So we woke up early (9am! that's early for us here) on Saturday and headed out into the city. We had a driver for the whole day so he took us wherever we wanted. First stop was Golconda Fort, about 30 minutes from our hotel. It was built in the 13th century and was basically a whole walled city. Our guide told us there were 360 queens for one king (who knows if that is accurate, but he kept referring to me as "queen" throughout the tour). The fort was really interesting and reminded me a lot of the ancient ruins in Greece. It was SO hot though (98 degrees) so it was hard to climb up all of the 700-some steps, and I started to feel dizzy and sick at one point so we had to go back down. Bah. Lesson #1: always bring the big bottle of water, not the purse-sized one!
The most interesting part happened when we were walking through part of
the ruins and heard this weird screeching
and chirping. And flapping.
BATS. Mother effing bats.
The guide told me to hand him my camera and turn on "BIG FLASH!" and off he went, marching into this room full of freaking bats while us and the two Indian girls who randomly joined our tour stood there like "WTF" and
hoped none of them would fly out toward us. Actually the Indian girls covered their mouths with their dupattas (scarves) and yelled OHH!!! OHHH!!!! It was hilarious and disturbing all at the same time. FYI, the little lit up things in the picture are bat eyes. The tour guide told us that there were about 25,000 bats living in the fort. Awesome.
Since I wasn't feeling so hot we headed out of the fort. The driver told us not to pay more than Rs 500 for the tour but the guy at the gate insisted on 750 and wouldn't take less. We were overwhelmed and frustrated at this point (the guide kept asking us for more money for the tip even though we gave him a lot, and then there were kids and ladies begging outside the gate, plus the heat was really intense). Since I felt like I was going to pass out we went to the Salar Jung Museum next instead of our planned trip to the bazaar.
Salar Jung was a former Prime Minister and was incredibly loaded because everything in the museum is from his private collection -- it's actually the largest private collection of art and antiques in the world.
We weren't allowed to take photos, unfortunately, but there were tons of paintings, furniture, clocks, glassware and statues from around the world. I found a photo online of one of the coolest things there: a double-sided wooden statue of Mephistopheles and Margaretta. The man is in the front and then the woman is in the back.Our driver actually came in the museum with us and served as an unofficial guide, which was nice. One thing we noticed was that Indians only had to pay Rs 10 (about 22 cents) for a ticket while foreigners had to pay Rs 150 (about 3 dollars). Even so, it cost less than 7 dollars for three museum tickets.
They have this really old clock that's a big tourist attraction...all of these people, including a bunch of school groups (kids go to school on Saturday here) were sitting in folding chairs and on the floor in front of the clock waiting for it to chime on the hour. These little doors open up and figures come out and drum the hour. It was really funny because everyone abruptly stood up and left once the clock chimed.
After the museum we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and walked around the GVK Mall. It's in Banjara Hills, the posh area of the city. The mall had a lot of expensive stores and people were dressed more American-style and carrying designer bags, etc. I thought maybe I could get some deals but no luck; the Fendi sunglasses were still about $400. Bah. Oh, and you have to go through a huge security process to get in the mall, just like at the hotel. I'm so used to it by now that getting wanded down everywhere I go doesn't even phase me.
After the mall we drove to Charminar, which is the main landmark of Hyderabad. It's in the old section of the city and a big bazaar surrounds it. It became pretty apparent once we entered the area that we wouldn't be going to the market. Even sitting in the car people were staring and pointing at us hardcore. While people do stare at us sometimes (mostly me, because of the hair) it's more of the interested/curious variety. This was a different story. Our driver basically said that he'd show us the monument and that we could hop out and take a photo and get back in. You could tell he didn't want us to get out of the car and walk around. I was bummed that we couldn't go shopping, but there were plenty of other places to go where it would be safer. T's coworker later told him that it wasn't really a good idea for Americans to be hanging out in that area, so I'm glad we didn't get out.
Next our driver took us to a few different stores, and we bought some jewelry and pashminas. The shopping here is awesome and I love all of the colors and fabrics. We got back to the hotel and crashed for a while, then showered and went to dinner downstairs in the hotel. The day definitely had its ups and downs but part of being here is getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing new things, so you have to take the good with the bad.
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