N. T. R.

Nothing To Report, I will write the next entry to my Blog on Sunday October 23.  There is just not that much happening currently to write about.

Please feel free to come by then for the latest update.

Forty Days!

From Monday September 19 it will be forty days until our adventure in India comes to an end.  The time sure did go by quickly.  We had a fairly busy week, last week Monday we finished off the last admin from handing our apartment back and made sure that the internet and telephone connections got cancelled.  We had to go to the Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO) on Wednesday to change our address from our apartment to the Ista.  You would think that something like that would be a quick "go in and change" thing to do but no, it was not that easy.  A bunch of forms and documents had to be completed and prepared including passport photos and three hours later we each had a stamp on our current papers with our new addresses written in by hand.  We have to go back on Tuesday to go through the whole process again just to extend our current visas for a further sixteen days.

Sai, the local manager working with Teresa invited us to have lunch with him and his family on Saturday.  It was extremely nice of them since nothing really beats a home cooked meal.  We got treated to a couple of local dishes that we are not really familiar with and all of it was really good.

On Sunday friends joined us for lunch at the Ista, lunch is as always pretty good and it was fun being able to enjoy it with great company.  I know their kids had a great time with all the balloons figures that the children entertainers made them.  

Our first week went well in the Ista and all the staff is friendly and are always willing to help with anything.  

Sunset at Ista.

I love the way they do our laundry, nice touch with the bow ties.  

ISTA Hyderabad

So we started of the last phase of our journey in India, we moved out of our apartment and settled in the Ista Hotel until our departure from India.  All I can say about this is that it is not a bad way to end our year in India, the Ista is a spectacular hotel with top notch service.  But there was a lot of things that needed to be done last week before our relocation to the hotel.

It started off last week Monday when I decided to repaint some of the walls that had marks on from where our furniture pushed against the walls.  Since I am no stranger to painting and that I had the time I did not foresee any problems.  Well, as it turned out Murphy paid a visit that day and things did go wrong.  The walls in our apartment are white, plain white.  Ahmed took me to a shop that sells paint and I bought all that was needed.  I got home and jumped straight into my planned project.  The first sign that I ignored was when I opened the can of paint and it had the consistency of a thick paste and it did not look white but rather a creamy color.  I never thought about reading the instructions since I have painted before and it was as simple as open and slap the paint on the wall.  Well, this time it was not the case, as it turned out I had to dilute it with water and a lot of water.  To make a long story short, it turned out to be a huge mess and Ahmed ended up bringing two friends that are painters over on Tuesday that did a proper job off fixing up my mess.

The big move was on Saturday, Ahmed arranged a small truck and some helpers and they were finished in no time at all with moving the furniture to the needy family that we decided to donate the furniture to.  The maintenance office at the community where we rented was quick to do a walk through and before we knew it the keys were handed back and we were off to the hotel.

We checked in early Saturday afternoon and basically just spend the rest of the weekend enjoying the relaxed atmosphere the hotel offers.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe one day.

And we were really naughty!  

This is all we had left after the furniture was gone.

An empty apartment.

The lounge at the ISTA.

View of the pool from our room.

Our room.

Our room.

We saw this cab one day.  On the front door, "100% Assured airport drop"  So the other cab companies only take you half way?

Our welcome from Rishi, the very friendly person that services our room.

Last Week

This was our last weekend in our apartment, we will be checking in to the ISTA Hotel next Saturday.  We originally planned to check in on Sunday but due to the Ganesh festivities next Sunday decided to check in on Saturday instead.  Teresa's co-workers advised her that the traffic might make things a little difficult when we transport a lot of things.  So, I will be updating my blog from the hotel this time next week if all our plans go according to plan.

We finally got all the little problems fixed in our apartment and the only thing that is left will be the touch up paint work after all the furniture is removed.  We packed up our kitchen yesterday and it was all given to a needy family that could never afford most of these type of things.  Our furniture will be going to the same family and it makes us feel good.  As for the rest of our packing, we are about seventy five percent packed and it looks like we will have a spot for everything we want to take with to South Africa and the United States.

I am not entirely sure what we are going to do with food this week but we will make plan.  Our dinners are covered though, we ordered dinner take-outs for the whole week at Beyond Coffee today. 

It was a short week for Teresa at work, she worked two half days and had one day off due to all the holidays in India and the United States.  We were also invited to Ahmed, our driver's house for their Ramadan Festivities.  He spoiled us from the moment he picked us up in a much nicer car that he usually drives us in until we got dropped off at home afterwards.  We got to meet his family finally after ten months and then we were spoiled with lots of good food.  They made us a traditional Hyderabadi Biryani, some chicken, an eggplant dish and traditional breads.  Afterwords we got treated with two different types of Kheer that was just as good as the main courses.  It was a privilege and honor for us as I know that Ahmed and his family went out of their way to prepare this meal for us.

We again had too much to eat again on Saturday evening at Aroma Of China, a Chinese restaurant in City Center Mall.  The food is exceptionally good and well priced.  After that we went to The Chocolate Room for dessert.  

Ahmed picked us up earlier than usual this morning and took us to look at the largest Ganesh Statue in Hyderabad.  He took us earlier to ensure that we missed the larger crowds, something we are thankful for since there was already a bunch of people.

They installed these thrash cans in front of Teresa's office building, it does not seem they are being used yet.  Hopefully they will be used soon.

Nothing left in our kitchen except for empty shopping bags.

Chocolate coated Ganesh at The Chocolate Room.

Chocolate Sunday, The Chocolate Room.

Another large Ganesh Statue, but not the largest.

The largest Ganesh Statue in Hyderabad.

Ahmed also showed us this house on Sunday, a diamond shaped house.

The reflection in the house.