Indian Adventures- 3/21-The day we visited the Taj

Saturday, 3/21-

What a day! After staying up until early morning, 5 am came sooner than anticipated. I ordered breakfast to make sure I got to eat before we headed off for the Taj. The car was supposed to leave at 5:30 but that's not what happened! Mackenzie was still drunk from the night before and decided to take watermelon and coffee to the front desk to change money. Then wanted her passport so she went back for it....Brian found her eating eggs like we weren't waiting for her. At the same time, Daniel didn't set an alarm and therefore Brian woke up him and told him to get ready. I totally felt like the mom. It was hilarious. We get in the car which is a whole other situation lol. Everyone passes out on the 2+ hour drive to the Taj. As we drive through the city of Agra where the Taj and Agra fort are, there are water buffalo walking the streets. The city is built up around the monuments and its pretty easy to see that the only reason some people are there. We pick up our tour guide for the day, Chancal, who turns out to be an actual archaeologist who's home from his work near Pakistan because a few of his team were killed. Crazy. We arrive at the Taj and get our tickets to go in. There are four gates- one for each direction at the Taj. As we stand outside and are told the stories about the ingenuity to build the gates and the actual mausoleum and I'm just shocked. I can't imagine all the craftmanship that went into the monuments.  As we walk through taking pictures Chancal tells us about how the Taj Mahal came to be. In the simplest way, the queen on her death bed asked her husband how much he loved her. He couldn't explain how much he loved her so he told her that he would show her. He almost bankrupt himself building this testament of love. Oh to be loved like that! One of the craziest things in India is that you can touch basically anything you want. So we got up to the Taj and walked through to see where the queen and king were buried and you can touch the walls on the way in and all around the outside of the building. They only thing that was blocked off was the actual tombs. Chancal told us that sometimes the line wraps around the building twice but that there was a festival that day and so we were lucky that we basically got to walk right up. You have to put booties on your shoes before walking around. He also told us that they will be closing the area with the tombs down in order to preserve it. People also like to sit around these monuments- its relatively cheap for locals to get in and "crazy expensive" to get in for foreigners. We finish walking around and taking pictures then head back to the car. After that we head over to see how they craft the marble with the semi precious stones and then they try to sell us a bunch of marble pieces that were incredibly expensive. We stopped for lunch at a spot that was definitely the spot for this tour group and saw other rotators there who came up separately. Next up was the Agra fort. Its big. And Red. But not the Red Fort. The architecture here is kind of out of control. The symmetry and precision that they were able to achieve is incredible. It's all uniform and you just kind of look at it like how in the world did you make that with nothing. There were many wings of the fort that related to different wives and would be decorated in different styles based on the wife's preference. They had so many wives and I really don't know how they kept the "happy wife happy life" going. We were all pretty tired after that so we headed back to drop Chancal off then headed back to the hotel.We all slept again and tried to pass the time quickly. It's not a short drive. Cleaned up a bit then headed to Cyber Hub for dinner again. Had dinner at Soi 7 which was actually a place that brewed beer but then also had asian food. Kind of random. After that we headed down to the wine bar and shared a bottle of wine. Called it a decently early night as we were all exhausted. 

Indian Adventures- 3/19- 3/20

3/19-
Today I was kind of out of it from not feeling good yesterday. Checked out of Le Meridien and into the Trident Gurgaon and it's like night and day. The plugs are in weird areas and no where useful, but other than that the grounds are BEAUTIFUL. I didn't really eat much today other than toast, bananas and banana chips. I was accused of trying to overdose on banana. I survived being sick without having to take Cipro or anything! Went to have a snack with Gauri and talked about life. She's signed me up for a 2 year rotation with one year in HYD and one in Delhi lol.

3/20-
BTW. Finally able to eat food today! Hurray!! Went to Cyber hub for lunch with Mackenzie which is like a 3 story "mall" for just food places. We ate at Kebab palace. I'm not sure why I never thought about getting Kabobs before since it's basically straight chicken, but now I'm on board. Had that and some Naan. Get through work and take my team to coffee since I've been feeling like trash for two days and feel bad for not taking them anywhere. After work we went to the hotel and changed and then headed over to Cyber Hub to have dinner at an Italian restaurant. Daniel and I started dinner then Mackenzie and Brian (who flew in that night) joined us. We had two bottles of wine and then went to this place called Farsi and had more drinks. We decided that partying it up on Friday was a good idea...which was super fun.  Just hung out and talked and Brian made sure I had a Moscow mule at Farsi. They also had live music which was REALLY loud. They played covers and I knew all the songs, but it was older. Everyone was singing along. Everything kind of closes early so we headed back to the hotel and raided the mini bar and went down by the pool to have drinks. At around 2am we decided it would be good to go to sleep as we needed to get up early to head out to the Taj....

Indian Adventures 3/16-3/18

3/16
BTW, Worked a long day at the office. Had lunch as usual in the cafeteria. Worked some more, headed back to the hotel for some food at happy hour. I had chicken 65. I'm working on trying to like spicy food more. I find that I love the flavor but its really spicy still in my belly.  I'm trying to adapt and assimilate before I leave, we'll see if my body agrees. Came back to work to do 3 calls that turned into 4. Finally got home sometime after 11pm and then packed for Delhi. You dont realize how much stuff has it's own place and what a PITA it is to repack everything when you've been here for a few weeks! I ended up leaving some of my hanging clothes in Brian's room along with like 6 pairs of shoes. Another late night/early morning...

3/17
BTW. Busy day again in the Hyderabad office. Part of me being over here is I'm supposed to build good will with the professionals and really give them any advice or answer any questions they have in relation to their career at Deloitte. The professionals seem to be interested in how to make things better. Lunch in the cafeteria again with the usual suspects (Vijay, Vineeth, and Sambit). Mackenzie, Daniel and I left the office at 6pm to head to the airport for our flight at 8:55 pm. I had booked the car to get us to the airport at the hotel for the three of us, yet they call Daniel who's number they didn't ask for at the front desk to have the timing and what not arranged. When you go to the airport in Hyderabad you have to show your itinerary and passport just to get in the doors. There is a visitors gallery for those not actually flying so I'm suspecting this might actually be an issue with having too many people loitering around inside to say bye. It seems to be a long drawn out process rather than just getting out of the car at home and going inside. We check in for our Air India flight- executive class. Mackenzie and I end up having to check our luggage while Daniel just gets to go through with his even though his was over the weight as well. Women are discriminated against heavily- its kind of annoying at times. We head to security and there is a stand I think for declaring what you're flying with, but I'm not sure cause I didn't fill out the form and the guy at the desk took mine and Mackenzie's pages and boarding passes and stamped them. Next up separate security lines for men and women. Daniel flies through security while Mackenzie are dealing with women who can't figure out how to queue up so the workers are yelling at them. They tell us to put our stuff through the guys xray machine for our bags...then that one completely stops. Back to the women's line. After putting our bags down we queue up to be patted down and have our boarding passes stamped again. We survived that barely and headed towards the lounge. We turn the corner and there's another queue. I shit you not. What does this guy do? He marks a number on a page then lets us go by after checking our boarding passes. I don't even understand. It's so freaking confusing. We finally make it to the lounge and promptly get alcoholic beverages to try and deal with what just happened. Everything is so convoluted and there doesn't seem to be a purpose whatsoever for the 6 million stamps. We board our flight for Delhi and the seats are HUGE. Silver Lining. We ordered our dinners and I started watching gone girl, but didn't get a chance to finish it. Think I'll watch it on the way home. Exit the plane and go to get our bags and I swear we walked for a good 20 minutes before we were able to get near the baggage claim. Then we found our driver and walked another 10-15 minutes to the car. Finally get to the hotel sometime after midnight. Get checked in and go to my room (521) and I walk in and just start laughing like you have to be kidding me. It's a European style room where its more like a studio- bed, "couch" and desk. The bathroom had a shower with no door- but open to the tub and rest of the bathroom. The carpet smelled of mold and everything was just dingy and gross looking.

3/18
Welcome to the Delhi office! Which is actually in Gaugaron; a smaller city outside of Delhi. Found my desk and got settled in. Everyone came by to introduce themselves and I felt like a new toy on Christmas. People love to chat here and want to ask you a bunch of questions then always say if you need anything to let them know. I started to not feel well. I ended up barfing a bunch of times during the day and not being able to hold anything down. Decided that I would head back to the hotel and try to sleep it off. During the drive back to the hotel, I had the A/C pointed at my face and was trying not to throw up again. Managed to make it back to my room and just laid down to take a rest. That's when things started changing direction. I kept trying to keep water in as to not get dehydrated but that wasn't working out so well.  Slept until my phone calls started around 8pm. Had 3 back to back ones then I could finally keep something done. Had a bag of salted potato chips for dinner along with more water. Stayed up to watch part of a movie then just went back to bed.

Indian Adventures- 3/15/15

3/15/15

Another busy day. Woke up earlier than I wanted to get ready to head out for another day of adventuring. We had lunch planned with our colleague Vijay at his home and so he sent us a list of places we should visit around his house. So here in India you can rent a car for a day and its normal for the driver to just wait for you when you go look around. Daniel and I luckily got a good guy and he liked to tell us about the different sites as well. We started off with the Slara Jung Museum. This was my first experience with lines for guys and girls. Everywhere you go here there is security checks, bag scans, and usually a pat down. Guys only pat down or wand guys and vice versa. I was waiting for a good 5 minutes for Daniel to clear the line. The museum has varied items from Europe and Asia from manuscripts to furniture. My favorite part was probably the necklaces and anklets for elephants! Super cool and huge! I also peed in a hole here for the first time this trip. :) After that we headed to Charminar- it's like India's arc de triumoph. It literally is in the middle of a round about, you can climb stone circular stairs to get to a viewing point to look out on all the markets around the different streets. Their most famous for their fruit, pearl, and bangle markets. Daniel and I were stopped to take pictures with people again. My friends Brian and Mackenzie were there like 30 minutes after us and they actually took a picture with an Indian baby. Unfortunately they didn't get that on one of their phones. It seems like everyone here loves to shop. Or people come here to shop- not quite sure. I'm just not in it. We didn't walk around the markets as I wasn't really feeling walking around in the crowds. Close to Charminar is a mosque that can hold 3k people. Our driver said on Fridays people block the streets while praying. Next up was Chompallah Palace. It's an old Palace that has been changed over to be a kind of museum that had a beautiful hall, vintage cars, and other little exhibits to see.

We ended up being closer to Vijay's house than we thought. He ended up riding his motorcycle out to where we were and showing the driver where to go. We passed by water buffalo in the streets, meat being chopped with flies all over it and lots of stall with seemingly the same items.  Vijay invited Kris Hill our ex-pat, David and Daniel (from SF), and then Vineeth and Nikunj from the Hyderabad office to his house for lunch. When we arrive he explained that his one house holds up to 30 people with 17 rooms. Its an open courtyard in the middle and they have a terrace/rooftop. They live jointly with the family and so everything is for the overall family good. There is one shared kitchen where all the women cooks. We met his wife and sons, mom and aunties all dressed in Sari's and his boys were so cute! We had fruit, then little appetizer pieces of chicken and something with egg, then Chicken biryani which is a hyderabaddi traditional dish with more chicken and another egg, and then a pudding type dessert with nuts and lots of calories from what Nikunj said! Told him that wasn't a smart thing to tell me! I've found that milk is actually a huge thing over here. After that we tried to go to the Fulaknama palace which has been renovated into a hotel but apparently you need to have reservations for tea which we didn't have. Ended up going back and meeting up with everyone for HH. Finally did my expenses then ended up back at KFC after I ordered some Crispy Corn from Paradise next door. Another late night...

Indian Adventures- 3/14/15

3/14/15

Only got 3-4 hours of sleep after being out at the Novotel having drinks. Not sure if I've mentioned it but sometimes places just don't have the alcohol you want. So sometimes your order changes with what's available. I think they might have trouble bringing things through customs, but even so there just seems to be a lack of variety. Vineeth wanted to take us to breakfast so he, Daniel, David and I went to Chutney's. We let Vineeth order a bunch of stuff to try. From what I remember (this is why I should write more things down) we had Idyl which is like fluffed rice that looks like an uncrustable, roti fried in oil (apparently it's regularly done in butter), Dosa which is kind of like a savory crepe that you dip into a tomato soup type sauce, and these rice 'donuts'. I only describe them that way because they look like cake donuts- they don't taste like them thought. Then there like six different chutneys that you could dip them into. Most of them seemed milk or nut based. One ALMOST tasted like peanut butter, but not really...I also tried a Mango Lassi. While we were parking for breakfast (more like take your car to the valet) I found out that most cars in India have a back up song or people honk. Indians LOVE to honk! It's a general "hey i'm here" "don't walk into my car" "no i'm going" signal. Drivers licenses are pieces of paper that semi laminated. You can go in for a two wheel or four wheel driving test. The driving test for a 4 wheel is literally don't hit the sticks in the middle of this "H" that they have set up. After coming back I worked for a few hours then headed out with Mackenzie, Brian and Daniel to the Shilparamam market close by our hotel. We tried to go in a back entrance, but the security guys were having no part of it. We even offered to give them some money! Mackenzie wanted to change clothes cause it was really hot out so the boys and I went to KFC. Was my first time there. Honestly the Chicken here is WAY better than at home. So much more flavor. The drinks are teeny tiny and everything is still dirt cheap. Walked around the corner to the market and Mackenzie took me to her scarf guy who explained all the different kinds of scarves and how to tell the difference. I got two then we walked back to the hotel to cool off for a second. Mackenzie was headed off to a play that they screen in the movie theaters with her staff. The boys and I decided to head to the Golconda fort. The fort is HUGE and there is a wall all the way around that used to house the city within it. It's on a hill and there are a million stairs which kind of sucked in the heat but it was worth it. The tour guide was really knowledgeable. My favorite part was probably their "alert system" where you can clap at the bottom of the hill or in certain areas of the fort and hear it in other areas. They used it to signal each other rather than walking up and down all the stairs. Also the wheelchair access road looked more like a skateboard ramp down the side of the hill. Apparently sometimes we as foreigners are WAY more interesting than the fort itself. I notice many people trying to sneak photos of us and even directly asking for pictures with them. Semi odd. I could do without the stares. :) Went home to change and then went to pick up our team for dinner and go karting. They are gas go karts and the track is in one of the parking lots of the airport. My team wasn't really ready for how I drove the go kart, but they were impressed. lol. For 18 people to do 10 laps it came out to about $150. Insanity. They all had a great time. Didn't get home until after midnight again...

Indian Adventures: 3/12-3/13

Thursday 3/12:
BTW. Had a lunch and learn today. We did a replay of the TPR rules and then went down stairs to the cafeteria to eat lunch. They're not allowed to bring food into the conference rooms or really eat at their desks. They ordered in from Holi and we all ate family style. Veg on one end of the table and Non-Veg on the other. I think I've written in here that there are green dots for Veg and Red for Non veg on products. I learned today that eggs are not considered Veg so I asked and it's more like Vegan than anything. At lunch I like to ask alot of questions. Mostly personal ones. :) So I like to ask how old my staff and seniors are and whether they're married. I also usually ask whether they want a love marriage or think they'll have an arranged marriage. Previously I've been told to assume that it will be arranged. One staff at the table told me that he had been dating a girl for 8 years so I gave him grief for not getting married. Imagine my surprise when I found out the reason he's not married is due to the caste system and that there are issues. She's a physical therapist. So interesting to hear about barriers to getting married that are so foreign to me.

Friday 3/13:
This morning since I had to go register with the FRRO, my work blew up in my face. Helpful. Thanks Murphy. Got that situated in the morning and then had to head over to get the registration handled. Its kind of an odd process and there is a full packet of paperwork that luckily the firm has a person to handle it. So you walk in and they briefly look through then give you a number like you're at the DMV. You wait for your turn- they review your paperwork more in depth. Once it's approved they look at it EVEN further and then bring you out your registration. I found it interesting that irght under my name was a line for "Fathers/husbands" name. Came back to the hotel to work for the rest of the afternoon. I've booked my flights and hotel to Delhi for Tuesday-Sunday of next week. Our expat suggested I go up there to meet those on my team. Also there are not many expats who go up there. Mackenzie and Daniel are going with me so at least I'll have friends in a new city. Had free happy hour upstairs after doing my work for the day. It's nice to get to talk to other rotators about my experience. There was another wedding downstairs so we got to see part of that. Came back to my room to work for a little bit and then headed over to the Novotel. Had drinks and talked until 3am with a bunch of other rotators. I find it interesting that sometimes bars just don't have items and they are seemingly not easily replaceable. I wanted to have a mai tai and they didn't have any dark rum.

Indian Adventures- 3/9/15-3/11/15

Monday (3/9)- I feel like my work days are kind of boring so I'm trying to be better about writing down fun facts that I find out during the day. One of the ones I found out today is since a lot of people are vegetarian here there are marks on the products to let people know if it's veg or non veg. There is a green dot for veg and a red one for non veg. Thought that was nice. Went to breakfast at the hotel, headed into work, lunch was chicken combo (chicken with roti and rice). I usually have enough work to get me through the day, but not working excessive hours right now. Went back to the hotel and had appetizers,pizza and wine in the club lounge with Grace, Ryan, and Daniel. Helped my friend Michelle with some of her city returns since she has entirely too much right now. Multitasked and listened to Grown Ups 2 in the background.   I've been really enjoying people facetiming me while I've been here because it keeps me linked to home instead of feeling like time isn't moving. My hair is still green lol. Speaking to my cubemate Pawan today, I learned how different the country is between just 100 km. It could be the difference between Beverly Hills and Compton- people live different, eat differently, and overall it's almost an entirely other culture. I think it would be fun to explore India a bit more after busy season- but my other trips are calling to me as well. I'm thinking about going to fort on Saturday in Hyderabad along as shirpamalan (sp?). Sunday I have lunch with a coworkers family near Charminar so I'll get to visit there as well.

Tuesday (3/10)- Today was kind of standard. Had breakfast (I'm loving the coconut water) and went to work. I had this thing called a Frankie for lunch. I ordered a double egg with Chicken Tikka. Its similar to the start of a tortilla then you can get them to put on egg on both sides which makes it thicker similar to eggwashing french toast. Then they put raw onions, chillies (I passed), and the meat or veg of your choice. It's almost a burrito, but lets be honest there is no comparison to Mexican food. One isn't quite enough, but the two I had might've been a bit much. All the food here makes me feel really full right after eating it then all of a sudden I'm starving, but nothing really sounds fantastic...except a cheeseburger and fries. :) Some more work then headed back to the hotel. Had drinks up in the lounge with Daniel and Rand. Headed over to Paradise next door to get some crispy corn and actual dinner. I was so full though I should've only ordered the crispy corn (I know, I know- it's not even a vegetable).


Wednesday (3/11/15)- Breakfast then work "BTW", same ol same ol. I asked a pregnant coworker of mine today what she was having (aka the sex). She then told me that its a punishable crime (almost) to find out the sex of your baby before it is born. Woah. I heard from someone else that people were smuggling in ultrasound machines and that there was an influx of male births when it wasn't regulated. Nothing here seems to open or start happening before like 10 or 11. Even Starbucks. I find this rather odd as I feel like half the day is gone at point. While planning a team outing to go go-karting, they were telling me that it's open from 11am- 4am, everyday! Who is go-karting after midnight?! I spoke to the ex-pat today about my goals which was a little stressful as there are significant expectations of me while I'm over here. I also now have an aversion to the word granular. Took a "lap" around the buildings to clear my head and vent. Finished up my work (scared when it starts getting crazy busy) and headed back to the hotel. Worked out then headed up for HH in the lounge. Brian thought he was behind in drinking so he, Mackenzie, Daniel and I headed over to Shamrocks Irish pub...that was an experience. We walked over and ended up crossing the street for the first time on this random cross walk. Cars don't stop and they constantly honk at you! It was like frogger big time! I posted a video on the book of face if you want to experience it with me. I basically giggled the whole way across. There were no beers on draft at this Irish pub and nothing really in bottles that was viable so we stuck with King Fishers ultra and Mackenzie had a vodka soda. It was only us and a group of locals. The staff started playing pool on the pool table and I couldn't figure out the bathroom door was a push in door because of the lock (no i wasn't drunk). Headed back across the street and back to the hotel then off to bed!