My parents left today to begin their two tours of Nepal and India. They should have a great time and I look forward to meeting up with them in Delhi in two weeks to hear about it (and then fly home - booo). Our time here is going much too quickly. We leave our apartment for a four day trip around the golden triangle in 12 days.
L and I were lucky enough to get a three nights out with my parents here to watch the kids.
First night we went to dinner at Dialogue in the Dark. http://www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com/ There are several locations worldwide, one happens to be a the local mall here. At our location you have dinner in complete darkness, and when they say complete they mean complete!!! The waiters are blind and the idea is to experience what they do. We had a choice of two different dinners, one was a combo plate and one was 4 courses that I think included soup, we chose the combo plate. We were walked into the dark room L holding the shoulder of our guide and me holding L's shoulders. For those of you who worked with us at camp, it was a giant trust exercise! I'm not sure what the meals are in other Dialogue in the Darks around the world, but in Hyderabad its standard Indian cuisine, you choose veg or non-veg. The meal consisted of rice, naan (or roti maybe), a veg curry, salad, and a fried veggie patty with a yogurt sauce. So your spoon and fork aren't really the way to go here. You really need to use your fingers, first to find out what's there and how its laid out on the plate and second to eat! If you did this somewhere that had more finger foods, it might be easier but fingers it was to eat the rice. I ended up using my spoon at the end to eat the sauce with some rice in it. Surprisingly, we didn't wear our meals! Very interesting experience, worth a try if you've got one nearby.
Second night out, we went to Falaknuma Palace. It took 10 years to build (1884 - 1894) by the Prime Minister of Hyderabad, and then purchased from him by Nizam VI a few years later because he liked it so much. The Taj resort chain now operates it (30 year lease from the Nizams). So the reason we went... I met the lady that is currently their jazz singer, she's an expat from the UK, so we went to hear her sing. She's excellent. (www.jazzykel.com) She joined us on the tour of the palace too, wow is that place beautiful. There is a dining room that has a table that can seat 101 people, it is incredibly long! And apparently the acoustics are such that the two people at either end can hear each other speaking in a normal voice. She sat and talked with us for a while, we told her the Parmesan cheese story (if you haven't read that one see the Groceries post from Jan 6, 2014), she the proceeded to work Kraft cheese into an Adele song.
Third night out, we went shopping. We both went looking for some traditional Indian attire. For those of you who know me, I'm not a fan of shopping, but this was okay. We ended up both getting something at one store, which also had good stuff for kids. They had to fix a seem on one of L's shirts so the kids and I went back the next day to pick it up and get stuff for them. Then we ate at the mall, found a pub, ate some yummy pizza and had KingFischer Blue beer.
Fourth night out, was me and the kids at the mall and in a rickshaw. That was an adventure, we took a rickshaw to the mall, which isn't too far (4 km), but further and faster than we have gone in one yet. So I get in and hold on to both kids tight. T's comment partway through was this is fun, we're going so fast. So we picked up outfits, played at the park at the mall, had dinner and came home, in a rickshaw (auto) again, this time in the dark. Again the kids loved it. On the way back I was thinking, at home I wouldn't even think of driving the car without the kids clipped into their 5 point harnesses (T) or booster seat with seat belt (K), but somehow here, where the traffic is insane, I think its a good idea to take them for a ride in essentially an open sided trike with no seat belts. And then I see a family of 5 on a motorcycle or a kid asleep on one, and I think they're probably safer in the auto rickshaw, and when in Rome...
Then when we got dropped off by the rickshaw at the apartment, we heard a lot of music, and noticed a parade (short) coming down the street. There were lots of drums, two camels and some colorful pillows (looked like) being carried over peoples heads under a colorful awning. Never thought we'd see that tonight!
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