July 20th, 2010 - We left on our family's first international flight (To move to India for 2 years). The plane ride was uneventful really. Crystal got sick with a migraine headache on the first flight so we had to leave the airport for the medical clinic (First foreign entry stamps in our passport in Frankfurt, Germany) Then we only had 10 minutes to get to our gate for boarding our second flight to Hyderabad, India. We were lucky enough to be with a service usher so we got to go to the special VIP security checkpoint where they proceeded to ask us to open just about every carry on bag we had to check the electronics we had packed. First it was the Wii which they swiped with a cloth to check for bomb residue I suppose. We got a thumbs up from the supervisor when the test came back negative. Then it was the vonage adapter, then the telephone for vonage, then the bag with the alarm clock, the bag with the video camera, another bag with our digital camera, then the bag with our electronics cords for hooking up our A/V equipment, and lastly our portable DVD player. Thank goodness we remembered to pull out our 3 laptop computers and the i-phone and cellular phones or we would have been there another 15 minutes waiting for all thumbs up. I think the best look we got was when the supervisor ok'd our Wii gun. I realized I should have packed that one in the checked baggage when the security personnel pulled it out of the bag, but that was a tad bit to late. We made it to the gate at the departure time of our flight, luckily it had not pulled away from the gate yet (I think being 6 people in business class helped that one along). The gate personnel began giving us a stern warning that "You should have called us to let us know you were having troubles" as she explained that our luggage had all been deplaned and would have to be put back on the plane. We all rushed into business class where everyone was settled in and had finished probably their third round of beverages and snacks. Fifteen minutes and two rounds of service later we were off the gate and ready to take off for Hyderabad. The kids were great on both flights. It's too bad us adults couldn't be more responsible :-). The kids even got great compliments from the others in business class who had probably braced for the worst. When we arrived in Hyderabad we were the last ones through customs because we had to fill out 6 customs cards (one for each member of the family). The flight attendant assured me that only one per family was necessary. Our luggage all arrived safely except for one item. Lexi's infant car seat didn't make it on the flight with us and was probably victim to our deplaned luggage. So Lexi's first car ride in India was just like any other Indian baby: strapped to mommy's arms. It's a good thing it was only raining hard and their was only one 15 car pile up accident on the way to the hotel.
We did have an excellent driver that managed to find roads that appeared out of nowhere because there were no street lights on the main road from the airport.
The next day was Crystal's favorite. We were able to go to the mall to buy a new infant car seat. Below are some pictures of the traffic one has to deal with in Hyderabad. There is no way to explain the feeling you get when the entire flow of traffic is coming at you when your driver just pulls out in front of the oncoming traffic to make a cross turn. You just have to experience it for yourself.
Yes those are buffalo in the middle of the city =====>
Believe us there are much worse things going on in the streets of Hyderabad
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