Golconda Fort

With Steve as my companion, I've seen a lot more of Hyderabad  in the last few weeks.  We've been to the zoo, the national park (KBR), the Salar Jung museum... but my favorite so far is Golconda Fort.

Hyderabad sits on a plateau of granite rocks.  The builders of the fort took advantage of that to create their fort about 400 years ago (I think. You can look it up.)  As with everything in Hyderabad, it was a long cab ride from the hotel. Normally, there would be a small entrance fee, but last Sunday was a festival day so it was free.  We never did find out exactly which festival it was; the location of the fort has something to do with Tamil culture. 

It was very crowded near the entrance, with "official" tour guides trying to engage us and many people carrying all sorts of bags and containers -- turns out that these were picnic supplies.  We pressed onward and upward. There was some kind of music blaring from speakers high above us.   It was hot, humid, and steep.  We stopped to rest at an overlook and a guy approached, asking if he could take our picture.  Okay, sure -- so we posed for a few cell phone pictures with his friends.  They were a group of guys from Tamil Nadu.  We kept going, and resting, and each time we stopped there were people wanting to take our pictures.  It got kind of ridiculous, and Steve starting quipping, "That'll be 50 rupees..... 100 rupees.... 150 rupees."  The younger women and girls especially would get shy & giggly about posing with us.

Eventually, we realized that there were many separate processsions going on.  A couple of guys would be carrying a pyramid-shaped thing, and a few women would follow, each carrying something on her head -- an oil lamp of some kind, or a plate of bread or fruit.  Some of the women were carrying what looked like powdered dye -- orange & yellow -- and they would stop and paint the steps going up to the top of the fort.  Many of the women were barefoot and their feet were also stained or dyed orange or yellow.  We tried to be respectful and stay out of the way. 

We stopped before the very top of the fort because it seemed to be a sacred place -- people were removing their shoes and leaving them behind -- and we didn't want to intrude. When we got back down to the bottom of the hill, it was crowded with families.  Some were tending smoky fires within the old stone walls of the fort.  Some women had brought their goats.  (My friends at work say the goats would be slaughtered on the spot.) All in all, it was a crowded and festive scene.  And we were the celebrities -- always surrounded by the papparazi.

Life at the Ellaa

For this part of the trip, we decided to move out of the Westin.  It's a great hotel, but expensive.  By stepping down a notch, we could afford more space for less money.

The Ellaa Hotel is in a section of Hyderabad called Gachibowli. It's a little further from work, but I was tired of living in the middle of an office park.  This development was built about 10 years ago for the Asian-African games. To the west is a cluster of high-rise apartments.   To the east is a large stadium complex - 1 indoor and 2 outdoor stadiums.  They look nice,  but I don't think they've been used at all since we arrived.   that we can see from our windows.  Right next door is a gated community of about 150 single-family houses.  We call it The Village. The streets are tree-lined and lit. There's a green park surrounded by palm trees where people like to kick a soccer ball around. A security guard rides around on a bike. Weekend mornings, the streets are busy with people sweeping, washing their cars, walking with little kids. It's the nicest version of Indian life I've observed here, and I'm guessing it's very rare.

I had reserved an "Executive" suite here, but they were full when we arrived so we were upgraded to an "Ellaa" suite for the first few nights.  This suites had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, dining room (with a table for 8), a kitchen, and a balcony.  Wow.  It was so big that you couldn't hear the front doorbell from the bedroom.  Steve found this out the hard way when he locked himself out while I was sleeping.  He had to call on the phone to wake me up.

After a few days, we moved to our "Executive" suite, with only one bedroom, one bathroom, living room and kitchen.   We are especially glad to have a regular refrigerator, microwave, and electric kettle.  Steve's first solo outing was to Hypercity at the Inorbit Mall where he picked up a toaster, bread and butter. He needs his daily toast the way I need my coffee. 

Speaking of coffee:  It continues to be a challenge.  The first time I ordered a pot from room service, it tasted like reheated instant, leftover from the day before.  Yuck. For awhile, I had to resort to making instant myself (at least it wasn't leftover).  We went back to room service coffee, which had improved for some reason, but a pot only holds 3 little cups so I'd end up making instant too. So a few days ago, Steve called room service and ordered "two pots of black coffee, no milk, sugar please."  As always, they asked, "For how many people?" so he answered "Four."  We got one pot of coffee, with cream in it, and four cups.  After that, Steve went back to Hypercity and bought some kind of make-your-own drip coffee that the store guy claimed is very popular with Westerners.  It's pretty good.

The Ellaa has several restaurants and we have eaten at all of them.  The food is.....interesting.  Breakfast is always a buffet, featuring a mix of Indian and Western style foods.  I still can't get used to idli (rice dumplings) and sambar (a spicy stew) for breakfast.  I need to convince my stomach that it's time for lunch.  They make fresh juices every day --grape, lychee, etc.  Watermelon juice is still weird though.

We have been trying Indian foods like biryani (a Hyderabad specialty), tandoori, roti breads, etc. Even in its toned-down for hotel guests form, the Indian dishes are usually just too hot for my palate. We really expected to like the Kebab Pavilion.  It's outdoors and looks very romantic in the hotel brochure.  Unfortunately, our evening there was spoiled by unruly children running and rough-housing all over the place. And we thought American children were spoiled!

The hotel's Italian restaurant just opened.  When we went, we almost had the place to ourselves.  The food was actually not bad, but wasn't exactly Italian either.  One night I had "Lasange" (lasagna) that seemed to be topped with a slice of Kraft American cheese.  Hmmm. 

I think we need to get out more!

Halfway Around the World and Back

Since my last post, I've been back to the States for 2 weeks and now I'm back in Hyderabad along with my husband Steve.


The trip itself, on Qatar Airways, was pretty incredible.  I got the royal treatment all the way -- a personal escort  from the taxi through the airport to my seat on the plane; a layover in Doha's premium lounge, which is a whole separate terminal just for the elite; and a 13-hour flight in a business class seat that not only lies flat but also has a built-in massager.  Among other goodies, Qatar Airways gives each business class passenger a pair of pajamas (or pyjamas as we spell it here in India). 
I spent a week with my sisters in Annapolis, MD.  We always have a good time together.  One of the highlights was an Indian fashion show featuring my new SKs.  Everyone agrees that we should start a movement to adopt this form of dress in the US. 

After Annapolis, I went home to CT for a week.  That was wonderful, too.  It's so relaxing to be in a place that's 100% familiar.  I especially enjoyed my glitch-free home-office infrastructure: wireless headset, WiFi, dual monitors, etc. plus a return to working in my PJs.

We started the trip back to India at about 8 pm on Monday July 5.  We took a private car from our house to JFK.  Not as comfortable as I had hoped, but the timing was much more convenient than the other options.  After Doha, the business class lounge in JFK seemed small and tattered.  The flights were good, no glitches, great service etc. but this time it seemed more gruelling.  We finally checked in to our hotel at 5:30 am on Wednesday July 7.  I'm still too jet-lagged to calculate how many hours or days we were in transit.