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.
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 past week did not start off really good but we made sure to end it on a much better note! One of the air conditioning units in our apartment started to give some problems last weekend. I reported the problem to the maintenance office on Sunday, the electrician came to have a look at it and said that somebody else would have a look at it on Monday. The person that came on Monday said that the compressor is faulty and that they will get the air conditioning contractor to come and fix it. The contractor came on Tuesday afternoon just to tell me that the compressor is faulty. Well, I thought that was what they were doing here! First of all, these guys arrive at our apartment without a ladder and just expecting to stand on our furniture. I was not too happy about this and gave them a towel to throw over the dining room chair that they just decided to use. Only after they left I noticed that for some reason they decided not to use the towel and that it was perfectly acceptable for them to leave the chair with black footprints. The maintenance office did send somebody to wash the chair but it still made me pretty angry.
By Wednesday the week started to get better and there was not much to report on. We got invited by our driver, Ahmed to join him and his family at his house next Thursday for Ramadan. We went to the ISTA Hotel on Friday for lunch and had really good food as usual. We did get some good rains during the week and it nearly felt if there was a chill in the air on Friday and Saturday.
Ahmed asked us earlier the week if he could have both afternoons off on Saturday and Sunday for festivals. For the first time in I don't know how long we woke up early on Saturday and went out for breakfast. We had breakfast at Beyond Coffee and went to Inorbit Mall afterwords just to find out that most shops only open at eleven o'clock. We then did get to go to HyperCity since they open at ten. We will be living in the hotel two weeks from know and decided that Saturday afternoon is a good time to start packing most of the things that does not get used daily. Before we knew it two suitcases were full and packed.
We joined Lucy, Anna and Deb at Via Milano again for lunch and had a good time as always, good friends with good food always equals a good time. Deb's driver was really nice and dropped us off at home after lunch since we told Ahmed he could go home for his festivities.
One of the rainy days.
One of the drawbacks if your mode of transport is a motorbike.
Although this is our first monsoon season in India it does feel like a pretty dry raining season so far. The amount and frequency of rainfall is not what I would classify as monsoon rainfall. The small lakes around town are still fairly low to empty and it is already the end of August. Fortunately we did get some rain this week that does resemble some monsoon rains but it should be much more regular than currently. This is however my feeling about rain and I am sure there are people out there that is happy about the fairly dry rain season.
I started my weekend off on Friday evening with a wine tasting at Via Milano. Alok, the restaurant manager gave me a call on Thursday afternoon and invited myself and Teresa to attend the wine tasting. Unfortunately it was to late for Teresa to change her schedule at work and she could not make it. I still had a extremely good time and met a bunch of interesting people including all the employees form Big Banyan Winery. The evening started off with snacks and cocktails after which we had a four course meal each with its own selected wine. Except for the good food and wine I did learn a lot more about the wine industry in India.
Our weekend was relatively quiet again, Teresa had a busy work schedule during the week and she had to work the most part of the weekend to ensure everything gets done. She wanted a haircut and I made her an appointment at the ISTA Hotel on Friday for Saturday evening at six. I made myself comfortable in the lounge at the hotel with our Kindle, reading a book and enjoying the background piano music. Deb joined us at seven for dinner at the hotel. I am not usually very fond of fish but I ordered Salmon with stir fried vegetables and vegetable rice from their Japanese menu and it was delicious! The food at the ISTA is really good and they have some healthy options available.
Sunday is not that much different from Saturday with Teresa working most of the day. Luckily we do have some dinner plans with Deb again tonight at La Cantina at the Novotel.
We were naughty one evening and had these frankfurters and chips/fries for dinner.
Dark clouds on Saturday afternoon.
Some more dark clouds Saturday afternoon.
Some heavy rain that came with those dark clouds.
I took this video clip Friday evening on my way to Via Milano.
We have reached the time where I can say "This time next month" we will be staying in the hotel. We have booked a room at the ISTA Hyderabad Hotel and it will be our "home" for forty eight days. Our flights back to the United States via South Africa have also been booked and that just leaves us with some administration to get out of the way and then it is just a matter of waiting out the rest of the days.
We had an interesting and exiting week. On Tuesday Ahmed, our driver, treated us with some Haleem that they eat during the month of Ramadan. Haleem is a traditional dish made with mutton and wheat as the main ingredients and is cooked over a long time. It is pretty tasty and I like it a lot but it does leave your stomach nice and full for a long time.
On Wednesday we had two meal appointments that started off with a breakfast at Novotel with Mark and a lunch with a new expat family that were in town just for the week to find out more about the schools and housing before their long term stay later this year.
Saturday was one of the most uneventful days I have experienced in a long time. Teresa had a busy week at the office and had some work that needed to be finished. I did not really want to do anything without her and ended up not doing much. I did however cook some mutton curry the afternoon since we had a Bunny Chow date at Beyond Coffee. Beyond Coffee provided the bread and I made the mutton curry, it did feel awkward to be walking into a restaurant with your own food. I have yet to have a bad Bunny Chow yet and it turned out to be a fun evening.
We had a great Sunday lunch last week at Via Milano and we had to go again this Sunday. It was equally impressive as last week and anybody in Hyderabad should go and try it out. The variety and quality of food is just some of the best in town.
Via Milano Sunday Lunch
Via Milano Sunday Lunch
Via Milano Sunday Lunch
Via Milano Sunday Lunch
Via Milano Sunday Lunch
Via Milano Sunday Lunch
Live Pasta Station, very tasty.
Live music, unfortunately they were not as good as the guy that performed last Sunday
Alok, I think he is the reason for lots of the success they have had.
Another fun week has gone by and another week closer in going home. Our travel dates and arrangements have been made and we will be leaving Hyderabad, India on October 29. We will be flying to South Africa for two weeks before going on further to Nashville, Tennessee. We should be back in Nashville by November 13 if all our arrangements go according to plan.
I finally went for a haircut on Thursday, two months after my previous haircut! It seems like a long time between haircuts but the guy that usually cuts my hair was not available then. The person that filled in for him made quite a mess of it all in such a way that they had to take it all off. So finally after two months I had enough hair to get it all cut again, time by my usual guy.
I joined Teresa's previous boss, Mark, for a drink at Novotel on Friday evening where he stays. He is in Hyderabad for two weeks. We also got to spend some time with him on Saturday, we picked him up around noon and took him out for a light lunch and a drive through parts of Hyderabad. There was not much we could have shown him since he is a seasoned traveler to Hyderabad and we took him to look at the big Baobab tree and a Buddhist Temple.
Via Milano had their first Sunday Lunch Buffet, Mark and Deb joined us for the lunch and before we knew it was three hours later and we had way too much to eat. Mark said it best afterwards, we are not going for an afternoon nap we will be in a food coma. Via Milano is truly one of the top restaurants in Hyderabad and anybody in Hyderabad should go and give it a try.
This is what happens if you build with out any permits, the local government will smash it to pieces.
The new building is being build for the company Teresa works for
The latest 5* hotel in Hyderabad.
"Why should I move, it is perfectly comfortable here."
Dinner one day during the week.
The small Auto Rickshaw pulling the bigger "full car"
The Buddhist Temple
Entrance at the Temple
View from Temple
Buddhist statue.
Come on in, there is enough space!
Saturday Evening dinner at Angheeti. Tandoori Chicken, Prawns and Mutton cooked in Spinach.
