Hyderabad

Since I’m always updating my blog at work my colleagues became so curious that I promised to write one of my blogs in English, so it’s not ‘in code’ for them. This is the English one.

Last Friday we left with the 18.10 (6.10 PM) train to Hyderabad. It was a 2nd class sleeper train, which implicates the possibility to sleep. The beds were better than the one I have at home (my bed is like a speed breaker in disguise, bump after bump after bump). So after a while we were finished with reading and talking and everyone installed themselves as well as possible on their beds. My bag served as my pillow and my other bag I had hidden underneath my arms and my bed sheet. After fourteen hours of uncomfortable rolling around we arrived in Hyderabad.
(left: Charminar)

At 9:10 AM we were ready for a new adventure, but first: food and accommodation. Normally finding accommodation is not at all a problem. As soon as you arrive somewhere people swarm around you like flies, handing out business cards of their hotel, persuading you to go there “only to look, only to look”. This time we found an auto driver showing us around. We’ve seen some very shabby establishments, from ‘just redecorated’ (meaning paint stains all over the room) to small and smelly rooms. In the end we settled for a more expensive room, but… we girls all had our own bed! Normally there’s always someone on the floor or we’re sharing a double bed with three.

Hyderabad is a fairly old town full of history. A major part of the population is Muslim and this really leaves its mark upon the town. In Hyderabad you can find old Mosques, Hindu temples and state of the art cinema’s and hotels.

After a good breakfast we set out for the Charminar, ‘the Mosque of the four Minarets’ in the middle of the Bazaar area. Surrounded by a bangles(armbanden)bazaar and a fruit bazaar there was enough to see. Auto’s (riksja’s) swarmed around the Charminar like bees and everywhere you looked there were people walking. From sari to burka. Seeing all these women dressed in burka, walking high heeled and looking for the newest jewellery and make-up was an interesting sight.

Next we went wondering around a neighbouring Mosque, were also one of the bomb attacks had taken place. It is a weird sensation walking around a town of such diversity and beauty, knowing that not long ago bombs were exploding and knowing that the threat of terrorism is still present there. Banning those thoughts I walked around the bazaars, bargained with people and holding off beggars. Near the Charminar you can find four arches, reminding me of the Arche de Triomphe. We saw some beautiful buildings that day, not accessible but only to be seen from the outside. I felt I was walking in some Alladin film-set. Next to these buildings there were enormous trees with even bigger bats (vleermuizen) hanging from them. They looked like eagles, or maybe flying dinosaurs.
At sunset we went to see the Buddha statue in the manmade lake between Hyderabad and its sister town Secunderabad. We set off in a ‘danceboat’ with the worst dancers I’ve ever seen. Next to these dancers there we’re party people from (probably) Mexico and Kerala trying to change the boat in a floating discotheque. It was too weird and ‘un-Indian’ to explain properly. I just sat there observing everything laughing.

After this interesting experience we continued to have some good dinner in the posh part of town and went to sleep at 01:00. There was one more day to come!

Sunday we went to see the Fort of Golconda. This fort was built between late 14th century and the beginning of the 16th century. It is a magnificent place to walk around; it looks like it’s much older than the 14th century (due to bad maintenance I guess). Unlike European forts you can walk everywhere. If you fall down somewhere: bad luck. Litter and junk can be found everywhere too.

It seems like the majority of the people here don’t care how much they pollute the beautiful things they have in India. We saw a guy throwing an empty bottle not in a bin, but just up the roof of one of the fort buildings. So you at least don’t see it (must be his reasoning).

It took us a whole day just walking around there. We also were a tourist attraction in a tourist attraction. When I sat down after climbing 400 steps of stairs people were beginning to sit right, left and behind me. Before I knew I was in the middle of a big family picture…!

After the fort we headed back for the train station. We quickly ate our dinner and then we were off again. Off to Chennai.