Growing a Beard

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I’m writing this on the plane to Dublin from Frankfurt, there was just an announcement about the weather at my final destination, heavy rain and thunder storms…I think I’m gonna jump off the plane before it’s too late. Haven’t been able to post anything for a couple of weeks, been very busy at work with finishing everything off but also spent a lot of time with my friends. Went on vacation all last week and got myself a well deserved tan :)

I finally got my visa sorted out and could leave the country without any problems. Yesterday I landed back in Hyderabad after one week of vacation in the magical state of Kerala in south west of India. After landing in Hyderabad I was driven in full speed to the Commissioners office in order to collect my “Exit Permit” which was another session of smiling and nodding followed by a stamp and signature in green (a special green ink is used for all official signatures). This was followed by four trips in the car á la 40 minutes all over the city: the hotel for shower and changing, Peshwari in Sheraton for last supper and my final portion of Paneer Tikka, back to the hotel for final packing and finally to the airport just before midnight, and all this in the period of six hours. Paula and I dozed off as soon as we got to our seat in the plane and didn’t even wake up for the take off.

We landed in Frankfurt 9 hrs later at 8:30 in the morning. The best part of the flight was the Bollywood sci-fi movie which, in true Bolly style didn’t make any sense but was very entertaining at 7 in the morning. Landing in Frankfurt was like stepping into another world and all the Christmas decoration made me feel like I was one step closer to home. After two months in India with sun and heat I had completely forgotten about the season and that it’s as the matter of fact December with Christmas Eve three weeks away.

Sunset over the backwaters in Kerala

My stories from Kerala are too many and too long to tell in this post so I will post more asap. Also look out for new pictures on Flickr and my Picasa photo album.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have now started descending towards Dublin airport and we’ll be landing shortly. Please fasten your seatbelts and make sure…”

My trip to India is now sadly officially over and I got to go.

See you guys very soon!

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After finishing my breakfast which consisted of nearly everything available at the buffet, I finally finished the layout of this blog and later in the afternoon I went on a long walk to the Hi-Tech City where the Google office, among others, is located.

Because I landed yesterday at night, I wasn’t able to actually see anything of the surroundings, and boy I was up for a surprise. After leaving the hotel, where a short walk to the elevator includes at least five employees bowing and calling me Sir and most guests looking like diplomats (hence the bomb check of entering cars), the first shock wasn’t far away. Right over the road from the hotel lays a slum neighbourhood, and I’m talking about a real one with the whole package of naked children, stray dogs and accommodation made of whatever available. I must say stepping out of a luxury hotel, it’s a funny feeling to face the poverty and the real life of millions of people.

After walking for 15 minutes I felt like I’d walked the wrong way since I didn’t meet anyone, but two minutes later I realised the reason for the lack of people and traffic. The hotel is apparently surrounded by an extremely protected area where not everyone is permitted entrance (the slum is closed off by a fence). Twenty minutes later I passed the office and then went on to the village centre. All labourers have the day off on Sundays and that’s when they all go to the town centre for shopping for the coming week. Streets where full of people and everything was on sale, plastic shoes, meat, fruits and greens etc. It doesn’t take long to be surrounded by curious people when a camera comes out, as if being white and looking generally lost doesn’t attract enough attention. Everybody was looking at me with a curious but friendly look and they didn’t seem to mind being photographed and were happily posing.

On my way back I met the driver from last night, who drives me around whenever I need a ride for free, and he gave me a funny look when I told him I had walked into town.

“Why didn’t you call!?” he said. “Didn’t know we were goin’ out” I said.

He gave me a ride back to the hotel and now we have a date for tomorrow morning at 8:15, to the G office of course. Time for ordering some food, think i’ll go for Paneer Butter Masala….

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After one hour of sleep on Friday night and check-in at 5 in the morning, I was sitting at the gate waiting to board the plane for Frankfurt to later continue to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. With a look and feel of a zombie, I boarded the plan and from there it got a bit blurry. I think I was gone the whole trip which took two hours and in Frankfurt I literally got of the plane and on to the next. Two hot meals and a Bloody Mary later and 3-4 hours of sleep, here I am 39 minutes from Hyderabad. On our way we have passed cities like Ankara, Tehran, Karachi and Mumbai. The temperature supposes to be +27 C and with the local time being 22:30, I would say it’s HOT!

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