Go Steelers!

I just have to say that I'm happy that I was able to watch the Steelers beat the pants off the Seahawks (sorry, that was just for Liz' benefit!) And see my favorite Steeler, Hines Ward, win the MVP. Although, I must admit, getting up to watch the game at 4:30 AM and not getting to watch all of the new commercials did put a damper on the excitement of the game. I had to go watch it at my friend's place (I don't have cable) and his mother thought that I was crazy to get up that early to watch the game, though I know many, many Indians who would get up at that time on consecutive days to watch cricket. It's all a matter of perspective I guess...

I've added pictures from December and January to the blog now, so enjoy!

Hyderabad

Liz has accepted a training position back in the US, so she's left me all alone and headed back home. Well, I guess she hasn't left me completely alone; the kittens are always there to keep me company and drive me crazy (not necessarily in that order). :)

Before she left, we decided to take a trip to Hyderabad, the capital of the state of Andhara Pradesh. We were dying to get away for a bit and the trip took on extra significance due to Liz' upcoming departure. We took the train again, and I must say, there is a significant upgrade between 3rd class AC (experienced on our Kanyakumari trip) and 2nd class AC here.

We both enjoyed playing tourist and spending our time sightseeing. First, we saw the Birla Mandir, a beautiful white marble temple. Then, we took a boat trip to the Buddha statue in the middle of the Hussain Sagar. We met up with a friend who had moved back to Hyderabad from Chennai. He took us for a drive around the city, including Hi-Tech City where all the BPOs are located. I have to say the architechture there is so much nicer and more creative than that in Chennai! The climate is much cooler and less humid than Chennai and the air itself feels cleaner and less polluted than Chennai.

The next day we took a trip to Ramoji Film City, where many of the Bollywood movies are filmed. They have 21 or so different gardens that can be used for all those dance scenes where the hero and heroine are transported to an exotic location in the middle of the movie. We got the feeling that not very many foreigners visit here because people kept coming up to us and asking to take pictures with us. I was thinking that we should have negotiated our entry ticket prices down a bit, since it seemed as if we were part of the tour. :) Anyway, despite that, Liz and I enjoyed taking melodramatic posed pictures throughout the gardens.

For our last day, we took a tour of Golconda fort-all 750 steps of it. (Boy, as we were puffing through it, we were thinking that we need to get away from our desk jobs more often!) :) The views and architechture there were amazing! I was especially amazed at the hall where you could hear whispers clearly from one side of the room to the other. After that, we headed to the Char Minar (4 towers) bazaar to shop! Hyderabad is known as the Pearl City, so Liz and I both splurged on some pearl jewlery. This bazaar is also known for fancy footwear and glass bangles, which we both indulged in. We had to bargain for everything, so I'm sure we paid more than we should, but we were both happy with the bargaining that we did.

Sunday we had a nice relaxing brunch at the Taj hotel before catching the train. Overall we enjoyed our trip; however, we both felt that we were stared at/ogled at so much more than we are in Chennai. Not that people in Chennai don't check you out, but I feel that they are a bit more subtle about it. Liz also had her butt grabbed three times while were there-and once was even in the temple!!! I didn't have the same experience, and I'm not sure how to take that-is my butt not as attractive as Liz'??????????? Hmmm...maybe on that note I should not allow comments to this post. :)