Hyderabad!

I'm finally here!

After 39 hours of travel and 3 flights I'm here!

Atlanta to Chicago was an ok flight. The flight almost got turned around because of a kid who wouldn't calm down. I was sitting next to the poor mother and she was alone and she was at a loss because he had never done that before. But it worked out ok and we had a good flight.

Then I got to Chicago and got to meet up with Melanie, Julie, Angela, Ashlee, and Sean. Julie had a different connection but the rest of us were on the same, LONG, flight.


Julie with her luggage

I lucked out on the flight. I was able to be next to the window and I was sitting next to a couple that had the cutest baby. She was also really well behaved so I was able to see her and play peek-a-boo for a few rounds before she passed out for most of the flight.

I stayed up for a bit and watched Tron before falling in and out of sleep for the next few hours. It was funny because every time I woke up it was a different one of the couple sleeping next to me as they took turns making sure the baby didn't roll over in her sleep.

I finally woke up and was able to look out the window. We were flying over Afghanistan at the time. It was kinda surreal to look down at the mountains and know that we have troops fighting there and that a friend of mine just got deployed there. Beautiful landscape though. And Pakistan is gorgeous.

So I was REALLY looking forward to seeing the Himalayas on the eastern side as I came into New Delhi, but it was so smoggy that you couldn't see ANYTHING past a mile. It was bad.

New Delhi was rough. We had a 12 hour layover and you weren't allowed to go into the nicer areas of the airport until 3 hours before your flight... which for us meant 3 am.

So we had gotten in too late to go out into the city and explore but too early to check in. So we were stuck in this awful visitors' lounge that had hard chairs, bright lights and the glass surrounding it made us feel like we were animals at a zoo. We all kept having to find creative ways to stay awake.


Ashlee, Angela and Sean in the visitor's lounge

We finally made it to 3 am and booked it to the area to check in. And then we were done for two and a half hours... so we explored. And look what we found!


Elephants! In the airport!

So of course we had to take a picture:

Sean, Ashlee, Angela, Melanie

After going through security we finally got to eat something. So where do we go? McDonalds and Subway.


Not my picture but you can see the different options. I had the McSpicy. It was spicier than in the States and it was super yummy.

After eating we were able to chill for about 30 minutes before boarding. It was kinda funny boarding because they didn't announce it in English and we only caught on when others started to board.

It was a nice two hour flight and then I got into Hyderabad!

Seth and Melissa came to pick us up (our country directors) and Melissa gave us garlands of Jasmine. That smelled super nice. And then we went into the crazy driver's van.



Oh man... it was bad. He stopped the car, got out and walked around for a few minutes making phone calls to get directions THREE times. Here we are in this van, three girls with everyone's luggage and no phone and no idea of even where we're going. Yeah... that and traffic is crazy.

Examples:


Notice people are going in different directions...


These cute little rickshaws are everywhere


My driver and also notice the cows on the side of the road


People sitting in the back


A typical big road intersection


A little road

It was neat to see some of the city and to drive around. The actual drive took a little over an hour and it was nice to relax and enjoy the sites.


The Buddha in the middle of the lake



Some women on the side of the road selling mangoes

It was a crazy ride but then we finally got to the home. It's situated in a nice area.

Some pictures of the house and the area:

living room


common area


bedroom


roof


neighborhood

I'll post more later, I'm exhausted. Tomorrow: Golconda Fort