Today marks three weeks of having been in India, and with the weekend I have exactly as many days ahead of me as behind me now. I mentioned this to a colleague, and he said “Oh, so you are already counting down the days until you leave?” He thought my focus on how many days I had remaining was a concern with my experiences here, and I had to assure him that it was quite the contrary… I can feel the end of the trip edging closer and I’m disappointed!
This weekend we made a lot of plans, a city tour, a concert, a cricket match… and some shopping around town.My coworkers who have just arrived are looking forward to it! About Wednesday though… things began to fall apart. The cricket match collided with the concert, so we canceled attending the concert… only to find out they didn’t get enough tickets for cricket last night. It’s too late now for the concert… so tonight we don’t really have plans anymore! Shopping is still on the agenda tonight (I keep talking about it, and then don’t end up going) however outside my window right now is a very heavy rain. Shopping is in two hours, yes, but when it rains here the traffic becomes a nightmare, and the sky isn’t letting up. We could be in for a very wet shopping trip. If it keeps raining (and some pretty wicked lightning also) I think I may skip it.
The problem with that, though is that I’ll still need inner, and most of the food here in UB City is outdoors. They have covered areas, but it will be very humid and wet. Most of the restaurants may be empty which might work in my favor… but we’ll see. The sushi restaurant is indoors, so I might go there… but I have a feeling everyone in the mall had the same idea. Decisions, decisions!
Perhaps just the hotel bar tonight, I’ve been amazed by their food a few times now off and on, first a lamb kebab that was fantastic, and pad thai (I know, I know… there are so many other Indian food options… but I wanted it!), followed up by an extremely spicy chicken tikka that was truly delicious. The menu actually has a “curry” section with about fifteen items, perhaps it is time I tried some of those!
I’m not too sad that today was a wash, tomorrow we are still trying to plan the city tour, the company would not accept payment from an American bank and we weren’t about to drop money into an Indian bank account without a receipt, etc., so we’ve taken a few locations we wanted to see and we’re going to ask the hotel if they have anything they know of. For some, it will culminate in the cricket match. For me… I’m not sure what I’ll do tomorrow night! Hopefully the rain stops and I can take some pictures, if nothing else. I haven’t had a lot lately. Next weekend is the Taj Mahal, I know I’ll take pictures then for sure!
Here’s a quick picture I took a while back. it was raining a bit that night but they had the fountain going in the square… and the decorative lights were lit. UB City is a very pretty place:
