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February 07, 2009
Back to India...
... and Hyderabad.
I rolled into Hyderabad, India several days ago but I've been too busy to post until today. India is incredible... just as I left it. You can't help but love a country who's domain suffix is ".in"
The getting here was a bit of a close call though. It started in a podunk airport in WA state that was supposed to fly us to Seattle (my nearest international hub) but that didn't quite happen. First they told us they couldn't fly us because there was fog in Seattle. Then they told us the plane was broken and they had to get a new one. Then they told us about the fog again. Finally we just rented a car and headed out to Seattle. Well, I'm glossing over our interaction with the airline which was pretty damn baffling.
I hate you AVIS... and let me tell you why: Who's sick joke was it to give us a Chrysler PT Cruiser? We spent about 20 minutes just trying to figure out the buttons as cars have changed significantly since 1950 and we didn't have any cultural context for it's crazy ass '50's design. I've never been more convinced that Chrysler deserves to go under.
So we began our fantastic voyage in the 50's mobile. I was driving REALLY fast. You see we only had 2 hours to make it to Seattle... some people would consider the trip from my town to Seattle a 4 hour journey... they fail to consider "higher speeds" as a solution.
We rolled into Seattle in a frenzy as there was like a 15 minute window to catch the checkin for our plane. We somehow stumbled upon the route to SeaTac using a combination of google maps and staring at planes taking off in the sky.
Once there we literally lept out of the rental car foddered the poor lady to get through the stupid checkout so we could catch our flight and then ran through SeaTac just in time to miss check-in.
Luckily we were dealing with the world's greatest airline Lufthansa. They totally let us check in late then porsonally escorted us through security so that we would catch the plane. It was amazing just as everything about Lufthansa is.
I don't know at what point I fell in love with Lufthansa and decided to leave the life I knew to live in their terminal in Frankfurt... probably after they served amazing German cuisine on the flight (first time I've ever liked airplane food). Or perhaps it was their selection of German microbrews. Who knows... but just be aware that if you lose contact with me, I'm living my dream with Lufthansa in an airport Terminal somewhere in Germany.
OK, so the flight from Seattle to Germany was nice. The flight from Germany to Hyderabad was the first time I've ever had issues flying, and I fly a lot. First of all, we'd already been flying for 10 hours and travelling for about 20. Then we board the next leg which is about 8 hours and the plane is an OLD airbus with like 2 sq ft. of space...
The guy on my left kept sniffling his nose... the entire flight. I put on my iPod to avoid it but soon realized that though I could no longer hear it, it was living on in my brian. Then the person to my right was nice... but just didn't get the point. She kept trying to tell me about things that I needed to see while in Hyderabad. I kindly explained that this is not my first time to India or Hyderbad... then she carried on telling me I needed to see the Charminar, so I let her know I'd already been there twice. Then she told me "But you've got to see it". I just shook my head. She also did not observe the international gesture of putting headphones on to have some alone time. No. She tapped my arm to tell me about the places I've already seen.
Finally, I feigned illness to get her to stop, but then the flight attendant though I was really sick. So seconds before we land they insist that I take some chamomile tea. As we are barrelling towards landing, everybody has their trays up and I'm holding a scalding cup of tea... which is getting unstable.
We finally landed which was cool because I wasn't sure I was going to make it through. Our German pilot who had no discernable accent up until that point busts out with "We've landed here in beautiful HYYDDURRABADAAAH". Apparently Germans only pronounce city names with an accent. Either way he was a Lufthansa pilot so I consider him somewhat like a prime minister in my new life as a Lufthansa groupie.
Hyderabad built a new airport since I'd been there last. It was beautiful. Kinda like a hanging garden decor... a hanging garden with the slowest baggage handlers on earth.
We got to the resort which is absolutely amazing. In fact, today there are numerous celebrities here. Granted they are Indian celebrities who I don't recognize at all, but hey!
My room looks like something out of a James Bond movie. It's got mod design down. Well except that my standing lamp is on one of those christmas tree power cords that you press with your foot to turn it off LOL but that just gives it character. There is this room controller next to my bed which controls all of the lights and ac and stuff, even turns on the DND sign. It's great. It has a freakin' 360 degree shower cell in room. How beautiful is that.
Things are going as planned thus far. Next stop San Jose, Costa Rica. Unfortunately, we will be staying at a Best Western there. I'm not quick sure how we made a leap from a 5 star celebrity resort to the Best Western in central america but hey, I'll deal.
That's about it. Nothing majorly exciting so far. We'll see what next week holds as I still have a week here before taking off to CR.
Later!
Posted by Decemberice at February 7, 2009 01:43 AM