Well, it has been one year and four days since our arrival in Hyderabad, India and we have four days left. The time flew by incredibly fast and it feels like we just skipped months.
I decided not to write any entries to the blog this last month as there was not much happening. I hardly left the hotel grounds and Teresa was just busy at the office ensuring that everything was set for her transition back to her office in Nashville. The month however was a really pleasant one in the Ista Hotel, it is truly a fantastic hotel and we will recommend anybody making a trip to this part of the world to book their stay at the Ista. The food at the Ista was nothing but amazing and I had to spend a lot of time in the gym just to ensure that I did not gain too much weight and I did gain a couple, something I am not too happy about.
They have a Japanese section and I got to know the main Japanese chef, Jerry very well. He asked me one evening at dinner if I liked Sushi and he was not very impressed with me when I told him that I tried it once and it tasted too much like fish. Well, he insisted that it was bad Sushi and he made me a bunch the following evening. I must admit that I was very nervous in trying it again but it turned out to be very good! I will however be very careful in where I have sushi since I have had a bad experience with it before. Since then we have had it often and Jerry even gave me a lesson in making Maki Rolls one evening, I got to make my own.
We had some administrative things that we had to attend to also, our original Indian Visas expired and we had to renew it for our last two weeks stay. We also had to make our Visa appointments for our Visas to the United States. All went well and the company Teresa works for assisted us well and made all of this a breeze to go through.
Our flight from Hyderabad to Johannesburg via Doha leaves at four Saturday morning meaning we will not be sleeping much if any on Friday evening. We have a pre-flight Spa session booked for Friday evening after which we will be having our final dinner.
We have spent some time lately to reflected back to our time in India and although there were some frustrating days, and there were plenty them, we had a reasonably good time and it was not that bad as we thought it would have been. We would definitely consider doing it again if the opportunity should arise in the future.
View from our room at the Ista.
Sunset at the Ista.
This was at Sai's house, it was for one of their celebrations.
Sai and his wonderful family, they were really good to us!
Some more of our new friends, Najeeb and his wife Martina. They are from England.
Nice water features at the Ista.
The Japanese Chef at Ista, Jerry.
The master and his apprentice, making Sushi Maki Rolls.
So far so good...
Nearly there...
Almost done...
The cutting, very tricky!
My first attempt at Sushi Maki Rolls!
We got this beautiful wooden Elephant from Teresa's Indian co-workers.
The detail carved in it is pretty amazing.
Just some of the Lunch Buffet selections at the Ista.
Ista Hyderabad.
More water features at the Ista.
Lobby.
Entrance to the Ista.
They take the flowers out at night and put candles in, looks pretty good.
