India move experiences 2

We had our precious little baby girl in September and my life is totally revolving around her right now. Haven't gone out except for doctor checkups. Having a tough time dealing with my son's tantrums when it comes to sharing parents love with his little sister. I had a wonderful delivery experience at Apollo, Jubilee Hills and would recommend it to everyone returning from US to Hyd. I was so worried on how the facilities would be here but it's so much like there if you are ready to pay. Had a normal delivery and happy with overall experience. Now dealing with some postpartum blues and aches and longing to start my Zumba workout upon completion of 6 weeks. Looking out for good gym here but could not find one that is somewhat closer to how gyms are in US. If you are going to stay in posh areas such as Banjara and Jubilee hills, you'll have very good options but for those living in other areas, it's so difficult to find a proper gym for Women in particular.

Coming to baby stuff here, they are very expensive if you are looking for imported stuff. Aveeno baby wash small bottle is 1000 Rs while we could get the same thing for 6$ there. So, I got most of the initial baby stuff from US.

When I had my first baby in US, I didn't follow any traditions and that's how I like it as they don't make sense to me. But for the second baby that I had in India, I was flooded with advice from everyone on what I should and should not do, what I should and should not eat, how to take care of baby etc. and I was getting so tired of it. Prepare for these things if you are planning to have a baby here.

We got lot of items shipped from US to India. Lot of baby stuff, my son's toys, lot of electronics, kitchen/baking stuff, creams, kids' clothes/shoes for next few years and so on. We found some shipping company online that ships to India frequently and had good reviews. There were multiple shipping options. We could rent a container, or we could ship few boxes. We went with shipping few boxes option as we didn't want to move any furniture. If you want to move furniture, you might need half container or full one. Some companies give free shipping option to employees. Check out if your company provides something like that. So, the shipping companies first ship to Mumbai or Chennai or some other places where we have ports and then our stuff reaches its destination through Trucks. There can be some damages during this transit and so it's better to take insurance if you are shipping expensive stuff. We got 2 big TV's, big speaker systems and some computer related stuff etc. and so we were charged significantly in Customs. That was the sad part. So, account for that also in your overall shipping expenses. Our shipping company delayed our stuff for many months. Shipping takes forever and you cannot really estimate the time when you would receive your stuff. So don't buy "soon to expire" or things that kids would outgrow as this process could even take up to 6 months.

So far, our India experience had been good. We had some challenges along the way with in-laws health issues but we overcame it by god's grace. Another small challenge I had was that, it was difficult to do out of state and out of country trips as our vacation time would usually be spent on visiting parents/in-laws/relatives' places. 

If you are thinking of moving back to India, have a strong motivator to move back so you don't think of coming back for every small challenge you might face. You will definitely face lot of challenges and changes considering the life we have in US, and you might compare everything in the first year but slowly you will start liking it there and you may not feel like returning if you made your life comfortable there. Most important factor is financial ability. If you have good income and savings, you can live comfortable life there. Everything is so expensive in India and so please plan your finances properly when you plan to move. You might have some savings but all that will go away very soon. So, a stable income is very important.

Also, if you already have a GC or Citizenship, you could move back happily when kids are young (the younger, the better), stay in India for as long as you want and if your kids plan to do higher studies in US, you could come back at that time if you'd like. If you want in-state college tuition fees for your kids, it would be advisable to have them do few years of their high school in US in the place where your preferred colleges are.

India move experiences 1

We moved to India after staying in US for 6 years and I wanted to document my experiences so it can benefit others and will also be a memory for me in future.
Our biggest motivator to decide to move back was that my father in law got really sick and my husband wanted to be close to him and take care of him. Since parents do so many sacrifices for us, it was a sacrifice we made for them. We moved to Hyderabad in July and so we escaped hot weather mostly. I would advise around this time of the year if you are planning to move back so it's not too hard on you.

We identified some school while in the US by looking up on the internet in December timeframe as that's when all admissions happen. We closed out on one based on the proximity to our house and by the term "International" attached to it and the affordability factor and sent parents to block seat. So as soon as we moved here, my son had to start with UKG (PP - II) and that's when we checked out the school and it is nowhere close to international standards. But it was too late by then to research and find some other school. So, we decided to go with the same school this year. Sad part was the pre-primary kids have pink uniform, even boys and we had a tough time convincing my son to wear that uniform and get used to it. And the sudden transition from a day care / pre-school kind of environment to UKG in India is taking a toll on my son. They have so much homework and very little time for any fun stuff. I can say 90% books and 10% activities while it was vice versa there in US for kids this age. So, it's a long way to go for my son to get used to this education system. That's about the school

We purchased a villa in Bachupally, Hyderbad couple of years before moving to India as our research indicated that this area had lot of potential for future growth. But unfortunately things changed and some of the ventures that were supposed to happen in the area didn't. One learning from this process was that, we should not buy a house without actually seeing it. We relied on the internet and our families and took a decision just based on that. But it makes a lot of difference when you see it yourself and take a decision. Luckily we had some good schools around that area and kids didn't have to spend lot of time in school bus. But it was a bit far for other extra curricular activities. So try to look for all the current and future needs and take a decision about buying home.

One good thing for kids living in a small gated community was that they were free to roam around the community, make a lot of friends and have lots of fun. Since we meet with all our neighbors regularly for some events or kitty parties and get to trust them, we can leave the kids to play around without having to follow or monitor them all the time and we don't have to worry about their security as the security guards won't let them go out of the community. If your kids are very young, they will most likely lose the American accent and they will also easily pick up Telugu.

If you like to be around people, relatives etc. and want your kids to grow in such an environment, India is the place to be. There are so many gatherings, functions, festivals etc. and if you are a people person, you'll definitely like it. You'll get to know all latest fashion trends and might end up doing a lot more shopping than in US. If you have a decent income, you can have all the luxuries that you cannot get in US. If you are in IT, the hours are kind of crazy. Offices expect you to work late to support US timings. They don't mind if we go late to work but they do mind if we leave office early. Leaving office at 5 pm was like a dream. It used by around 8.30 pm or 9 pm by the time I go home and kids would have finished dinner and would be ready to go to bed by then. So I hardly used to spend time with kids on week days. We definitely need parents or in-laws support in India as we don't want to leave the kids in day cares or after school care facilities in India. They are not as great as they are in US. So have a back up for your kids at home if your work hours are crazy.

I'm expecting my second one and had to go for multiple scan & doctor appointments and found the wait times to be very frustrating and the commute is always so tiring due to heavy traffic no matter what time of the day it is. When it rains, the roads are even more pathetic, and you'll be struck in the car for hours sometimes if you have to visit some busy areas.
Recently I had been to a famous diagnostic center for a scan, they charged me quite a bit, made me wait for 2.5 hrs in the lounge, finally let me in for the scan which was done in a matter of 5-10 mins and then made me wait for another hour to type the report and give it to me. It was so irritating. Inspite of all this effort, the report came out to be totally wrong. My doctor was surprised to note the drastic differences in the report from the scan I had a week back and asked to get another scan done by some referring doctorand when we did that, the numbers looked more realistic and comparable to my previous week scan. This shows how some big centers are taking lot of money and giving wrong results and affecting people's lives. If the same thing happened in US, we could even sue them, but we left it here as we had lot of other things to deal with.

will be continued in the upcoming blogs ....

Smokey Mountains Trip

- Stay in Gatlinburg. Lot of fun things to do such as Sky rides, Gondola Rides (nice experience), Ripley's Aquarium, Ripley's Believe it or not and lots of shopping
- Don't go to Guinness book of world records show as that is utter waste of money (30$ per head)
- Hotels are very expensive in Summer & Fall
- Drive thru smokey mountains and take pics at viewpoints. There are some nice waterfalls within 1-5 mile hikes. Wear comfortable shoes if you plan to go for hiking to see the falls. If you are lucky, you might find some bears too.
- And go to Cherokee, Indian trial etc. if you are a first-time visitor. It's good to see how Native Americans lived in early days.
- If you go as a group of friends, it's fun to stay in the huge cabins in the woods. It's so much fun. You have to carry all the groceries and cook there.

Atlanta Trip

Important places to visit in Atlanta

- Georgia Aquarium
- CNN center - expensive. only funny thing was to know how weather news works
- Coke Museum - u can drink lots of samples and worth visiting it once
- Swami Narayan Temple - wonderful lighting and architecture inside. Must see
- Global Mall for all Indian shopping, Beauticians, Food etc.
- Balaji Temple if interested
- Lenox mall for all branded shopping if interested
- Lot of Indian restaurants. Some of them we visited were, Saravana Bhavan, Woodlands, Gokul Sweets, Indian palace, Bombay Chef, Shri Krishna etc.
- For gold shopping, we go to Malani Jewelers. Good collection. Make sure to bargain as per Indian rates here. 
- And definitely visit Patel Brothers for their snacks and all kinds of Indian groceries as they are much cheaper when compared to other cities in US
- If you still have time, go to Chattanooga, a nice hill station 2 hrs from Atlanta

Washington DC Trip

Must see things in Washington DC -

- White House (See on both sides and take pictures)
- Washington Monument (if u go early in the morning before 8.30 am, u can buy tickets to go on top of this monument)
- Museum of Natural History (love the diamonds here and my son loved the amimals)
- Museum of American History (First lady dress room is a highlight here)
- Capitol Hill - you can take tour tickets for this and go inside..but u should not carry any food, water or any sprays. I had to dump them all.
- Washington War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- If you have more time, you can checkout more museums like Air and Space, Art Museum, National Botanical gardens, Arlington Cemetry, National Auquarium etc.

Some Tips -

- Take a hotel in Arlignton area if you dont find one in downtown. Nice 4 star hotels come pretty cheap here in priceline. But parking will be expensive. We stayed in Hotel Palomar once and parking rates are very reasonable here. There are other hotels like Sheraton where we had to pay 20$ every day for parking..Outrageous.

- When you are ready to visit places, either you can take a CAB and come to the national mall or get your car and park it in Ronald Reagan Building. Its 10$ here. Other places it costs around 20$ per day.

- For those with kids, there is a big McDonalds in Air & Space museum. First time we visited, we didnt know and struggled a lot. We ate some food that we got from home as there were no restaurants near by and if we take the car out from parking, we had to pay another 15$ unnecessarily.

- After visiting white house, monument, lincoln memorial, take a cab to go to capitol hill as its very far to walk. CAB will cost less than 10$

- If you still have time, you can check out Luray Caverns in Virginia

This is it for now..Will add more as I remember..

Disney 3 Night Cruise Trip & Disney Magic Kingdom

CRUISE TRIP PLANNER:
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3-Night Disney Bahamian Cruise
Day 1 - Port Canaveral, Florida 4:00 p.m.
Day 2 - Nassau 9:30 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
Day 3 - Castaway Cay 8:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m.
Day 4 - Port Canaveral, Florida 7:30 a.m. 

SHOWS ON THE CRUISE
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- Disney Dreams – An Enchanted Classic - It plays at approximately 6:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m @ Walt Disney Theatre.
- The Golden Mickeys - It plays at approximately 6:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
- Toy Story – The Musical - 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on the Disney Wonder in the Walt Disney Theatre, located at Deck 4
- Till We Meet Again Party - Till We Meet Again is a 30-minute deck party located on Decks 3 and 4 in the Lobby Atrium, Midship, that begins at
approximately 10:00 p.m. the night before Debarkation Day. Available on all Disney cruises, this final farewell event invites

Restaurants onboard: (Each one has a theme of its own and a feast to eyes)
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Animator's Palate
Parrot Cay
Triton's
Beach Blanket Buffet
Palo

TIPS expected:
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Per Guest per cruise 3-Night
Dining Room Server - $12.00
Dining Room Asst Server - $9.00
Dining Room Head Server - $3.00
Stateroom Host/Hostess - $12.00
Dining Manager - Your Discretion
Room Service - Your Discretion
Palo - Gratuity included
Babysitting - Gratuity not expected
For your convenience, a 15% gratuity is automatically added to bar, beverage, wine and deck service tabs. All gratuities can be charged to your room charge.

Tips from me:
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- Take cash to pay for tips and for use in Bahamas if required
- Check-In luggage has to placed outside staterooms the night before debarkation day. So, pack your luggage in such a way that you keep last night and debarkation day's clothes in a different bag.
- Formal dining restaurants such as Palo in Disney cost a lot and it's really not that great and can be skipped, to avoid spending a lot for gratuity and for buying very formal dress/jackets etc.
- There are 3 other dining restaurants and many other informal fast-food corners. You will be assigned to one restaurant every day for dinner, so you get to taste the different food and ambience.
- There will be pirates of Caribbean party at night on second day after dinner and there will be so many desserts and food again on the deck. So, keep some room for these when having dinner on 2'nd day or have early dinner if possible. It will be very chilly at that time on the deck. so don't forget jackets and pirate costumes if you like.
- There will be common laundry and ironing room, if you want to wash your clothes.
- There are nurseries for kids till age 3 and kids club for older kids and parents can leave the kids there and have fun in adult pool or adult pubs. They give us a pager and will page us if the kids need us.
- Take 2 pairs of swimming clothes if you are going on a 3-day cruise

- Bahamas beaches are so beautiful and very windy. You get tanned very much. so don't forget sunglasses and sunscreen lotion.

- You can rent tubes there if you don't know swimming.
- Disney provides lunch in castaway cay island but in Nassau, we hv to pay and eat outside and it is pretty expensive in Atlantis hotel
- If the sea is rough, the ship moves sideways, and you may feel dizzy and nauseous. so don't forget to take over the counter motion sickness medicine
- Approximate expense for 2 adults + 1 kids would be around 2000$ for a 3-day cruise (as of the date this post was published on).

We also went to Disney magic kingdom and here are my tips -
- First go for a round of the entire park and take fast passes wherever fast pass is open and you can come back to that ride at that time to avoid standing in long lines.
- You can use the Disney railroad service which stops at almost all locations in magic kingdom when you want to come back to some place faster without having to walk again
- The castle has beautiful lighting at night and fireworks. take tripod if you want to capture those spectacular fireworks in your camera
Take the schedule & map as soon as you enter the park and follow the schedule.
- Don't miss the parade where all Disney characters dance thru the roads with beautiful costumes
- If you want just chicken and fries' kind of lunch, go to cosmos restaurant in Tomorrowland
- Don't miss Philarmagic 3d show. It's so cool and kids & adults will hv fun.