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Published: August 12th 2010
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India wine country
Sula Vineyards the view from the patio where we listened to good music and had great wine all night. Yep it’s 4 a.m. ….wide awake….. don’t have to be up for a few more hours….. pull out the iPod and chill for a few hours. This is how my morning starts every single day. I could go workout but I’m tired I only slept for almost 5 hours today and with only eating 2 meals a day the last 2 days I’m covered. Head down for a quick breakfast as the Management team is meeting at our hotel so we can all carpool together. Today no one but me and Rohit are downstairs it’s pretty early and it’s nice the staff knows us by name now and they bring me my usual fresh squeezed orange juice. No Tropicana for this guy I’m on fresh squeezed now. We round up the troops and head out for the 3 hour drive north to Nashik India.
So we're 30 minutes into the car ride and just made it to the North Mumbai suburbs which looks just like the heart of the city. The buildings here are all taller than the FNB tower back home which is impressive considering this is a heavily populated residential area on this side of Mumbai. This must be where the money crowd lives because the towers are designed with all glass the scenery is nicer and I've not seen anyone living on the street. We get 2 hours into the trip & hit extreme congestion.
This is where I appreciate the crazy driving done by the locals. We go off-roading in a Toyota mini-van through grass, mud, anything we can to avoid the traffic above us. Everyone else around us was doing the same no one here stops for anything. We made it past the traffic and hit Nashik just 20 minutes later than expected.
This is considered the rural part of India with apparently over a million people so there's lots of farm animals walking on the roads & the people ride mopeds to get around. Much different vibe here than in Mumbai roughly 15 million less people up here. There's lots of open fields & people carrying water on their heads I assume to deliver water to their family. Nashik is up in the mountains in what's known as the "wine region of India" It looks like Oregon with mountains up here in the upper elevation.
We get to the office & they greet us & we tour the facility. The audience looks a lot different here than in Mumbai. The women are all wearing their native attire & you can tell the people from Nashik are not as influenced by what's happening in the city.
I head up to meet the team working on another one of our projects and receive a warm reception. I spend the morning training with the team great session lots of good questions. We head upstairs to their rooftop cafeteria to have lunch with the Quality Checking team. You can see the mountains all around on this part of the building. The food is excellent I can't tell you the names of any of it but chicken was on the menu. We had some good laughs & it offers me a great chance to learn more about their culture. I really enjoyed the workday at this location too bad we're leaving tomorrow.
We head to the hotel to change after what's been a full day. Tonight we're headed to Sula Vineyards for dinner & wine tasting. We drive up to the vineyard & sure enough this place looks like Napa Valley. There's vineyards as far as the eye can see a large lake, even mountains & everything is green from all the rain. Its hard to imagine this is the rainy monsoon season because its partly sunny, and feels like a nice 79 degree breezy day.
We head off on the wine tour & learn how the process works at this vineyard which has been here only 10 years. The harvesting season here is in January which explains why there's no grapes on the vines now. We head in for the tasting & kick back. We head out on the outdoor patio, looking out towards the mountains, lake, and green carpet like hills. My camera is working overtime so I can capture this place. This place can only be described in pictures. The best part of this night so far has been the team we're with & the great music. Never thought I'd come to a vineyard in Nashik India & hear Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, The Police, REM, and Sam Cook on the sound system. Everybody's singing along to some oldies and enjoying the nice breeze. We keep the party going and walk over to their on site Italian restaurant. More wine, great Indian inspired italian food, laughing & great company. The closest experience I can compare this to is a good night at the Olive Garden in Omaha. LOL Yes the Olive Garden minus the great scenery and culture.
Its around 10p.m. & we've all been up since 5 a.m. Back to the hotel for a good night's rest. Tomorrow its back to the office in Mumbai. Check out this days pics via my Facebook page . Goodnight from Nashik only 18 + hours by plane from Omaha.
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Deepali
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Hi Lonnie, We ate at an Indian restaurant at Sula since the Italian one had only vegetarian food on its menu. :) Glad you liked it. -Deepali