Elder and Sister Martin Micronesia and India Missions: February 2020

We had the opportunity to participate in our second couple's conference for the India Bengaluru Mission.

The first half-day had a fairly open schedule as a few flew in from other cities. I had a bit of a cold. A few of the sisters joined in for a Rangoli demonstration by Ramya and then a hands-on opportunity to create designs on the steps in front of the Mission Home.

These conferences help couples become aware of and coordinate our mission efforts better. It was also an opportunity to get to know and uplift each other spiritually and mentally.

We all loved the change of cuisine-Cafe Rio style (Mexican food) made by Sister Thomas. She is an awesome cook. She spoiled us.

Day 2 - The meeting day

Between training and discussions, Sister Martin led everyone in some standing Yoga

Stretch....

Sister Thomas shows us a perfect tree pose. She's got it all together.

Below is one picture I took during a meeting while President Thomas led a discussion.

Sister Willnauer took a few of these pics

Group picture

Day 3 - Before some of the couples left to go to the airport in the afternoon, Sister Martin arranged it so on the way, we visited a couple of sites and had lunch.

Bangalore Palace.

In the ballroom. Shall we dance?

And Bangalore Fort -

Finished off with a farewell lunch at Barbecue Nation before some had to catch their flights.

As part of our assignment in Public Affairs and Communication, we were asked to attend a one day training conference in Hyderabad. Since we had never been there we extended it to a long weekend. We had a good time.

Since we have heard so much about Hyderabad Biryani, we decided to meet up with our friend and prior Mission Office helper, Vasanth, who is from Hyderabad.

Before going, I asked many people, "Which Restaurant has the best Biryani in Hyderabad?" Some would exclaim, "Bawarchi", others "Paradise". So, we decided to try out Bawarchi with Vasanth and go to Paradise the next night. Bawarchi has two stores, one with A/C and one without across the street. Since it was a little warm, we picked the air conditioning.

We enjoyed Spicy Chicken Biryani (only about $3), Kadu Ka Keer, some hot and sour soup and a cucumber salad. Sister Martin ordered some less spicy Biryani.

Paradise Curry

We actually enjoyed both restaurants, which each had different and distinct tasting Biryani.

I will have to admit, the Curry chicken I tried at Paradise was one of the best.

We went to Paradise Biryani with E/S Jensen, E/S Hurst and Rita from Hong Kong Area Office.

Earlier that day we did a little tour of Hyderabad, including a fun "street food" tour. We saw a lot of beautiful sites.

Charminar - they call this the Eiffel Tower of Hyderabad, but nearly as tall.

We met a lot of nice people that wanted to take pictures with us.

Watch your head in this stairway.

'Food Tour Begins

Oat Cookie, Macaroon Cookie, Osmania biscuit

Nimrah cafe - We started with cookies and sweets. Favorites were coconut macaroon cookies

Pistachio cookie, Egg/Veg puff

We were invited to go back into the kitchen to see the original and still working wood fire oven. Check out the electrical for this restaurant...

Breakfast Lukmi

Water Buffalo meat hanging in the shop

Feeding time for the goats - A few scraps tossed out on top of some garbage

Wholesale farmers market.

Now that's some jumbo size cauliflower

Probably our favorite was Govind Dosa

I asked our tour guide how long this "portable" street cart food vendor had been in this one spot. She said Govind had been here for about 15 years.

Govind, in the orange shirt is happy we liked his food.

Serving street food on newspaper is very common.

Time for some more desserts...

Then we went to Golconda Fort. There used to be a diamond mine here, Golconda mine.

Image result for noor diamond

This is supposedly the place where they found the Koh-i-noor diamond, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, now part of the British Crown Jewels.