I'm in Hyderabad, which was the expected (though perhaps not desired) outcome of all my flight time on Saturday/Sunday. Personally, I would have rather flown first-class to the Maldives or something, but instead I spent the last 4.5 hours of flying time on a small, shabby-ish plane from Singapore to Hyderabad, surrounded by a group of middle-aged men who all knew each other (and stood in the aisle around me so they could better talk to each other), and who were all drinking as much beer as possible and belching with equal enthusiasm. This, of course, was all rather unwelcome after the sixteen-hour flight from SFO to Singapore...
...but then I was picked up at the airport by both a driver and a security guard (my old friend Ismail, who now runs the cab program at work, hooked me up with the VIP treatment - although I felt I was more likely to be murdered by the security guard than the driver, since he didn't say a word to me while the driver was quite friendly). They whisked me to my hotel - being whisked anywhere is only possible at midnight, and only on the new toll road they built sometime since my last trip. That road is so fast, in fact (greater than thirty mph!!), that we were actually nearly hit by two expensive-looking sports cars that were racing each other. I have never seen a sports car here, and I have also never seen anyone racing - the competition here seems to be more about who can fit into the tightest space between two other vehicles, rather than who can go the fastest. So, things have definitely changed.
But some things haven't - I went to the office this morning and had coffee with Ismail before getting started, and it was great to see him. Then I met the team I'm working with here, had lunch, took a cab to another building to see a different team, and verified that the roads are just as horrible and chaotic as always if you try to cross town in the afternoon. Then I came back to the hotel, took an ill-advised but entirely necessary nap, had dinner (murgh makhani and garlic naan, and I don't even care that the naan was totally full of gluten because it was #worthit), and then worked through a variety of meetings and emails for the past three hours.
But now, it's 12:30am here, and I'm wide awake but am going to try taking a melatonin and sleeping anyway. Goodnight!
...but then I was picked up at the airport by both a driver and a security guard (my old friend Ismail, who now runs the cab program at work, hooked me up with the VIP treatment - although I felt I was more likely to be murdered by the security guard than the driver, since he didn't say a word to me while the driver was quite friendly). They whisked me to my hotel - being whisked anywhere is only possible at midnight, and only on the new toll road they built sometime since my last trip. That road is so fast, in fact (greater than thirty mph!!), that we were actually nearly hit by two expensive-looking sports cars that were racing each other. I have never seen a sports car here, and I have also never seen anyone racing - the competition here seems to be more about who can fit into the tightest space between two other vehicles, rather than who can go the fastest. So, things have definitely changed.
But some things haven't - I went to the office this morning and had coffee with Ismail before getting started, and it was great to see him. Then I met the team I'm working with here, had lunch, took a cab to another building to see a different team, and verified that the roads are just as horrible and chaotic as always if you try to cross town in the afternoon. Then I came back to the hotel, took an ill-advised but entirely necessary nap, had dinner (murgh makhani and garlic naan, and I don't even care that the naan was totally full of gluten because it was #worthit), and then worked through a variety of meetings and emails for the past three hours.
But now, it's 12:30am here, and I'm wide awake but am going to try taking a melatonin and sleeping anyway. Goodnight!
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