My trip to India

Hello, this is Kevin writing for the first time.  I just got back from my trip to India and I would like to tell everyone a little bit about it.

First of all, my journey to India was filled with a lot of hassle.  I went through Hong Kong but my plane arrived late there and I missed my connection to Delhi.  I waited in line for 1 hour while the person from Jet Airways tried to help the people in front of me.  Finally, we was done and then tried to help me but she was of no use.  She transferred me over to the Cathay Pacific person as they were the ones who were late.  They were trying to find me a flight for that evening so that I could arrive in Hyderabad in the morning.  I was trying to tell them that I only needed to get to Hyderabad.  I didn’t care which other city I went through.  There was a flight through Mumbai that could connect to Hyderabad but they weren’t listening.  All of a sudden, the girl from Jet Airways left and put up a sign that said Closed.  I was like where are you going.  And she said we are closed and Cathay will take care of it.  A long time later, this nice man helped me out as I was able to fly through Chennai to get to Hyderabad.  I arrived in Hyderabad at 8am and was lacking lots of sleep.

The airport in Hyderabad was very new and very nice.  I was able to find the concierge for the Taj Banjara hotel.  This hotel is where KIC set up for me to stay.  I arrived at the hotel within one hour.  The hotel was very nice.  As I travel overseas to China a lot, this hotel was very familiar to me.  It was dedicated more towards the Western style.  The rooms were very nice and they had many amenities.

Later that morning in my room, I received a call from Anjani asking what time was good for me to come and give my first sample.  We settled on 11am.  A driver picked me up just before 11am and took me to the clinic. 

The clinic is very clean and the people there are very nice.  There were many people there for fertility reasons.  People like myself coming from afar and also many local people.  I met Anjani and Dr. Samit.  Dr. Samit and I went over the plans for what he was going to do after I gave all my samples and after our egg donor arrived there.  He was very professional, but very warming at the same time.  You could tell that he cared very much about his job and the people that he interacted with.

Within the hour I gave my first sample.  After that, I was kind of like, okay, what do I do now.  Well, Anjani had set up some site seeing with a couple that was there for the same reason I was.  That afternoon we went visiting a couple of historic buildings and many different shops.  After a long day, I headed back to the hotel.

My next two days were basically the same as the first.  I woke up early and had a Western style…eggs, bacon, cereal, toast…breakfast.  At 11am, I went to the clinic to give another sample.  I then went site seeing again with the same couple.  We saw many different museums, older temples, burials, and forts.  It was all very cool to see all that history.  We received some information from locals that were hanging around all these sites.  You would think that all they want is your money, but in reality for just a few bucks they will give you a nice tour and tell you all the history there is to know about where we were.  Whether it was true or not, I don’t know, but it was very nice to have someone tell you something about what you were looking at.

For those of you that have never travelled to an area such as India or China, it is quite the experience.  In Hyderabad there are many different scenes.  From the poor to the rich, you will find it all.  And each part has its own fascinations.  You are able to see how people live in different ways especially by the stores that they own and the homes that they live in.  Near the hotel, there were many restaurants and shops, from Indian style to Western style.  So there was everything around in case you wanted to try things or wanted to stick to your usual eating and shopping routines.

I met 3 wonderful couples on my trip as well as a single father.  One of the couples just had twins and the single father just had triplets…all girls.  The other two couples were there to begin their surrogacy process just like Angela and me.   I hung around with one of the couple on a couple of occasions as we travelled to some museum, shops, and also a flea market type area.  On the second evening, all of us went out for dinner one night to this amazing restaurant that was on top of this building.  Anjani met us there too.  The food was really good and we all shared our stories about where we were at in the process.  The couples who already had children, told their stories about how wonderful the whole experience was.  I loved to hear this as I hoped that I would be back in India sitting at dinner with Angela and others telling our story and our journey to other couples.

On my third evening, two couples and myself went to this unbelievable place called the Falakuma Palace.  It had just opened its restaurant to people that were not staying at this place as guests.  We went in the evening and it was a magnificent place.  I could only imagine what it was like during the day.  It seemed as it was at the top of the only hill in Hyderabad.  The architecture of the outside and inside was fabulous.  The food in the restaurant was amazing.  There was only one set menu and you were able to get everything on the menu in as big or small a portion as you wanted.  We definitely all left there stuffed.

On my final day, I again went to clinic around 11am and gave my final sample.  I said goodbye to Dr. Samit and thanked him for all that he was doing for us.  I then went to the pearl district where the clinic has good friends at a shop where you can get great deal on any kinds of pearl jewelry there is to offer.  I picked out a few things for Angela…double beaded necklace, bracelet, and stud earrings.

By this time it was time for me to head back to the hotel and grab a taxi to the airport.  I gave Anjani a call and thanked him for everything that he had put together.

My trip back to China was much better.  I made it there with no delays and no problems.  I guess there was one problem, I was now off to work in China for 2 weeks.  Until later!