Wow....it's been a while...Egypt (and Beyond)

It's been a while since I have had time to write from At Home in Hyderabad...if the truth be told, we haven't actually been "at home" all that much!  It was busy, busy, busy there for awhile...Amy Suzanne had her Spring busy-season at Deloitte .... and I went to the States for my home-visit (see last blog entry).  I just had time to get myself un-jet-lagged - then we were off to Egypt, and a Nile Cruise - including an amazing side-trip Jordan, for a real out of India vacation experience of a lifetime... As always, we booked every iota of this amazing trip through our good friend Eve at Fugazi Travel - and once-again, five-star treatment all the way around!

We are so spoiled...it was almost like we had the entire country of Egypt to ourselves!!  Because of the 25 January Egyptian Revolution, things in the tourist trade are down well over 50%.  From what we could see, I'd say it was much worse....but - if anybody is planning to go, it is 100% perfectly safe and we never felt ill-at-ease at any time.  If you book with a reputable travel company like we did (see link to Fugazi Travel, above) - the Ministry of Tourism gives you an armed security guard to go everywhere with you....our guy was named Mohammad - and he had a fully automatic machine-gun under his coat at all times...so - yeah...we felt like VIPs the whole time.

There were some instances where "we" were not protected...like every evening when we were in Cairo and Amy Suzanne needed her horse "fix" - - she made friends with a couple of brothers who owned a string of Arabian horses and went for sundown/moonlight rides around the Pyramids and the Sphinx - very special indeed, and the brothers took good care of their new American friend....I don't think they'd ever seen a tourist who could ride like Amy!!

I'll post links for our Facebook Photo Albums - at least the ones through our visit to Abu Simbel - below.  The photos and their captions tell a pretty good story of our trip, so I won't bore you with the details here.  Rest assured that we had a wonderful time and suggest that you go to Egypt this year before the crowds come back...you will be glad that you did!!  By the way...the photograph above is an un-retouched, actual photo taken on our first day in Cairo...out the picture window from our room at the Mena House hotel - - the greatest view from a hotel room I have ever had.  It would simply take your breath away...no lie!

Oh...as long as this blog is officially about Hyderabad and India...I think it bears noting that Amy and I and Beloved have been here for one full year (plus a few days!) now...and we still love it.  Of course, I could do without the gridlock traffic (which is due to pig-headishness and not any accident) and the May/Summertime weather (although this summer in Hyderabad was one of the mildest on record...it was hot, but not so hot that it "would melt a brass doorknob")...

But some of the stuff that happens here is just so out of the ordinary, you just have to take in stride and make it a part of the experience.  I think there are some ex-pats who make the mistake of moving TO India and don't ever experience living IN India.  Hey, I enjoy the company of fellow ex-pats...and I certainly enjoy playing in Hyderabad's only Bluegrass Music Band (see the YouTube Channel for The Banjara Hillbillies Bluegrass Band ) - we will be playing at the World Music Day Festival at the Taj Deccan Hotel next Wednesday night, 15th of June.  But we live in a neighborhood with very few white faces, a tea-shack down the street and lots of friendly Indian neighbors of all stripes...politicians, doctors, servants, Hindu and Muslim alike.  I never thought it would happen, but I actually like cricket...and watch most of the games that are televised, as well as the Deloitte Tax Tournament....which is pretty good cricket, too! 

But there are still some very strange things that happen here....things that just make you shake your head and say "I don't think we're in Kansas any more, Dorothy!"

Take today for example: Coming back from Beyond Coffee, I saw some bizarre-looking Indian transvestites harassing people at the Jubilee Hills Checkpoint...I know they try to disrupt weddings and parties... and try to extort money or they will cause a ruckus...(I read about them in Sarah Macdonald's book, Holy Cow!  If you have never read it, I highly recommend it - - if you are planning to come to India, consider it REQUIRED READING, along with William Dalrymple's Nine Lives )  But what these colorful transgender wackos were up to today, I have no clue.  I will say that in the future...if they get too close to me, they will find a cricket bat up their wazoo!!

Anyway...on to the Egypt Photos:

Cairo, Egypt - Part One

Cairo Egypt - Part Deux (includes photos of us with Mohammad's machine gun!!)

Cairo - Part III

Luxor, Egypt 2011

Nile Cruise - Part ONE

Nile Cruise - Part Two

Abu Simbel

Thanks for reading our blog...as infrequent as the updates have been.  Next edition: Jordan and the Banjara Hillbillies public debut!

Catching up! The "Banjara Hillbillies" and Travel Updates...

So much has happened since I last updated our blog!  Team India beat Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup semi-finals (on the night I left for my first-annual "home visit" to Southern California) and went on to beat Sri Lanka in thrilling style to capture the World Cup for the first time since 1983 by a score of 277-274! I actually wish I had been At Home in Hyderabad for that one!!  I heard it got pretty wild!

Then ... I spent a little over two-weeks visiting our home-base in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties.  On my very-first day home...I picked up some new golf-clubs after spending an hour with the club-fitting guy at the TaylorMade Center at Roger Dunn in Santa Ana...and spent 8 of the next 16 days trying them out at a variety of courses in the area... Robinson Ranch, Goose Creek, Hidden Valley, Rustic Canyon, Hacienda C.C. - it was a virtual Tour de Golf!!

I had strategically planned a number of geographical gatherings to get together with friends...one in Thousand Oaks for the NCAA finals, another in Alhambra for a night of general "beer and fellowship", a night out at Bahooka Restaurant in Rosemead with the Tiki Crowd, a super-nice night out with friends for wine and dinner in Santa Clarita...  We had a reunion dinner for my old parish of St. Barnabas the Apostle... I had lunch with Fr. William Bower, I went to Mass at St. Mary of the Angels in Hollywood.  I went to two different L.A. Kings hockey games, an L.A. Angels game and a Dodgers game at Chavez Ravine.  My Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mark put me up in their extra bedroom in La Habra and put up with my late-night comings-and-goings (which was awesome (thanks so much, guys!).  And - the visit closed with a super-dinner with great friends at the "Cat and the Custard Cup"!

Basically - with all of the golf and partying - I burned the candle at both-ends so bad that the flames met in the middle and I was a total burn-out!!  I got sick in the middle of the trip and actually didn't shake it until I had been home for a couple of weeks!  I don't think I will make the same mistake of "over-booking" my calendar...I needed a "vacation-from-my-vacation.

Getting home meant getting back to work on the music.  "Music?" you ask?  Yes...due to some word-of-mouth and a world-class venue (the Beyond Coffee shop in Jubilee Hills) - a few other ex-pat fellows and I have formed a Bluegrass band!!  It started just as a "pickin' session" on Thursday nights...just a couple of guys who love the music and have fun playing.  We expanded our repertoire to include some Celtic songs for St. Patrick's Day....and now (Hyderabad is a big city but really feels like a small-town the way news and info spread through our ex-pat community!) - we will be playing at "World Music Day" some date around the 21st of June (with bands and musical acts from all over the world) - and then...the U.S. Embassy has asked us to play at their annual 4th of July party!!

When we are all together (something that has not actually happened yet!!) the line-up includes myself on guitar and spoons and some lead and background-vocals, "Dan the Banjo Man" who works for the U.S. Consulate, along with another great guitar-player and vocalist, Elvin.  The Banjara Hillbillies (that's the name we came up with for the band....some of us live in Banjara Hills!) line-up is complete with Patrick on mandolin and backing vocals.  If I do say so myself...I think we are beginning to sound pretty good...

See for yourself and tell us what you think - check out our Banjara Hillbillies YouTube Channel to see videos of some of our weekly practice-and-pickin'-sessions.  If you are in Hyderabad, be sure to stop by Beyond Coffee on Thursday nights from 7:00 P.M. to 9:30 P.M. - and Sunday afternoons from around 2:00 P.M. onwards...and hear us perform live!  There will be more updates coming about our upcoming gigs!!  It's all for fun and it's pretty exciting to watch it all come together so nicely!

Amy Suzanne and I were planning to take an "after-busy-season" vacation to South Africa...but - we really couldn't get a trip of that magnitude on the calendar in so short a time.  Then, we thought briefly about Thailand or Cambodia....but - those places look like they'd be even hotter than Hyderabad right now (we've been as warm as 44-degrees C. this last week - that's almost 112 F.!!) ...

So...we have decided to go to EGYPT!!  The recent troubles there have subsided and the discounts really cannot be passed up!!  We leave in just two-days (on Thursday the 12th of May) and we will be returning (hopefully with a few hundred photos for our Facebook page!)  We will try to check-in from our tour - - actually Egypt and Jordan - and provide updates...

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers....we have a friend house-sitting and watching Beloved the Lhasa Apso while we are away!  Check back often for updates!!  God bless!!

Jaipur Once Again...(Elephant Polo Photos, too!)

It's a good thing we like Jaipur so much.  The first annual R-10 Deloitte PPD (Partner Principal Director) Retreat was scheduled to be there and we were definitely going to be there as well  !!  Not only was this a chance to return to this wonderful city...but Suzanne has been wanting to go to the Silver Spurs Equestrian Stables since before we even fully decided that we were coming to live in India!!

This time we would fly direct and non-stop to Jaipur...and not have to endure the torture of an 8-hour drive from New Delhi.  The flight was pleasant enough (more on the return flight later in this post!) - both taking off and arriving right on time.  We decided to go a full day early and spend two extra days after the actual retreat for some horse activities...so - this was as much a "mini-vacation" as it was a business trip.

The Deloitte Retreat was to be at the Jai Mahal Palace Hotel ...one of the Taj group of hotels, so - you have to know that it has to be a special place...  We arrived at the hotel and just sort of unwound a bit...saw the bar and partook of its wares.  The pool was too far away to go to, but it was very pretty.  The grounds of the hotel were spacious...it had a walking/running track, lots of open spaces...a giant, life-sized chess board (that was set up wrongways...I had to explain this to the manager!!) and - - a huge grass field for...of all things:  ELEPHANT POLO!!!

That's right... on the morning of the first day of the retreat...there was a group of tourists taking one of those fancy five-star trains around the Golden Triangle...and one of their events was to play elephant polo on the spacious grounds of the Jai Mahal Palace!!  We got to go down and "inside the ropes" (it helped to look like the Euro-tourists...we never got asked for our tickets!!) and pet the elephants and a big old camel named "Raju"...  Amy Francis was thrilled, to say the least.  She wanted to actually get on one of the elephants and play some polo - but - I think that's where the tour-guides from the train company drew the line!!  THAT was to be for paying customers only.

Pay we did, actually....we bought a ton of "Jaipur Polo Club" gear...while we were shopping at the makeshift souvenir stand set up by the polo club...one of the Deloitte partners from Hyderabad - Wally W. (he affectionately calls me "Stuart" because of a misprint in a local Hyderabad magazine a few months back!) cracked me up.... his wife was trying on a "Jaipur Elephant Polo" fleece vest and I said it looked "cute" on her...

Wally said to me: "Gee, 'Stuart'....we don't need any help spending my money here!!" 

The polo was fun to watch...albeit really SLOW as you can imagine...elephants don't exactly "gallop" to the ball! 

After polo...the Partner/Director Retreat started so I lost my wife for a few hours.  I had made an appointment in advance via e-mail (what a small world this has become....Jesus never got more than 100 miles from his home-town!!) to meet with the fellow who sold us our rugs last time we were in Jaipur...so - he sent a car around to get me and I got to indulge in some serious shopping. 

Here are photos of Day One (and part of Day Two) in Jaipur (including the Elephants!!) on our Facebook Photo Album Page

The evening came and we were treated to a festival-style dinner with Rajasthani dancing girls with pots of fire on their heads, brightly-painted elephants (see photo of ASB and one of them at the top of this page!) and decorated camels...a great spread of Indian foodstuffs and an open bar...what's not to love about that!!  The feast was at the Rambagh Palace Hotel....truly a hotel beyond anything I have ever seen before.  We were so taken by the place that we got a tour...and - - when we inquired about pricing for the next two nights...we decided against staying there...we'd have to take a second-mortgage out on our house!!  What a palace, though!!  I also need to mention that it was COLD....really, really cold!!  1-degree C. (about 34-degrees F.) - - the first time I have been cold since we arrived in India!!

The next day found Amy Suzanne back in retreat meetings and I killed time around Jaipur...

That night was another dinner...this one was truly strange...

A long long long bus-ride was taken to a place I'd have to say was like a Disneyland version of a Rajasthani "village"...it was called the Chokhi Dhani Resort - and - well....it was interesting, to say the least.  Dinner was served "ethnic style" sitting on the floor and eating God-only-knows what.  Had this been our first week in India...I would not have touched anything on my plate...but - I've gotten to be pretty adventurous...even Amy ate most of hers...

Maybe I'm not supposed to say anything....but, evidently some of the other partners did not think it was all that hot because some took cabs out of there almost as soon as we arrived... and the hotel restaurant was packed when we finally got back to our rooms!

The best way to describe what it was like is to show our photos from our Facebook album: Jaipur Part Two

As you can see from those photos....the next day was spent out at the Silver Spurs Equestrian Stables where Amy was able to get her show-jumping on.  She had such a great day...and I had a great time watching her!!  The place will have a bed and breakfast soon (if they don't already!) and we will certainly be back!!

The next day she rode again and we got to bed early so we could make the 06:30 A.M. flight back to Hyderabad.  Needless to say...I'm the one who like to get to the airport early and Amy has learned that it's better to give-in and go along with me.  Unfortunately...this day there was a ton of ground-fog and the flights were all delayed up to three hours!!!  Amy was not well-pleased...but she found a way to make herself comfortable and got some much needed Zzzzzzz's.  See photo below:

Anyway....we made it back to Hyderabad and all was well...another amazing trip to Jaipur...we will be back, that is for certain!!!

Next up....Falaknuma Palace and our new Bluegrass Band..."The Banjara Hillbillies"!!