And....the Journey Began...

Krishna in charge

I was told by fellow expat friends in India that "once you set the date" to leave... the time will slow to a virtual crawl. And I found that for the most part, this was very true. I was like a kid sitting in afternoon math class at around 2:00 P.M. and staring at the clock, anxiously awaiting that 3:00 bell to ring!

After my hip-replacement surgery 13-weeks ago (on 7 February) - the entire household "team" pitched-in to help us vacate the upstairs part of our Banjara Hills home and get everything down the stairs and into the living room for organizing and eventual shipping. We had had the Indian relocation specialists in to survey what we had. We were taking no furniture (the house we leased came fully furnished) ... a few nice woollen rugs we had picked up on our first trip up to Jaipur in Rajasthan...all our treasures we had picked up along the way during our various travels...and a wide variety of artwork, religious items and all of our clothes, (of course!)

The best part about organizing things wa the help I received from Krishna and Jyothi's to kids,,,Akhila and Akshay. Because I was still on the "walker" post-hip-replacement surgery...my only job was to point at piles of things and bark out orders: "Akshay....put this with Madame's clothes... Akhila, this goes to charity..."

The kids were so helpful and so efficient...we made really short work of the whole process. We had set a date for the actually packing and shipping.... 22 April at around 9:00 A.M. was to be the date and the hour.

In the meantime, we had agreed, for expedience sake, to allow our landlords to begin the necessary repairs and cosmetic things that needed to be done in order for Amy's replacement to move into our house and taker over both her position and our house! In hindsight....maybe not the best idea. It was a constant flow of Indian guys we didn't know. Often heard in our house the last month: "Who was that??" "I have no clue!" But around the chaos, we were able to keep our sanity and look forward to the goal!

Over the Easter weekend, we used a coupon for a "Couple's Spa Weekend" at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Hyderabad which included a couple's massage and the Easter Brunch. We have eaten at the Park Hyatt too many times to count, and their Chef's Market Menu is where we bought all of our chicken, salmon and most of our veggies for the final two years of our time in India...but this would be the first time we actually stayed there overnight. It never seemed worth it because the hotel is walking-distance from our house in Banjara Hills.... but we checked-in and had a lovely time. Facebook photo album link below.

Here are some photos from the packing portion of our journey from Hyderabad to Salt Lake City:

Links for Albums:

Our Last Weekend in Hyderabad

Why Cricket is a Religion in India

Park Hyatt Easter Brunch 2014  

My Farewell Lunch at Bombay Duck  So many wonderful memories in one great album!