Goodbye Delhi - Hello Hyderabad

Sad to say, jet lag kept me from seeing very much of Delhi. I never went shopping and I had to cancel my plans to see the city with Sharad. Instead, I spent most of Friday night & Saturday resting and hydrating. A true tour of Delhi will have to wait until another time.

I enjoyed hanging out at the airport waiting for my flight to Hyderabad. It was my first chance to do some real people-watching. Oddly, even though I was one of very few Westerners in the crowd, I didn't feel strange. In Delhi they don't make you remove your shoes to go through security but they did send all the women into a screened booth to be wanded by a female security officer. After security, everyone waits in the same large area for their flight to be called. There are restaurants -- I saw a KFC -- and high-end stores. For boarding, you go through the gate and wait outside for a bus to arrive. The bus takes you to the plane & you wait outside again to board. It had rained -- torrentially -- just before I left the hotel but luckily not while I was at the airport. I was in no rush and Indians are a little pushy, so I ended up being one of the last to board. Someone was in my seat, and someone was in her seat, and so on until we had completed a round of musical chairs. It was a bit cloudy and dim, so I didn't see much of India out my window, but several times I could see fireworks down below. I wonder if it was a holiday? or just normal Saturday night?

When I got to Hyderabad, I was met at the gate by Srinu, a manager from the Westin. Very smooth and charming, he chatted me up while waiting for my luggage and handed me off to my chauffeur for the trip to the Westin. By the way, the Hyderabad airport smells like pizza. It's very new and far more attractive than the Delhi airport, in a Disney kind of way. There were green plantings and a little brook instead of just dusty roads and barriers. And it was about 20 degrees cooler than Delhi. This driver did not want to talk, which made for a relaxing, if long, drive into the city. All the way in, I could see signs of the building boom: roads under construction, cranes atop buildings in progress, etc.

The Westin is everything I expected. My room is much like the one at the Crowne Plaza, including the glass-walled bathroom arrangement, but the whole thing is newer and a bit more Western. Since I am a Preferred Guest at this hotel, there was a little presentation of fruit & sweets waiting for me. I finally got my appetite back -- I had a chicken club sandwich with a glass of white wine and really enjoyed it.

This morning, I slept late in my Heavenly Bed and read the Deccan Chronicle with my cup of coffee. The Sunday funnies were two strips: Garfield and The Phantom. The crossword has some interesting clues: "Bat and ____ and field; in short, play cricket." (4 letters, ends with L). I've spent most of the day so far settling in. I unpacked my bags, sent my laundry to be done, sorted out my business papers, etc. and now I am about ready to finally go shopping. Unless it turns out that stores are closed on Sunday, which could be true for all I know.