Let me tell you, that first drive from the airport was a doozy and it only got better in the daytime. No traffic lights, only honking and more honking, a little inching, crossing in front of traffic, people in the street, passing slow cars on the wrong side of the road, motorcycles with entire families on them. Tiny three wheeled taxis crammed with at least four or five people.
Most expats are out of town since it's a long weekend, so around the apartments is very quiet. Mike, Aron and I have been doing our best to explore-yesterday Alon and I went to Golgonda fort--some old fort built on granite out of granite, with nice views of the city when you climb to the top.
For dinner we found (and by found I mean asked Zack since he was here for five months) a great Indian--apparently Punjabi-- restaurant called Angeethi. They were nice and made sure our food wasn't too spicy, and I was happy b/c they had raita, yogurt sauce, my favorite.
Today was the best. We went to brunch at a swank hotel called Taj something or other, full HUGE buffet, after we'd had one full plate, we realized we could get eggs made to order, so we did. Cheese, eggs, bread, chicken tikka, pesto lamb, it went on and on, and then there was dessert-come kind of espresso chocolate puddingy cake-yum. Wash it down with two cappucinos and you have three very happy expats. I could go there again for sure. And here I thought I was going to lose weight while in Hyderabad!
Once we rolled ourselves out of the hotel, we headed to Charminar, Hyderabad's main tourist attraction.
'The monument was built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah in 1591 to commemorate the eradication of plague, shortly after he had shifted his capital from Golconda to what now is known as Hyderabad[1]. Legends has it that the emperor Quli Qutb Shah prayed for the end of plague and took the vow to build a masjid on that very place.' (wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charminar
The line to actually climb the tower was very long, so instead we figured we'd get a true taste of India and we walked up and down the street lined with stalls and shops selling bangles, junk, shoes, sugar cane juice, pearls etc etc. 'Where are you from madame?' 'Come here madame' 'Bangles madame?'...we got a big dose of begging, of bargaining and of buying!
hey friends, shall I ruin the surprise? you are getting bangles from India...
We also learned the head bobble. Gopaul, our driver, was great at it today. Ask him a question, he bobbles his head and answers for you. When bargaining for bangles, everytime I offered a price, the man would bobble his head in thought, and then work on countering my offer.
Had a field day with the new camera...
tomorrow we are flying kites with the rest of the Checkout team--fun times!
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