Chillin' in my home town

This weekend was relaxing. Ohh so nice.

Got off to a late start on Friday, due to a late night on Saturday. Travis and I hopped in a taxi with Srinivas and headed over to a cricket match. The journey was pretty amazing. Travis and I hadn't driven through the city during the middle of the day when traffic is in full force. My God it is crazy!

We were like a couple of little kids just ooh'ing and aah'ing at all of the near collisions and the sheer volume of cars, trucks and motorcycles teeming through the streets. We were so glad that it was just us in the car, and not a couple of other expats who have more Hyderabad experience because I'm sure they wouldn't have found the journey nearly as amusing as we did.



We got to the cricket match just in time to see Brendan, the Australian, head up to bat. For some reason, I had always thought that cricket was supposed to be a super hard game to understand, but I picked up on it pretty quickly and actually found it pretty interesting. I even tried pitifully to learn to swing a cricket bat. It's a lot harder than you might think. There are so many different kinds of swings you have to know depending on how the ball is thrown and where you want to hit it. It's nothing like swinging a baseball bat. That's for damn sure.

Afterwards, we decided to hit up McDonald's to grab a bit to eat. Now McDonald's is a bit different over here. You know, that no beef thing, so there definitely isn't a Big Mac. Instead, they have a double decker, chicken sandwich called the Maharasha Mac. However, I wasn't really feeling like a curry chicken sandwich, so I stuck with the plain ole' McChicken sandwich.

We then picked up Brendan and headed over to the Tombs, one of the 3 hot attractions in Hyderabad. Here they have built some pretty large temples over the tombs of Persian Kings and Queens that ruled over this area about 4 centuries ago.

Along with learning a small bit about the history of the city, we also learned an important thing about traveling in India. After we had paid at the gate to get in, there was another gate, and the man that opened that gate, Abdul, and walked up to us offering (more like insisting) on giving us a tour.

He hopped in the car, took us to the first tomb where another Indian man who appeared to be watching over the tomb gave us a demonstration of the acoustic properties of the building by standing next to this wall and chanting. It was quite amazing. The way these guttural tones resonated within this giant tomb was amazing.

Abdul then led us to the next tomb where he quite deftly operated our three different cameras, as he had us pose every 100 ft or so. He then walked us around to the back of the tomb where he informed us that the tour was over and it was going to be 500 rupees a person!

I said no way, told him I would give him 500 total. A poor counter offer, as I later learned. I really need to work on this bargaining thing.

We then went to Golconda Fort which is a rather impressive, massive fort that overlooks the city of Hyderabad. After our last tour guide experience, we managed to make it past all of the would-be tour guides and wandered around the fort on our own.

One of the great things about this place was the fact that you could wander anywhere. There was all of these dark tunnels that led to different parts of the fort and up to the roofs. We even managed to find ourselves a little bat cave, and although it was too dark to see the things, You could definitely hear them. Pretty damn spooky.



We made our way to the highest point in the fort where we got a pretty good look at the entire city and also, how flat this part of India is. You could see as far as the eye could see. Well, as far as the pollution would let you see.

The highlight of the weekend came after we left the fort, however. As we were about to hop in the car, to head back to the apartments a couple of kids with camels showed up and asked if we were interested in a ride. For 200 rupees, the three of us got to ride a camel. I looked like a stupid little kid with a monster grin who just had a big, giant ice cream cone given to him.

And damn, those things are tall! Sitting on it I was taller than the buses we walked past. I wish I had my camera when I was riding, though. The kids' faces as they looked up at me with the stupid grin on my face was priceless.

After the camel rides, dinner at Hai King. 40 year old Chinese food place. Decent food, cheesy decor and coy fish over the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. That's about all I have to say about that.

Afterwards, Neil and I went to a bar called 10 Downing. It was a locals bar that had music playing loud and King Fisher on tap, just like everywhere else. Bars are strange to me here. The bar was pretty crowded, but there was a grand total of about 15 girls who are being watched like hawks everywhere they go by the group of guys they are with.

You don't really see a bunch of girls that went out for the night to cut loose. The singles scene seems to be virtually non-existent.

Bars here close at midnight, so Neil and I were trying to figure out something to do afterwards and met a cricket player from Bangalore who knew about a late night club called Treasure Island. Unfortunately, he knew nothing more than the name and we ended up heading home.

Sunday was rather uneventful. Gym in the morning and went to the Taj Krishna for brunch. Super swanky place with a pretty impressive brunch. The highlight, however, was most definitely the Indian mariachis who serenaded our table with a lovely rendition of 'Hotel California' (pronounced 'Hotel Californee').

Afterwards, met up with Travis and Neil, hopped in a car with Srinivas and went to Meebaz to look into getting some custom clothes made. Since I plan on getting myself into some pretty damn good shape before I leave, I'm going to hold off on getting fitted until a little later in my trip.

The fabrics were nice, but service was bad. They had made some pants for Neil that looked like baggy, hip hop jeans and the tailor insisted that was the way they were supposed to be. Neil had to argue with the guy for like 10 minutes before he said he would alter them.

Followed that up with dinner at an Indian/Irish pub, very interesting. Guess what my barbecue chicken sandwich tasted like. You guessed it... curry. I should have known.

I then made my way back to the apartments for some computer time, all for your viewing and reading pleasure. ;)