyone. It was a fun day just relaxing and taking it easy at the hotel.

Next morning we woke up at 5am to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise! (Click here for more info.) We were told it was the best time to go, so we headed to the Oberoi and took a golf cart to the front entrance. Already, hawkers approached us wanting to sell us postcards and gadgets. Stacy had to tell them she'd come back to them later (and sure enough, they remembered her when we were leaving.) It cost us $15USD to walk in, there were tons of tourists there waiting for the sun to rise. We all felt like we were kids going to Disneyland, we were SO excited to be seeing one of the 7 wonders of the world!!!

That's me and the Taj
The Taj was absolutely amazing -- words cannot even convey its beauty. The story behind the Taj -- Emperor Shah made this monument for his passed wife. According to history, it took 30 years to build with help of 20,000 workers. They hired European experts to come in to help with the artchitecture. It is believed that Shah had the hands chopped off of these 20,000 workers so nothing could ever be built like it again (not sure if this story is true.) A romantic monument with architecture, nice place to share with friends and loved ones.

Me, Karen, Stacy and Wies posing with the Taj Mahal!

Jaipur

After the Taj we headed to Jaipur, jumped back in the car with Ram Babu and rocked out to Indian tunes. Arrived to a beautiful city, by far my favorite in India. Jaipur, also known famously as the Pink City, also the capital of Rajasthan state. It's called the pink city because all the cities are painted pink. They did this to protect the buildings from the reflection of sun rays. Although I haven't been to Europe myself, it felt like I was walking along the streets of Europe. Gorgeous, gorgeous architecture, it was breathtaking. We checked into our hotel, Park Plaza, then went shopping along Jauhari, Bapu and Nehru Bazars all bordering each other. There we found a large collection of quilts, fabrics, handicrafts, jewelry... I bought some fun pajamas, shawls and bangles. Stacy found herself a cute little Santa to give away as part of her white elephant gift! Her and Wies also got some drums I bargained for (I bargained for them to be $2 each!) On a whim (total whim), Stacy and I got our hands painted with henna! It's called Mehndi design -- where women will paint their hands, feet and back with henna. Click here for photos of Mehndi designs. It was fun, it's still on my hands and should last a few weeks. Later that night we went to Four Seasons -- a family joint serving Indian and Multicuisine (which I've come to understand as just Indian and Chinese foods haha.)

Delhi

What a cute elephant!

Me and Stacy on our first Indian elephant ride

Me and Ram Babu (driver) at Amer Fort

Before heading back to Delhi, Wies decided we go see one of the famous forts in Jaipur, so we visited the famous Amer Fort on the Jaipur-Delhi highway. What a great fort to pick! We got to ride elephants to the top (our first elephant rides!) It was a lot of fun, they kinda stunk but I braved through it for the chance to ride one :) Amazing architecture, and the weather was perfect!

The wall of mirrors at Amer Fort

Our last stop of the triangle was where we started, in Delhi. Delhi is the current state capital of India, and by far the most developed. It's a big metro city, old and new, urbanized and well structured and home to over 15 million people. I wish we had more time in Delhi to explore, maybe another trip and another time. We ate at the Oberoi again in hopes of tasting some of this delicious sushi Karen and Durand would rave about. Unfortunately they closed, so I guess I'll have to wait for sushi until I get back home :(

No wonder why tons of tourists flock to the Golden Triangle, it's beautiful!!! I wish I had more time to explore the North to such cities like Udaipur, Jodphur, Jammu... ah, another time!

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Our Indian Christmas!

Look at all the yummy food!

The best tree in Hyderabad

The hostesses with the most(esses) under the mistletoe!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Anna, Stacy and I decided to host a holiday Christmas party for all of the expats here in Hyderabad. We ordered LOTS of holiday food, pies, and even a turkey with mashed potatoes! We decorated Stacy's house with ornaments and party streamers we got from a local party store, and played Christmas music on Stacy's iPod (with a lot of my favorites: N*Sync, Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Kenny G Xmas tunes.) The party was so fun! We played white elephant, for some it was their first time. I think everyone ended up with a gift they wanted, I was able to snag a gift with ethnic Bindi's (the stickers women wear on their foreheads), incense, a yo-yo and friendship bracelet. Sounds cheesy, but that's part of the fun of white elephant :)

As they say it in India, Happy Christmas everyone!

Wedding Invitation

We expats are invited to attend Niru's wedding next week! I'm really excited because I've always wanted to attend an Indian wedding.
Indian weddings have many rituals that have evolved since traditional times and differ in many ways among the regions and caste. The ceremonies are very colorful and extend for several days, just like in movies Bendit like Beckham and Monsoon Wedding. The one we're attending is a southern Indian wedding somewhere in Hyderabad. I can't wait, now I have to think of what to wear... For more info, Click Here.

Getting the Hang of Indian Food

Me, Joel and Stacy wearing bibs (Green = Veg; Red = Nonveg)

Look at that lobster, mmmmm!

The naan is bigger than David's head

If you can believe... I'm starting to get the hang of Indian food. This past weekend we ate at Peshawri at the Sheraton which was my favorite Indian restaurant so far. Didn't dabble in anything spicy, creamy or cheesy, but for the most part it was very tasty! They had a HUGE naan for the table and delicious lobster. Even the Dahl (similar to Mexican bean dip) which I find extremely spicy was manageable because it was mild in flavor.

Cricket Team

Google Cricket Team!

There's the wicket

There is a cricket team here at work, we went to watch them play last night and they won! I'm still learning the rules of the game, but from what I could see it looked like we were kicking butt. There is a big tournament in a few weeks, good luck team!

Holiday Party

We expats roll deep

Love the sarees!

Tonight was our Holiday Party! (Same night as the one held in MV.) We expats were really happy to be celebrating the holidays in India since Christmas isn't really celebrated here. I loved hearing Christmas tunes, seeing Santa and a tree and everyone dressed up for the event. Stacy and Joel did a phenomenal job planning! It started off with the choir harmonizing some great Christmas caroles, followed by Elton singing, and then dancing to a popular DJ! We all dressed in our best attire, both western and Indian. I finally got to wear my saree that I bought and had tailored last week. Everyone looked great, I had a blast.

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Awww, the girls

Oh CHRISTMAS TREE

Rainbow School Project

A few of us are going to help with a fun project for the kids at Rainbow School. For the two older classes, we're taking individual photo shots and framing them so they can decorate to take home. It's a great project and allows the children to explore their creativity!

Here are some photos of the students:

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My First India Buddy

Me and Veera, my first India buddy :)

Veera and I were set up as buddies last year, it's been such a pleasure hanging out with her. She has been a great, great friend to me!

Team Offsite Dinner

Soum telling us a funny story

Nicolette, Me and Divya

Anna and Sirisha

Ordering more food

Last night we went to a team offsite dinner at the Waterfront. It's a beautiful restaurant situated along the water on Necklace Road (where I ran the half marathon Sunday.) It was a mix of Thai, Indian and Chinese food ... most of it was surprisingly NOT spicy. We had a good time, the team is fun!

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Hyderabad Half Marathon!

If you look closely it says "Mr. Charise"

Pretty cool T-shirt for registering

Today I ran the Hyderabad Half Marathon, 2:00hrs flat. It was a fun race, started at 6:00am, beginning at Necklace road to Charminar and back. There were no timing chips or offical clocks so I went based on my own stopwatch. Only 15 women ran the half along with about 300 guys, and an estimated 10,000 ran the 10k. A lot of people were running barefoot, in trousers, sandals, socks, jeans, not sure why or how they did it! I got a certificate of acheivement and a medal. I wish my support group from home was there to cheer me on, it would have been nice to see friendly faces at the finish line. I didn't get any pictures of myself running but there were a lot taken during the race. Hopefully I'll appear front page of the Hindu Times :)

Here's the map for the Half Marathon loop

Saree Shopping

Aren't these fabrics goregous?

Today Suzie and I went shopping for saree's to wear to the holiday party this coming Friday. We should have brought a local with us, but luckily there were many women in the store buying sarees who gave us advice. There were so many beautiful fabrics to choose from (cotton, silk, polyesther, linen) -- I ended up picking a goregous black silk saree with red and gold flowers. We also had our blouses made at a nearby tailor, we'll pick them up this week to try the entire ensemble on. Saree's are hard to wear, imagine wrapping one long piece of fabric around and around to make this wrap style dress. We'll definitely need some help from our housekeepers to get dressed Friday night. I can't wait to see the entire outfit put together :)

(The night before having dinner at Okra, restaurant in the Marriott)

Maybe I Shouldn't Be Vegetarian?

So I was reading this article on an Indian website about vegetarianism thinking it would tell me reasons why I should stay veg. However, it included a study done by Dr. L.C.Gupta, one of the world's most prolific medical authors, who presents information regarding the social aspects of vegetarianism. He found in a study of 1000 criminals with 500 Veg/500 Non Veg:

Social Behaviour	Non Vegetarian	Vegetarian
Alcohol	172	44
Smoking	106	38
Narcotics	32	6
Theft	42	18
Sex offense	43	11
Murder	18	4

The study shows that criminals are generally vegetarian!! Pretty funny stuff, haha. Maybe I should reconsider eating meat again???

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey Dinner!Drawing courtesy of my roomate Suzie

Cute baby!

Everyone watching Roy slice the turkey

All the expats headed over to the Gilbert's for Thanksgiving dinner. They got a HUGE turkey, also served pumpkin soup, stuffing, delicous gravies... and apple and pumpkin pie! Before dinner we all gave thanks to having this opportunity to work in India, having great people to work with and for our families and friends back home. After stuffing face, Leigh Anne had a Thanksgiving quiz (which we all failed.) Did you know that the first Thanksgiving feast was 3 days long? Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Hospital

Where we picked up our medicine (a local pharmacy located on the main road. There were no actual Chemists or Druggists there!)

Yesterday I went to the hospital for a cough and earache (I'm ok, just wanted to get it checked out.) The hospital was an all afternoon excursion. First they wanted to send me to a female doctor but I told them I didn't need to see one. We proceeded to the ER where a surgeon told an attendant to take us to an ENT (ear, neck, throat) specialist. This attendant didn't know where he was going, took us all over the hospital. Finally, we saw Dr. Rao, who prescribed me some antibiotics and cough syrup. Total cost for the consult and doctor visit was 200Rs ($4USD). After I went to the pharmacy to pick up my medication and I wasn't even asked for a prescription! The whole process took over 4 hours, it sure was fun to experience. Gotta love India :)

Only in India (7)

Only in India will there be signs like these...
Thanks Mahin for taking these pictures at KBR Park (where I do my morning runs.)

You can't laugh? Clap? Make noise in a public park?

This is my favorite: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness"

Only in India (6)

Only in India will you see a DHL truck locked with a plastic tie!

Bangalore Auto Rickshaw Ride

Auto rickshaw adventure part two in Bangalore! Fun, fun times ladies :)

The People of Bangalore

Some people shots in Bangalore!

Acrobats on the sidewalk

Our rickshaw drivers

Street vendors

Hanging out at the airport

Bangalore (Bengalūru)

Getting ready for a day of shopping!

Mahin, Jeff, Stacy, Anna and I headed to Bangalore this past weekend for another quick 2 day trip. Bangalore is the first city to have electricity in India, and is the most developed. It's a hub for big technology and computer hardware firms; their presence was well known throughout the city, all the billboards and street signs advertise the big tech players there (esp. Yahoo!) For more info, Click Here.

It was much more developed and civilized than my last weekend trip to Varanasi, which was nice. We aplanned to just shop and enjoy some good food and that's what we did!

We stayed at The Park Hotel, situated in central Bangalore. Shopped around the entire day at Geruda mall and Commerical street; I bought some flip flops, a dress, Anna got some fun shirts and converse shoes in red, Stacy bought a super cute floral top, and Mahin went all out on Indian attire! Stacy also got suckered into buying a map from a street vendor -- she bargained him down from 500Rs to 100Rs (~$1USD), what a great deal!! That night we had dinner at Sunny's, recommended by a friend at work. It was delicious :)

Stacy bargining for an India map

Me and Anna trying on nighty's at 'Her Choice Nighty Shop'

Delicious dinner at Sunny's

The highlight of the trip was Jeff driving an auto rickshaw to dinner. He asked our driver if he could drive and he (surprisingly) said yes! Jeff did pretty well, I wouldn't be able to tell if it were an Indian driving or him!

Yes, Jeff is driving a rickshaw!

... and I'm pretending to :)

Sunday we headed to National market to pick up some "discounted" DVDs. I also bought a fake book off a street vendor, the book cover and pages are all photocopies. What can you expect for $1USD right? After the market we went to The Leela hotel for Sunday Champagne brunch. The Leela is a 6star hotel; it felt like we were in Maui!

Our flight home was delayed (what a surprise) but not too too bad, we didn't have to play charades to kill time. I really liked Bangalore, its a nice getaway and a fun place to hang out and shop. Next time I go to Bangalore I will visit Mysore and do more sightseeing, and also find a good place for sushi :)

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First Annual India Sales Conference

Anna, Me & Karen at the conference

Me and Veera, my first India buddy

Me and Stacy

Having dinner while watching Idol

Friday we attended the First Annual India Sales Conference. Top executives from Mountain View came to speak to the India team. It was great for the team to hear about the company from a high level perspective. The team from Delhi flew down for the event (Durand, Karen, Ritesh, Thomas.) At lunch we had a Doodle contest, each team had to decorate a plain canvas with an Indian or American holiday theme. Some teams had great doodles! That evening we had Indian Idol and Club G Bollywood. This group named Euphoria performed, which I hear is as popular as Backstreet Boys back home!

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Only in India (5)

A big group went to see the Harlem Globetrotters last night (yes! they were in India) but I couldn't make it. Anna took this picture "VVIP Entry" -- Very VERY Important People? Only in India right? :)

Weekend Update: Bangalore

This weekend instead of going to Hampi we are headed to Bangalore. There are a lot of technology and computer software companies in Bangalore, making it the first 'Silicon Valley' of India. We'll shop, eat, visit gardens and museums during this short 2 day trip.

The People of Varanasi

Some photos of the people of Varanasi!

Barber shop on the street

This is my favorite photo from the trip

Varanasi

Welcome to Varanasi and the Ganga River (considered the
"Life Line of Indian Culture")

11 of us headed for Varanasi this weekend -- Our plan was to make a quick 24 hour trip to see the city and the Ganga river. We were to fly from HYD to Delhi at 6am, then DEL to VAR around 11am. We were all extremely tired from waking up so early that we passed out on our flight from DEL to VAR. The plane landed an hour later and to our surprise, we woke up to find out that our plane had turned around and gone back to DEL due to faulty wings! After waiting for an hour on the plane they finally switched us to another plane and flew us to VAR. We didn't make it to VAR til 4:30, and by the time we got to the hotel it was dusk. Starving, we ate at the restaurant hotel which was super good, I had Mediterranean food which was a nice change from Indian! After dinner we took a short walk along the Ganga river. It was pitch black so we relied on our night vision to find our way.

Feasting after a long day of travel

First human rickshaw ride!

We saw some interesting things that night, including the cremation of a few bodies - bones and all. It was a remarkable sight, very sad but also disturbing. Later we took our first human rickshaw rides back to the hotel for only 10Rs = $0.20USD! (check my photos for video.)

In the morning we woke up at dawn for a boat ride up and down the river. We lit candles and sent them off down the river to pay respect to the deceased. The morning time is when many Hindus bathe, brush their teeth, wash clothes, pray and begin their day in the Ganga. These images I'll remember for the rest of my life. We stopped by a few Ghats, including the Manikarnika Ghat which is the main cremation Ghat. A few people initially wanted to dip their feet in the Ganga but all chickened out after seeing firsthand what actually went into the river... except Mahin who took a full dive in! Many props to her :)

Alysia, Tanja and I - Lighting candles to send along the river

Burial site at Manikarnika Ghat

Bathing with mud?

More bathing and praying...

So this is how they dry my clothes...

I had to include this picture of Chinese tourists. Look at all their cameras!

After breakfast I got an Ayurvedic massage, another 'experience' to say the least but something I had to try once in India. Ayurvedic is a form of alternative medicine that helps build you spiritually, physically and mentally. The massage I signed up to take was designed to cleanse the body, reduce stress, improve circulation and lose weight! It uses oil all over the body including the hair (I opted not to have oil in my hair.) It was more of a rub than a massage and didn't get all my kinks out, but still relaxing -- can't really complain it was only $10USD!

Flight home was delayed 5 hours (what a surprise) so we played Charades to kill time. There were some tough books and movies to act out, Sonia had to act out 'Ballistic Ecks versus Sever' -- you can imagine the tough time she had!

I think in total we waited and traveled for 22 hours, vacationed for only 17 (7 of which we slept.) It was fun and life changing trip, I'm glad I went but I wouldn't do it again.

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*** Ganga River Information:
The Ganga river is a sacred river which holds an important place in the Hindu religion. Hindus believe that bathing in the river helps to forgive sins and provides spiritual cleansing. They also burn bodies and place the ashes in the river because it is believed the ashes are sent to heaven. It is said that Hindus must bathe in the Ganga once in their lives for spiritual cleansing and that drinking the water is said to help purify the soul. For more info, click here.

Urban Yoga

I've picked up yoga here in India! Tried it a few weeks ago and started to going to more classes this week. The yoga lady started offering night classes to accommodate us so we've been able to go after work. It's a nice night-cap, gets me into sleepy mode quickly :) It seems to be working and I like it, I feel more flexible (and SORE!)

Hyderabad 10K and Half Marathon

On November 26 Hyderabad is hosting a 10K and Half Marathon Run! I hope I'll be around to race, I want to complete a race here in India before I leave. Not sure how they will find space to run as there aren't many main roads or paths so it will definitely be an interesting sight to see. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures if I do it!

Race website: http://www.hyderabad10k.com/

Paan at Angeethi

Tuesday night we went to this restaurant called Angeethi for Matt's farewell dinner. There were over 30 people there, from Dublin, MV and Australia offices. Angeethi is a north Indian restaurant specializing in Punjabi and tandoori dishes (aka HOT and SPICY.) The restaurant had a rual ambience complete with posters and carpets on the walls, accompanied with 5 star service, a real Hyderabad treat! This was my second Indian feast in one week, I was up for the challenge...

Ready to feast

We ordered a lot of food for the whole table, I made sure that some of the dishes were vegetarian. First appetizer was this dish called Papdi Chaat which was actually pretty good (at first.) It was crunchy, tangy, sweet -- it reminded me of crunchy Chinese chow mein. I thought I had found an Indian dish I really liked, but 5 seconds later my mouth was on FIRE! The Indian kick...so unexpected. All the other dishes were super spicy, I didn't eat much of it because I was trying to avoid an upset stomach. There was this great dish called corn methi malai, it was sweet corn mixed with yogurt and cheese, but again I had to be careful of the dairy.

As an Angeethi first timer Matt told us we had to try Indian Paan. Paan is an ethnic Indian chew served as dessert and believed to help with digestion. It's made with Betel leaf, rose petals, some other weird leaves and honey. For more info, Click Here. Needless to say, it wasn't the best dessert (actually kinda gross) but I toughed it out and ate it for the team and to my surprise, I didn't have an upset stomach in the morning! It was definitely an experience I'll remember.

Making the paan

I tried hard to swallow it without actually having to taste it!

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Election Day

I hope you're all doing your civic duty and VOTING! For information about the races going on across the country turn on the 2006 Election Guide overlay in Google Earth/Maps. There you'll find voter information for both California and the entire country.

Funny Conversation with Driver

Today I was chatting with one of our drivers, Niranjan, about traffic in India. I assumed that people here accepted the traffic situation and believed it was 'normal.' I was wrong! Niranjan was telling me how annoying it is that no one follows traffic rules, and how irritated he gets when people zig zag in and out of traffic. He asked if people did that in the States and I told him yes, but the situation isn't as bad because police enforce stricter traffic violations and issue tickets. Apparently there are cops here but they don't do anything when people break driving rules.

Only in India (4)

Only in India will you find a sign that tells you what temperature the chicken is cooked at...

First Indian Meal

Well I finally had my first Indian meal at a real deal Indian restaurant. It's called Koyla, on the higher end side. I tried to find things as plain as possible and avoid anything spicy (in order to protect my mouth and my stomach.) It was a valiant effort, I found the tomato soup (above) which was surprisingly really sweet and the plain naan to be my best bets. Everything else had the Indian spice and burned my tongue. I think that's all the adventure I'll have with Indian food for a couple weeks ~

Upcoming Trips

More vacation plans in the upcoming weeks...

The Ganges River

1) Varanasi - a big group is headed to Varanasi this coming weekend. What's there? The Ganges River. It's the river of Northern India and Bangladesh. The river has a long history of reverence in India and is worshipped byHindus as a goddess, often called the "Holy River." It's said to be cleansing in more ways than imaginable. Some have dared to jump in (ie. Schweitz) but I think I'll just watch from afar (not sure what kind of bacteria/living/dead things are floating around.) For more info, Click Here.

Ruins of Hampi

2) Hampi - located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, we're headed here in a few weeks. It will be a 12 hour train ride to get there, 12 hours to get home. Hampi is a place for motor scootering, shopping and temples. Apparently what I'll see will be worth the journey. For more info, Click Here.

The Taj Mahal

3) The "Golden Triangle" (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur) - Taking a trip to see the Taj Mahal (in Agra), Delhi and Jaipur. The cities are within a 5 hour driving distance of each other. Here's some touristy info on the triange, Click Here.

First Massage in India

This weekend I stayed low-key in Hyderabad taking care of a bad cough. To lift my spirits I treated myself to a massage at Latitudes Spa, same facility I have a gym membership to. It was a nice massage, however nothing compared to the massages I'd get from Kathryn back home (yes I miss you Kathryn!) I got the signature massage (full body deep relaxation massage) and instead of lotion she used olive oil which was new. It was the first time I received a head massage as part of the package, I felt like she was washing my hair! After the massage she led me to a steam room for 10 minutes and that really helped open my pores. I finished my pampering with a honey and ginger tea. Total cost was around $35USD including tip, which is much cheaper than spa massages back home. Next time I'm going to try the Thai massage which my roomate Suzie raves about, she's had it twice and claims its the best massage she's ever had!

Battling on the Dance Floor

The little boy in this video started battling an older girl during a dance performance at Rainbow Primary School (in a slum neighborhood in Hyderabad, India.) It was ADORABLE!

Rainbow Primary School

Saturday morning a group of us went to volunteer at a local slum neighborhood primary school started by Leigh Anne Gilbert, wife of Roy who heads the Google office here in Hyderabad. Ismail, a friend of Google and the man who organizes all our rides, drove us there and showed us around. Upon entering the school there was a chalkboard hanging that took attendance for all the students. As we go in we are welcomed with swarms of children, shaking our hands and saying hello. It was fun being around the kids and seeing that they were spending their Saturday mornings learning rather than playing or begging on the streets. Headmistress Madam Usha told us that these children were very smart for their ages; they grab onto the resources and materials around them because they aren't given much else.

We said hello to all the classes, ranging from preschool to level 5. One of the preschoolers sang the "Hokey Pokey" for us, it was adorable. Ismail brought boxes of cookies for us to distribute -- the children performed a clapping song to thank us for bringing them the treat. All of the children loved the camera, they kept getting up from their schoolwork to get on film.

Waving "hi" to the camera

After cookies were distributed some of the children performed dances to music played off a boombox. Most of the dancers were older children, although one young girl blew us off our seats! She came onto the dancefloor really shy, but started getting into the song once the music started. We had a blast watching these kids dance and have fun, we were saying they should go on Dancing With The Stars! I'm posting a video of the dancing in my next post.

Getting her groove on!

That's us and the teachers

Holding little cards that said "Stop, children are walking"


I really liked Madam Usha because she reminded me of my grandpa. She kept pinching my cheeks just like my pa-pa :)

It was a very humbling experience, I look forward to helping out more on my weekends here in Hyderabad. I spoke with Madam Usha a few days before I went to the school, she told me that she would like to help get ALL the begging children off the street and provide them education. It's tough because the government doesn't support public schooling as they do private, so many low income children have no option but to beg. Thanks to Leigh Anne and Google, Rainbow Primary School was founded, providing education to over 250 slum neighborhood students. To learn more about the school, Click Here.

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The People of South Africa

Washing clothes on a hot day

Having Fun

The pasteur at Soweto's largest church

School Girls

Here are some pictures of the people of South Africa, hope you like them!

Soweto babies

Cute little boys we saw in a local shanty when touring around Soweto, Johannesburg. They loved the camera!

South Africa: Johannesburg

Kids playing at a neighborhood water pipe in Soweto

More kids at a shanty in Soweto, they want to be pilots when they grow up

Inside Nelson Mandela's living room (in the house he lived at before he went to prison.)

My favorite picture of two little boys running around the shanty in Soweto. They loved the camera! (Check next post for a video)

The South African flag inside the apartheid museum

Palm reading at Moyo restaurant. She said I need to be more adventurous and take risks.

We got our faces painted too!

Trying on fun clothes and hats at the African Market in Jo'Burg

That's me in there, getting swarmed by a crowd of school kids outside the apartheid museum. I tell ya, kids love to have their pictures taken!

Entering Soweto ("SOuth WEst TOwnship")

Thursday we arrive to Johannesburg. We didn't have high expectations because everyone we met in Capetown warned us that it wasn't a nice place to visit and that it was really dangerous., but we weren't going to let their comments get the best of us.

We arrived at The Grace Hotel located in Rosebank, Jo'Burg. It was a beautiful, sophisticated hotel with artwork of all kinds hanging on every wall. After we unpacked, we shopped at Rosebank mall (which was right next to the hotel) and watched an African indy movie 'Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon.' The film takes place in Johannesburg around the story of a man who searches for a Somalian refugee he met one day at the park. The tells him of her escape from Somalia to South Africa. In his search to find her again, he meets exiles that have fled into South Africa, talking to them about their experiences of xenophobia, racism and economic hardship. It was a touching movie although extremely slow in pace. For movie info, click here. That night we ate at Moyo, a modern African restaurant. It was a festive place -- waiters dressed in traditional African wear, live bands playing African tunes. We had our palms read and faces painted during dinner! I had a really good seared tuna and hot chocolate.

Friday I ran around Jo'Burg, it was really beautiful because the streets are surrounded with purple flower trees (they looked like cherry blossom trees.) My shoes have sure made their way, SF, India and now Africa! After breakfast we went to the Apartheid museum. It was a great lesson in SA history, it made me appreciate the people I've met and the country a lot more having endured apartheid and the effects of racism. To get a deeper understanding for these events, we decided to visit the township Soweto. Soweto is "SOuth WEst TOwnship," where blacks were moved during the apartheid era to work and live. It was the most important township because it was the place where black youths and students rebelled against the Govt during the famous Soweto Riots. There is a lot of history in this township and it was very moving, please take time to read more about it and click here. In Soweto we saw the house where Nelson Mandela lived before he went to prison, and visited the Soweto museum which detailed the events of the riots.

The landscape of SA - of the people and its culture - is truly shaped by the effects of apartheid and segregation. Every single person we met in Jo'Burg knew so much about their history. I felt a strong sense of pride from all of them, it was really admirable and inspiring.

When we arrived back at the hotel, we saw F.W. de Klerk in our hotel lobby! He was president of SA when Nelson Mandela was in prison. He and Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end apartheid. I wanted to get a picture of him but he had left before I could grab my camera. Instead, Anna and I took a picture of where he was sitting, haha. That night it stormed so we ate at a closeby seafood restaurant. It was probably my favorite meal of the trip because I had sushi! The next morning we headed back to India. It was an educational, adventurous and extremely fun trip, you all MUST go someday! A great time would be for the World Cup in 2010 -- the country is already preparing for it with new stadiums, hotels, shopping malls :)

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Wine Tasting in Cape Town

Here we are singing "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers. What a fun time!

Singing Boys

These were the boys singing at Lion's Craft Market in Hout Bay. They were adorable and GOOD! It was their first music video.

South Africa: Safari at Aquila

The male giraffe

Hippos! They come out in the evenings and stay in the water during the day.

Look at the Rhino's lips, they're so big!

I'm feeding oranges to the elephants

Female Lion

That's me hanging off the "Destroyer"

Male lion yawning, he was so cute!

The cheetahs were adorable, we got to pet them

Anna, Me, Stacy on game drive 2

His name is Mafu

After Capetown we headed to Aquila for a 3 day safari. It was about a 3 hour drive north from Capetown. The day we arrived it was super hot, almost in the 90s! We had a gourmet breakfast and had all day to kill before our first evening game ride. We laid by the pool and read although we weren't really prepared to have so much down time, we thought it would be Go-Go-Go. It was nice to get some relaxing in (and tanning!) Our accommodations were like little cabins in the woods, situated right next to a swamp. It had an outdoor shower (which I never used) and a sit-in bathtub. There were a lot of UKers with big familes there, they were fun people to chat with.

Our first game drive took off at 5pm -- I saw hippos, stingboks, zebras, wildabeests, ostriches, lions, giraffes, rhinos (check out my pictures!) My favorite were the LIONS, they were sooo cute and we got close to them, in our safari cars of course. The lions were separated in two sections, in the main area there were 3 female lions and 1 male. They caged off the cubs in another part, 1 male cub and 2 female cubs, because they weren't ready to be released into an open space. Romeo, our ranger, mentioned that lions only need to eat once a week, but for cubs they need to be fed more often. If kept together, the cubs would starve. Romeo also told us that his favorite animal was the horse and that he wanted to be a Jockey someday.

To give you a visual image of what the Reserve looked like, it's a big open area where animals roam around, living naturally and feeding on other animals and vegetation. Aquila has some animals of their own, such as cheetah cubs, crocodiles, baby elephant and caracal cats that they help raise and later release into the wild. Each day we'd go on a drive throughout the reserve to see the animals on their Reserve.

Our second game drive, 6am Tuesday morning, we saw the same animals but the treat of this drive was feeding the baby elephants!! Their names: Mafu and Manu. Elephants eat fruits, vegetables, bark, rocks -- they're digestive systems are unreal. It was really fun to watch them slurp the oranges right out of our hands (in my album you can see us feeding the elephants.) We were told that once the elephants got older they'd let them roam the Reserve. That night we had another game drive and saw the hippos again, this time the baby was out! Romeo made a joke when we saw one of the hippos dipping in the water. He claimed that the hippo was making a chuckling noise and Romeo said it was laughing because he was peeing in the water, haha!

The meals were the same each night, not bad but tasted all the same after a while. We joked that it felt like Groundhog's Day because we did essentially did the same thing everyday for 3 days (game drive, layout, game drive, eat) and sat at the same dinner table each night, listening to the same CD over and over again. Fun times :)

SA is a prime destination for UKers especially with the attrativeness of safaris. Not many Americans travel here though because it's so far from the States. You would have to fly to the east coast then fly to either Europe or Nothern Africa to refuel, then head south. I feel like it would take about 20-25 hours to get there. For Europeans however, it is a straight shot down.

Wednesday morning we had our final morning game drive and headed back to Capetown and Alta Bay for a night. It was nice to be back at the hotel we so loved. I loved it so much I didn't want to leave, I even came to breakfast in my robe and slippers! That night we had dinner at a cute Italian restaurant, I had salmon and a yummy salad. Delicious! Thursday morning we arrived to Johannesburg, SA's biggest city.

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South Africa: Capetown

African artwork

Buying handicrafts and jewelry at Hout Bay, Capetown

The girls at Alta Bay (*tear* we miss this place)

Two boys singing an African tune (check my other blog entry for a video)

Stretching (drunk) with a statue at Seidelberg Winery

Me on top of Table Mountain

Finally getting fresh Tuna (at Cafe Royal on Long Street)

The crew at Simonsig Winery

Anna, Me, Stacy and Joel overlooking Cape of Good Hope

Penguins at Boulders Bay, SO CUTE!

We left for South Africa ("SA") on Thursday, had a flight to Mumbai with a 7 hour layover; we killed time shopping at Phoenix Mill mall and had dinner at the Spaghetti factory. Found a super cute store to spend the last of my rupees. Flew South African Airways to Johannesburg (Jo'Burg) at 2am. It kinda freaked us out because they sprayed lysol at the beginning of the plane -- hopefully it wasn't because we smelled, haha. SAA provided us with free socks and eyemasks and we used them to knock out for the 9 hour flight. The Jo'Burg airport is really nice, big and open and filled with travelers from all over. There we took a connecting flight to Capetown and we all instantly fell in love.

Capetown is BEAUTIFUL! Absolutely gorgeous all over. I told Anna, Stacy and Joel that I had imagined SA to have lots of white buildings and green trees and I was right! I felt like I walked into a movie set; the city felt clean and the air was crisp. We made our way first to Alta Bay, a boutique guest house on the top of a hill that overlooked the Capetown coast. The management team was so friendly upon our arrival: Jacco (pronounced Yacco), Ariel and Ms. Viona. It was funny because intially Stacy pronounced Jacco "Jack-o" and we kept laughing about it the entire trip.

After settling in we headed down to Long Street, a vintage street in central Capetown housing a bunch of restaurants and shops. We had lunch at Cafe Royal where Anna, Joel and Stacy enjoyed their first beef burger since who knows how long (remember beef is forbidden in India because the cow is considered holy.) I had tuna which is also rare in India. After lunch we went to the famous Table Mountain which overlooks the entire city, truly amazing. The pictures we took up there looked unreal! We kept joking that it looked like a Sears photo shoot :) For more info on Table Mountain click here.

From Table Mountain we headed to the Waterfront (area alongside the water with posh restaurants and shops.) We ate at Belthazar which is acclaimed to have the best steak and seafood in town. Our waiter did well upselling us on the food, he had the funniest game show host voice, we were cracking up inside. Back at the night we were closing down for bed (all of us super exhausted from the long day) and the water pipe burst in our room! I was trying to hold the pipe in to prevent the water from spraying everywhere and I got SOAKED! Anna and I called Jacco and he moved us immediately to the Loft Suite. Not a bad trade, it was a funny experience getting there.

Saturday morning Stacy and I ran to a reservoir. Remember I told you that Alta Bay was on a hill, well that hill was a steep one. Going to the reservoir was easy because it was downhill but heading up it was like climbing "Mt. Never-Rest!" Our calves hurt for 3 days! After the run we went on a wine tour. We were accompanied by our tour guide, Fluis, and 5 backpackers from the UK and Dublin. They were all world class travelers, starting in Africa and making their way across Asia and Australia. We had a lot of fun, went to 4 different wineries -- Durbanville Hills, a Company of Wine People, Simonsig and Seidelberg. Between each winery we drank bottles in the car and sang to The Killers "Mr. Brightside." You can see the fun we had in my pictures :) We had our first sighting of wild animals on the tour: ostriches and zebras. Funny story -- one of the backpackers, Steve, showed us a video of him in a shark cage. In haste, Joel said he would rather eat Paneer (some awful tasting cheese in India) than swim with sharks. I learned some cool things from the backpackers, like what a "shandy" is (7up mixed with lager or beer.) It's great meeting people from all over, you learn so much about how people from different places think and see the world.

For dinner we ate at the Africa Cafe, where we had family style African food. The menu was painted on a vase, including delicacies like coconut fish, spicy chicken, carrot relish, pumpkin dumplings and much more! The staff also entertained us with singing and dancing. We all felt like we finally got our feet wet in African culture.

Sunday we went on a full day tour of Capetown. Lead by our tour guide, Ian, we first went to Hout Bay where Joel, Stacy and Anna first took a ferry to see sea otters. I stayed behind to shop b/c I didn't want to get sea sick. Bought a beautiful painting from a local and some other traditional handicrafts. After we had fish and chips at a popular restaurant on the warf of Hout Bay which felt very Pier 39-ish. After we drove down to Boulders Bay to see penguins! I was literally 3 inches away from some of the penguins. They're super cute and I love the way they waddle. After Boulders we went to Cape of Good Hope where we stood at the most south-western point on the African continent. We saw some baboons there, and Ian told us that baboons can be really aggressive. He was telling us that one time he saw two baboons mating in the back of someone's car and they wouldn't get out! Another time he saw a baboon steal a Coke can from a tourist and opened it. Monkeys sure are smart!

Had dinner at Balducci's where I tickled my taste buds with seared tuna and sashimi salad. It was a nice way to end our trip in Capetown.

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Fun South Africa Facts:
- Population: 45 million
- 11 major languages, English and Africaans are the most popular
- Major producers of gold, diamonds, platinum
- Apartheid: 1948-1986

Off to Africa!

We're leaving today for South Africa!! I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures and meet some animals and cricket players. I'm really excited about the animals but I'll be sure to keep my distance. I was told not to get close to hippos so I'll be extremely careful around them (apparently they're really aggressive and vicious.) Capetown, Safari, Johannesburg...here I come!

Only in India (3)

Only in India will you find two people sleeping on top of the trunk of a car (and spooning!)

The People of Mumbai

Not people, but I had to include this picture -- They're holding hands, awww!

Cute boy dipping his finger in pudding

A mother and her child at a stoplight

A group of men hanging out

An old man passing out offerings for Diwali

The cowboy and his friend asked us to take pictures, I think they thought we were movie stars!

Two affectionate boys frollicking at the Gateway of India

Cute boy who wanted me to take his picture (I showed it to him after and he ran away giggling)

Small child asking for change at another stoplight

Here are some more "people" shots of folks in Mumbai. Enjoy!

Mumbai (Bombay)

The Gateway of India

Louis Vuitton at the Taj (Open Open Open!)

Cabbing our way to the shops

The crew at Insomnia (Club at the Taj)

Stacy, Anna, Me at the Dome (Lounge on top of our hotel)

Cute girl posing for the camera

Me and Anna at the Gateway of India

Mumbai was SUPER fun! A short weekend packed with lots of activities, shopping and good eats. Friday night 12 of us headed to HYD airport and flew to Mumbai via SpiceJet. Not the most luxurious plane ride, but they did have some cookies to tie us over. Anna said she saw hair all over the bathroom in the plane, gross! At the Mumbai airport, we had to take cabs to the hotel. It's tricky getting around in cabs because a lot of times they rip you off and they don't speak English. You have to make sure you ask for the meter to be ON, and for a rate card to check your tab at the end of the trip. The cab ride on the way home and it was the scariest cab ride ever. The little car was going so fast I thought the car was going to break! We made it to the hotel in one piece, but you can tell from the pictures that we were literally blown away.

We stayed at Intercontinental Hotel Marine Drive, a chain of classy hotels worldwide. Here is a link to the hotel: click here. It was nice going into a luxury hotel after the experience in the cab. Saturday morning we walked to a Tea Centre that had a wide variety of aromatic teas with brunch. I ate eggs (because that was all they really had.) Walking outside was definitely a treat, since we don't get to do much of it in HYD. After that the group headed to the Gateway of India. The Gateway is the first thing boaters see as they come in through water, such a beautiful monument. Everyone headed to the Elephanta Islands to view caves but I stayed back because it was an hour ferry ride there and back (I didn't want to risk getting boat sick, especially on those bum boats.) So I stayed back and shopped on Colaba Drive. There were rows and rows of street vendors selling jewelry, handbags and crafts. They even had a Lacoste store (which was totally legit!) I got everyone hooked on the store and picked up a few things :) There is a pattern in all my trips: good food, shopping, nice hotels. Can't really complain!

After everyone came back we showered at the hotel and had dinner at this restaurant called Indigo. It's ranked in the top 60 worldwide and we all attested to that! There, we tickled our tongues with lobster bisque, steak, tuna and more! A savory feast we all will remember til we get back to the States, very similar to some of the best restaurants in SF. After face stuffing, we headed to this club called Insomnia at the Taj Mahal hotel (The Taj is a chain of 5+ star restaurants across India.) On the way to Insomnia we walked by many designer stores including Louis Vuitton!! How I wish I could have gone in. Insomnia had your typical club ambiance, no famous people but Anna met some Austrailian cricket players. Indians LOVE trance music, they played it all night but nothing I cared to get up and dance to.

Sunday I got the chance to work out and lay by the pool while Stacy and Anna enjoyed a complimentary half hour massage in our hotel room. We all had brunch at the Taj which was delicious! I tell you, I never thought I would be having real, GOOD food in India. They had fresh fruit, fish, oysters and champagne! They also brought out these Dosas that taste like pancakes and are shaped like a cone (there is a picture in my album.) After brunch I'm sure you can guess what we did? SHOP AGAIN! There was this place Matt raved about called Clothes Rack which apparently had stacks and stacks of designer clothes. We searched and searched finally found it although it wasn't all that I imagined it would be. You have to be in a certain mood to look through piles, and I was too hot and sweaty to do that. After Clothes Rack however, we headed back to Colaba Drive (where I shopped on Saturday) for an hour and then made our way back to HYD.

Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan area in India, I heard that real estate along the main coast is similar to Manhattan, NY. It's the city of Bollywood so lots of famous people always trickle in and out. We had the pleasure of meeting some Australian cricket players and saw the South African team at the Taj when we were eating brunch. Mumbai is a BIG city -- there is a huge disparity between rich and poor and much more pollution in the air, but on the upside it's developed and lively. I would love to go back, but this time land a role in a Bollywood movie :)

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Elevators

I still get confused and lost in the elevators around here. As you can see in this picture, there are NEGATIVE floors! At first sight you may guess that floor 0 is the ground floor and all the negative numbers indicate garage floors below. Not the case. In this elevator, floor -2 is the ground floor! The hard part about all of this is that the numbering is not consistent across all elevators. In my apartment building, floor 0 is the ground floor. At a restaurant I was at a couple weekends ago, floor -1 was the ground floor. I'm still trying to understand the logic behind this...

First Rickshaw Ride in India

Our first Rickshaw ride in Pondicherry!!! Stacy brought her video camera, yay :)

First Outside Run

This morning I had my first outside run. There is this park called KBR National Park which is about 5km away from my apartment. Most national parks do not allow visitors so I feel lucky to run in and around it. Inside is a beautiful jungle/forest area but I didn't go inside. Circling the park is a walk/runway area. According to my driver he said it was a 10km loop, which is basically 6.2 miles. I didn't run the whole thing (I know I'm getting weak) but it was a super good workout! There were stairs and hills; I'm sure feeling the burn in my legs today. A lot of people were up early walking and running, and a handful were wearing authentic Indian wear like saris and kurtas. Some were even barefoot and this one guy smoked me in slippers. I don't know how they do it! For info on KBR National Park click here.

Fabindia

Indian Sari

Black kurta and long wrap skirt from Fabindia

Okay, so I've been shopping. And I've been buying some Indian wear, but its cute, I promise! There is this place called Fabindia where a lot of coworkers and expats shop for authentic Indian wear. What is Indian wear? Women wear saris everywhere: to work, to eat, to shop, to work out. It is a long piece of beautiful fabric that circles around the waist and loops back around the shoulder. Saris can be worn in many different ways depending on personal or traditional style. I may buy one to wear to the Holiday party or if I'm invited to a wedding, haha! Women (and men) also wear kurtas which is like a long dress/tunic, over matching pants. The style is similar to leggings and dresses although its much more simple with little stitching involved. Basic cotton is popular to endure the heat that prevails all year long. At Fabindia I bought a black kurta, two long skirts and some pants!

The People

A man and his horse

A boy on the streets of Pondicherry

A group of dancers in Shilaparamam

Family Portrait in Pondicherry

The people of India, each individually representing their cultures and traditions from different parts of the country. Here are some images...

Only in India (2)

Only in India do you see jeans being sold out of the back of a hatchback

The law says that you must wear helmets when riding on a motorcycle or scooter. 99% of the population don't, just like this guy.

Traffic Jam in Central Hyderabad. Yes this is real.

This weekend I hung out in Hyderabad, which was nice since I went on vacation last week and will be traveling a lot this month. I had dinner at this place called Exotica on Friday night, they served Chinese and Indian food. I found out again that you can never avoid spicy food in India, even if you explicitly ask for it to be non-spicy. You have to learn that everything is spicy, regardless of the menu description. All of us were trying to cool off our mouths with beer and plain naan (which is like plain bread.)

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Saturday I went to Yoga with Stacy and Anna. It's fun doing yoga in the country it originated from. We then ventured off on a huge shopping spree, picked up some cute gifts and things for my room. We also visited a pearl shop and bought some earrings; Hyderabad is known for its pearls so they have a wide selection all around town. On the way to different places, I captured more "Only in India" sightings. Check out the pictures above.

Vacation Plans

I'm really excited because I have big vacation plans for the next couple weekends!

1. Mumbai (Bombay) -- The most popular city of India with a population of 13 million. It's the commercial and entertainment capital of the world, inhabiting most Bollywood (Hindi film and movie industry) stars. For more info Click Here. We're heading here this coming weekend!

2. South Africa -- We're heading to Capetown for a few nights, then going on a Safari for another couple nights. I'm really excited to see the animals and experience the culture in Africa.

Looking forward to sharing with you the experiences :)

Half Hour Time Zone Difference

Right now its 12:15pm (Friday) in India and 11:45pm (Thurs) in the States. My dad asked me to find out why India and a few select countries are on a "special" half hour tme zone that deviates from the standard 1 hour difference. I read that while time zones are based on lines of longitude, some lines are drawn to avoid populated areas or to follow borders. Some countries don't want to be divided into several zones, India included (For more info click here.) It makes sense I guess, India is too big to divide itself into two time zones. It still makes it hard to figure out what time it is back home!

"Only in India"

This was the veggie burger I mentioned earlier. Its just fried potato curry on a bun!

Cows on the street

It's become a common saying among the Expats here to speak of an experience or sighting as something "Only in India." Above are some interesting things I've seen.

Food or Gravy?

It's interesting the concept of gravy here in India. A lot of Indian dishes are made with vegetables and meat that floats in rich, flavorful (and often spicy) sauces and gravies. Funny thing is their concept of gravy is passed along into other types of food. On Monday night we ate at this restaurant called Far East, it was a posh Chinese restaurant located about 15km from our apt. The menu was extravagant, lots of different Asian dishes that you would expect to see on any Chinese menu. Looked safe - safe as in non Indian - to me. However when the food arrived it wasn't the same style of Chinese food we're all use to, you know the kind with light sauce and dressing that glazes on the vegetables and chicken. The food came in buckets of gravy and each time the waiter served me some of a dish he poured on tons of gravy onto my plate. I couldn't tell if I was having food or gravy? By the end of my meal my plate looked like a potporri of random colors.

Indian Traffic

The driving situation is insane in India. There are no driving RULES! There are no stop signs, there are no lanes that people abide to, there are no stoplights that people follow. There is a hierarchy on the road, big busses then cars then rickshaws then people walking. It's scary we almost hit a motorcycle head on!!! There aren't that many accidents, so surprisingly there is some kind of order to the chaos. And people honk ALL DAY LONG! Honk when their car is approaching a bike or a pedestrian, honking to let people know their car is coming. It's ridiculous but I'm starting to phase it out.

Mahabalipuram

The bathroom at Golden Sands

Dinner at The Wharf in the GRT hotel

That was our hotel room at GRT! GORGEOUS!!

We arrived in Mahabalipuram (also called Mamallapuram) and checked into this hotel called Golden Sands. It was BAD, SOOOOOOOO bad we didn't feel comfortable staying there. It was worse than a Motel 6. Really filthy and dirty with bugs everywhere. I didn't like it AT ALL but was willing to stay there if the other girls wanted to. Just an idea of the shower situation there, it was essentially a shower head attached to the wall that rained over the whole bathroom! We sucked it up and showered but I still felt dirty after.

We wanted to spend as little time in the hotel as possible, so we went shopping a little and then ate at this SUPER nice hotel called GRT. Its like the Hyatt in SF, maybe even nicer. At dinner I had seafood which was nice because I really wanted some fish. Our waiter did card tricks for us while we waited for our food and amazed us, they were great tricks! We tankered the idea at dinner to see if by chance GRT had open rooms, so we asked and they did! It was a little pricey but we were willing to eat the cost to avoid staying at Golden Sands. The room was fantastic, and well worth the cleanliness.

After breakfast we drove for an hour back to Chennai to fly home. Vacation was short but really fun. I think it helped me get adjusted to the Indian culture.

Pondicherry

Three of us with Maygesh, our favorite Rickshaw driver!

Three kids at the Botanical garden - Kids LOVE to have their pictures taken!

The airline we traveled on

At Matrimandir, Auroville

Early Saturday (30th) morning I went on a mini vacation with Anna and Stacy. We went to Pondicherry and this other place called Mahabalipuram (I'll write about Mahabalipuram in my next blog.) We flew through SpiceJet (picture above), which is one of the popular airlines in India. It's comparable to SouthWest. At Pondicherry we stayed at a 3 star hotel called Annamalai. The luxury levels here compared to back home are definitely different so you have to be careful about what the stars really represent. I was pleased with the hotel, luckily it wasn't anything worth cringing about. Funny thing, the advertisement for the hotel says "3 star hotel with 4 star service." I would think again about the 4 star service. One thing you have to keep mind of in India is miscommunication. Often times we would call room service to have a few items sent up and only 1 would arrive. That or it was the wrong item altogether!

We went to eat at the restaurant downstairs and I ordered a Veggie Burger. To my surprise (and dismay) it was nothing like the veggie/garden burgers at home. In my pictures you'll see that it was curry potatoes in a bun! I didn't eat it, and just ate the bun and fries :)

We then took our first Rickshaw ride, which is basically like a scooter that has an awning and seats, a bit rustic and dangerous but fun because it felt like we were riding around on an actual scooter! Above is a picture with our favorite Rickshaw driver, Maygesh. He took us on a personal tour of the city; saw some really interesting things and shopped at a few bazaars. There is this super cute french area that we adored. You'll see pictures in my album. We also visited a botanical garden where we say MONKEYS, my favorite! It was really funny because they were chasing these kids around. Touring around the city was similar to Mexico and other parts of Asia. Lots of cute little stands with jewelry and fabrics.

That night we ate at this hotel called Promenade which was gorgeous, and then went to check out a Ghandi statue they brought out for Ghandi's birthday. It was fun to see everyone celebrating the holiday on the streets.

Sunday morning we had a free breakfast at our hotel, and called good ol' Mygesh again to show us around some more. He took us to a weird temple with statues that looked like clowns. In temples you have to remove your shoes but we decided not to go inside because outside the temple was dirt. He then took us to see this monument called Matrimandir that looks like Epcot Center. Here's a link with info on the monument: Click Here

After lunch ate at this beautiful French hotel called L'orient in the French quarter of Pondi, we headed to Mahabalipuram.

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Viewing My Pictures

In each of my posts I will attach a link to view an album for different trips and experiences, but you can always view ALL my photos by copying and pasting this link into your browser:
http://picasaweb.google.com/charisewong

My Room

My cozy (and big) bed

The front of my complex

View from my apartment

Here are some pictures of my room and apartment, I'm at Apartment Gamma. It's a nice, big space, my room is twice the size of my room at home and I have my own bathroom! The first picture is a view from my balcony, it overlooks a green field. Sometimes the sun will shine through and illuminate the entire open area, its beautiful.

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Head Bobbing

An Indian gesture we've noticed which is extremely funny is when Indian people speak to you they will bob their head from side to side. It's like teetering back and forth along a spring. The bobbing is used to represent "yes" and "no," so its really hard to figure out what the head bob really means! Some people have picked it up, especially Joel (a manager from MV). He does it a lot and tries to stop himself from doing it. I've found myself doing it a little too, haha.

Two Day Travel to India

Pedestrians in Little India

Hyd airport arrival terminal

I flew for almost 20+ hours on Wednesday (27th) night but it essentially took two full days because I gained a day traveling. I met this really nice woman who sat next to me throughout my entire departure flight, her name is Swetha. She was traveling for business to Calcutta and is originally from India. It was nice talking to her, she gave me good suggestions on how to survive the food and surroundings. We chatted after sleeping for 9 hours and arrived first in Hong Kong, then flew another 3 hours to Singapore (there are pictures of the HK airport on the photo link below.)

I had a 9 hour layover in Singapore, the Singapore airport is THE BEST! They have all designer stores like Gucci and lots of cool little tech shops. I had a lot of time to kill so I took a free bus tour around the city. It was a Cultural Tour that ventured around Chinatown, Little India, the Financial District and Malay Village. Above is a picture of people walking across the street in the Financial District. After that I went to work out at a gym where you can pay by the hour. It cost me less than 7 dollars to work out and take a shower which was nice because I felt dirty from flying for nearly 15 hours.

At 8:30pm Singapore time, I jumped on a plane to Hyderabad! The only bothersome thing about the flight was they sprayed lysol in the vents when we landed! It was rather disgusting. I arrived at the airport and Anna (my friend here) and a driver came to pick me up. The picture above is of the Hyd airport. We then went back to the apartment which is super big, I'll show pictures soon.

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Leaving for Hyderabad!

Well I'm finally leaving for Hyderabad, India. My flight is in the middle of the night and I have an 8 hour layover in Singapore. During that layover I'm going to tour the city, eat sushi, shop! And maybe squeeze in a pedicure -- I hear they're relaxing and cheap. I look forward to my arrival although I've heard some horror stories about the airport's cleanliness. Anna is picking me up with a Google driver, I believe his name is Ismael. See you all next year! :)