I made my third trip to our India offices (April 2006, June 2013 and May 2016), and it was another wonderful experience. The only problem is for almost all of the pictures, I'm either taking them hoping no one notices I'm taking it or from a moving car. . . .so just believe me that it's great! This trip was because my friend Michelle, who is the main liaison for our Chicago practice with India, asked me to go for some meetings. Luckily that meant we got to travel together (including some days off in London on our way back home). On our ORD-LHR leg she was upgraded to first class and I took this picture of business class. Each leg was about 8 hours. I watched movies, listened to music and dozed. Even though the seats recline almost flat, I'm not good at sleeping more than an hour or so at a stretch on the plane.
The second leg was on British Airways and we shared a pod where we faced each other but had a screen that went up and down for privacy. The weirdest part was landing (and departing) Hyderabad where the flight attendants come through the aisles spraying an insecticide. They warn you to cover your eyes in case you have contacts or are easily irritated. I covered my mouth and nose because it was so perfumey. We landed in HYD on Sunday morning at 5 a.m. (after leaving Chicago on Friday night at 10 p.m.). It was 100 degrees and a 10.5 hour time change ahead.
Lest the outdoor pictures concern, the hotel was lovely, of course. I think the room rate translated into less than $100 per night! And although I didn't do any exploring of the hotel grounds there appeared to be a park outside of my window. I heard wild dogs barking at night sometimes but was able to fall asleep easily due to exhaustion and my White Noise app.
The first night we went to the Westin for dinner and met up with the rest of the U.S. team visiting for the week - including two of my friends from the Kansas City office whom I've known since I was an intern! There was a small art exhibit happening, and when certain people (not us!) arrived there was press and paparazzi. Dinner was a delicious Italian place. I also learned that ex-pats who live in India get certain groceries at the western hotels - mostly meat, fish and cheese - since they know the quality will be good. And mattresses, too! The prices are expensive, of course, but there aren't equivalent items in the Indian market. One of my friends living there told me that the ingredients for grilled cheese sandwiches can cost $100 by the time you track down the "right" bread and cheese to recreate what you'd make in the U.S. Her husband ordered breakfast cereals sometimes which can cost nearly $10 per box. But these luxuries from home make their 2 or 3 year moves more do-able.
Traffic was like I remembered. Since we were only there for one week, we didn't explore the city at all. We had meetings all day in the office Monday-Friday and dinner meetings most night. Felt like a typical business trip! Most of the pictures I took are out the window of a moving car on the way to/from the office. I did take a photo of the conference room I used all week. Looks just like a conference room in any of our buildings. Except for the 66 rupee cappuccino (roughly $1) that I could buy in the cafeteria. There was also a lot of construction. It always amazed me that these big buildings are built when scaffolding looks like bamboo fishing poles tied together with string. . .
I had one free night and enjoyed dinner with Kansas City friends who are living in Hyderabad. They took me to their favorite Mexican restaurant, and it was delicious! I had to take a photo of the nearly full page illustration on how to eat a fajita. I ordered the nachos; no instructions provided! We were the only people in the restaurant besides a table of 10 who were there for karaoke. They did Adele and some 90s rock. It was pretty hilarious.
The kiddo asked me for a tiger or bird souvenir, since he had a wooden elephant from my last trip. So....there aren't really many tigers in this area. Elephants and camels were easy to find. Birds weren't very kid friendly. So I ended up with this funny frog. The only things I bought were a frog, some bangles for my niece and a pair of pearl earrings. I guess I got all the shopping out of my system on the first two trips! I even bought the earrings at the mall, which was totally like my local mall on a Sunday afternoon: kids rode the train around the top level; more kids rode the furry mechanical animals on the second level; and there was a Starbucks and McDonald's.
For one meeting we had boxed lunches ordered in. Around here they would be from Panera or Potbelly's. Instead these came from the Westin. Choice was "veg" or "non-veg." It was actually pretty good. Grilled veggie wrap, cucumber and dill salad, and dulce de leche cake. I didn't try the mango juice. The non-veg was a chicken wrap. Had I known they were going to order from the Westin, I would have been more adventuresome and tried non-veg. I usually stick to veg around here, since I'm never sure what the meat species will be or its quality. Since everything is labeled veg (green dots) or non-veg (red dots) it's easy to identify.
On Thursday we had a team dinner poolside at one of the hotels - the one where I stayed in 2013. We were situated outside of the on site Mexican restaurant, which I remembered from my earlier trip, so I assumed we were having Mexican food. I was wrong. It was Indian appetizers with the addition of veggie quesadillas and a traditional Indian buffet. It felt weird to eat Indian food poolside at the Mexican restaurant. Not to mention I filled up on quesadillas thinking that was the only thing being served. When the real meal rolled around (5 minutes before I thought the event was over), I was stuffed so I just ate the ice cream dessert!
On Friday night we had a dinner at an amazing Chinese restaurant that everyone loves. It it usually a 45 minute drive from the office, but due to a huge storm that blew through around 4 p.m., it took twice that long. Our drivers were all having to find back road to take due to the number of roads closed due to fallen limbs and debris. It was after dark when we started that trip - and I didn't want to distract the driver - so I didn't attempt any photos.
Seems my memories mostly focused on the food. I guess all I did was eat, sleep and work, and I can't share any sleep or work stories. So, there you go! Bon appetite!
That is the Shard behind me in the picture above. I am standing on Tower Bridge for this photo, while in the Tower Bridge photo I was standing in front of the oblong building. We walked to brunch in the Spittalfields area and thought we were going to happen upon a marketplace. Turned out to be a cheap, crowded flea market. It was somewhat interesting to walk through but I didn't have any of those items on my souvenir list! Brunch at Hot Box was pretty good. I got chicken and waffles. That always sounds so much better than it is! Afterwards we redeemed our vouchers for a double-decker bus tour. Strangely, I never took a picture of one. . . .or of the actual city busses - two of which literally almost ran me over. (Thanks to Michelle; neither did.)
We did the main area around the Thames that included Big Ben and Parliament; Piccadilly Circus; and Buckingham Palace. We got off at Buckingham Palace for some photos and a gift shop stop. William has named this Corgi, Cork. Although I don't recall seeing many Starbucks, there was Caffe Nero on every other corner. They made a tremendous Flat White. There was one right outside our hotel, so we got our to go cups every day. At the end of our first full day in the city, we returned to the hotel tired and a little chilly so had a drink and dessert in the café before heading in to get cleaned up for dinner at Jamie's Italian, where I had the most delicious bruschetta ever! Oh the creamy whipped ricotta and perfectly seasoned tomatoes and rustic bread. Yum! 
