Kelley's Travel Blog

Saturday night (which is like a Friday night, since our office works Tuesday - Saturday) I went along with some people to see the movie "300" at the IMAX theatre. Wow, was that an intense movie to see on the largest movie screen imaginable! It's funny....they have intermission at movies here. For about 5-10 minutes, they turn on the lights and stop the movie. Just as you are getting into it.

Sunday I was very excited to sleep in - an extra 5 hours or so! I hung out at the pool with other US expats and had brunch at the hotel - very comparable to a good Sunday brunch in SD! Later on, we ventured to the middle of the city and had dinner at the Waterfront (next to a big lake separating Hyderabad & Secunderabad). Very cool.

Monday was shopping day! Two girls from the office wanted to take me shopping - Swathi & Sudeethi. So, we met at the office at 11 and they took me first to a place where different vendors set up shop - like a flea market. All hand-made handicrafts. They sure can get some good deals! I would end up paying about 1/2 of the starting price, thanks to them bargaining with the shop owners!

Then we went into the center of town and shopped at a few places that had some quality gift items. After that, we went to the new mall in town - City Center. Not really any different than any US mall. By the time 2:30 rolled around, I was starving. I held out as long as possible because I know Swathi & Sudeepthi are used to eating late. We had another good, authentic Indian meal - Chicken Tikka & Lamb Biryani (a Hyderabad dish).

Monday night we were planning on going to Charminar (a historic part of Hyderabad with famous temples), but plans fell thru due to the fact that one of the guys we were planning on going with is Muslim and they were holding some sort of rally in which he would not be welcommed. A little strange, but we were glad we found out beforehand.

When someone has a birthday or leaves, a cake is shared....but, not in the way you would normally "share". In India, they smear it all over your face!!
You can see what I look forward to when I leave!

One big question everyone has for me (here and in the US) is "How do you like the food?". My answer is "It's great! I like it!". Although it took my stomach a couple of days to adjust, and at times it still doesn't understand what goes into it, I must say it has been a highlight. I don't recognize most things on the menu...every dish has it's own Indian name, so I have been having people order things for me or make recommendations.

There are so many new and different spices and herbs I have never before tasted. Where have all of these flavors been hiding?! Some are great, some are.....different. For example, last night we (US expats and 5 of the staff) headed out to dinner at Angetthi's to celebrate Steve's departure back to LA and went to an authentic Indian restaurant that looks like Punjabi dhaba.
"In India, highways are dotted with local restaurants popularly known as Dhabas . They generally serve local cuisine, and also serve as truck stops. Very commonly, Dhabas are found next to Petrol pumps, and like Petrol pumps, most remain open 24 hours a day. Since most Indian truck drivers are of Punjabi descent, and Punjabi food and music is quite popular throughout India, the word Dhaba has come to represent any restaurant that serves Punjabi food, especially the heavily spiced and fried Punjabi fare preferred by many truck drivers." (thanks Wikipedia )


We tried many different dishes - samosa (triangular pastry filled with veggies), chicken biryani, fried spicy stuff, and other things I don't even know the name of! But, I think the hightlight of the meal was the after-dinner paan. There was a paan shop inside the restaurant - really, it's just like a walk-up window or bar with a guy inside. So, a few of the guys encouraged me to try this paan. They told me it has many purposes -- digestive, breath freshener, and you will even get a buzz from it (similar to chewing tobacco). It was in the shape of a fortune cookie and held together by a toothpick (see picture below). A Bettel pepper leaf held together the inside ingredients of coconut, cherries and spices. I put the whole thing in my mouth and started chewing. The first taste is sweet, as the outside was dipped in a foil-looking sugar. Then I immediately tasted the perfumy, soapy, minty flavor of the Bettel pepper leaf. VERY interesting. Then it was subdued by the coconut, cherries and spices. It was pretty fibourous....taking quite a few chews to break down the leaf and raw coconut. Afterwards I had a strong taste of perfume (not that I eat perfume!) in my mouth, but it felt refreshing at the same time. It lasted a few hours until I brushed my teeth thouroughly.

Whew! I finally found a free minute to add an entry about the last two days. I definitely hit the ground running! My first day in the office was Tuesday. I left the hotel at 5:15am with a couple of other US expats on rotation from the Los Angeles office. Yes, it was still very dark. Luckily, the commute is only about 5-10 minutes. We entered "Hi Tech City" (this is the name of the area where the Deloitte office is) through a big gate that had this name overhead. I wish I had gotten a picture of it...there is a "map" (really it's just some big arrows) of the area directing you towards the different companies' buildings that are there. Dell, Motorola, Oracle, and Deloitte were the headlines. Ha! I thought I was in India! Deloitte has 4 buildings (A, B, C, & D Block), each about 5 stories tall. Our group is in A Block. Here is a picture - outside and inside.

Once inside, I was in the elevator and recognized 2 girls that are assigned to the San Diego office - Shruti and Sudeepthi. I was thrilled to finally meet some of the faces that I had only seen pictures of. I was shown to my assigned cubicle and met Soumya (someone I have been working with a lot over the last year) and also Nikhil and Dinesh (two guys that have been a great help to me for a while now). We were very excited to finally shake hands and put faces with voices and emails.
The rest of the day at the office was a bit of blur. Soumya showed me around and helped me get settled in. I had breakfast with Nikhil at the cafeteria (see picture below).

There was a lunch meeting with the tax executives from our region. I was pretty adventurous and tried a lot of the spicy food, and it made me suffer the rest of the day. But, I finally made it back to the hotel room about 5:30pm and had time for a power nap of 20 mins until I had to meet everyone to go to dinner. Gotta love the power naps! I woke up feeling a little better, but still exhausted. I met everyone in the lobby to caravan to the dinner that was across town. Since we left during rush hour, the 10-15 mile trek took us about 50 minutes. Man, is there A LOT of people and no traffic organization whatsoever. I think we only saw 1 traffic light the whole time (and these are very crowded roads!). The ride was adventurous, to say the least. Rickshaws (like a covered 3-wheel moped), motorcycles and cars battle it out constantly. Beeping is constant.
I was very glad to finally see the hotel where we were having dinner. Dinner was great -- chinese food in India, who knew??

After dinner, we enjoyed more drinks with the tax execs.

I FINALLY stumbled into bed around 12:30am. I was SO happy to see my bed (although it's pretty hard)!
Today (Wednesday) was easier. Even though I only had less than 4 hours of sleep, I woke up even before my wake up call at 4:15am. I felt great! And, I even figured out how to get warm water in the shower. (yes, I'm an idiot and couldn't figure it out, so I took cold showers for 3 days).
We had another big meeting today - our CEO, Chet Wood spoke to the entire Region 10 office (which is about 1,000 employees!).

Now I am back in the hotel room (it's 6:10pm) and getting ready to leave again for another tax executive dinner. Thank goodness this is the last one! They (the execs) all leave tonight. WHEW!