August 10, 2014
Today we woke up ready to head out and explore Hyderabad! We began our day with a late breakfast and some catch-up mind mapping from yesterday. After finishing our mind-maps, we packed our bags for the day and headed downstairs to meet the car. Since Aditya knew how to get where we were going, he sat in the front to lead our trusty driver Raju to our destination. The rest of us enjoyed our time in the back of the car listening and dancing to the collection of Hindi music on Shruthi and Anant's iPods.
Our first stop on our Sunday journey was McDonalds. Dr. Yazdi had been told about the McPaneer sandwich and wanted to make sure he got one before he left India. Raju dropped us off across the street and we navigated our way through the traffic to get to the little shopping center with McDonalds (AKA Maccas in Australia). After a quick and somewhat American lunch, we headed back to the car for our drive to Golkanda Fort.
 |
| Shopping center with McDonalds |
 |
| Group eating our McDonalds lunch |
When we arrived to Golkanda Fort, we were instantly awed by the fort and busy streets around us. We were immediately approached by a tour guide asking us for money to buy tickets. Shruthi, Anant, and Aditya (the Hindi speakers) handled the haggling and the tour guide brought us our tickets. We all found it interesting that a foreigner ticket (that is what the ticket was called) was 100 Rupees (Rs), but a ticket for everyone else was only 5 Rs. Nevertheless, we headed into the fort with our camera's ready to go. Our tour guide, Muhammed was very enthusiastic and made sure to keep us involved during our trek through the fort.
 |
| Muhammed pointing out something interesting to the group |
Golkanda Fort, which was built in the 1500s, was used by the king and had all kinds of cool acoustic features that could help with warnings for attacks. At the bottom part of the fort you could stand in the middle of a room with diamond shaped cutouts along the cieling and walls, clap your hands, and it could be heard by someone standing near a ledge on the very top of the fort (It was pretty cool!). We made our way up to the top, making sure to stop for water breaks and to hide in the shade, as it was very hot in the Indian sun! Despite the heat, we saw some pretty cool views of the city and some awesome architecture.
After making our way back down the fort and out into the street, Shruthi and Anant stopped to get some sugar cane juice. Unfortunately, the rest of us were warned against trying the street food, so we all stuck with water bottles.
 |
| Little boy making Shruthi and Anant's sugar cane juice drink |
Raju came to pick us up and we packed back into the car, put the Hindi music back on, and headed to Charminar Bazaar. The Charminar is a monument located in Hyderabad and one of the most recognized structures of Hyderabad. Surrounding the Charminar our busy, crowded, and colorful streets filled with vendors, traffic, and lots of people. We got dropped off about a block away from the Charminar, but ended up spending over an hour weaving our way through people and in and out of shops. Sadly, by the time we got up to the Charminar, we learned that it was closed and we would not be able to go inside. We stopped for a few more group pictures, and a few pictures with some of the locals who wanted to take pictures with Maddie, Val, and Erin, and we made our way back to the car.
 |
| Charminar Bazaar with the Charminar monument at the end of the road |
 |
| The Charminar monument |
When we got back to the hotel we all took a little time to shower, change, and cool off before we headed across the street to dinner. We decided to try our luck at the lower part of Bikeranwala (the restaurant we ate at on Monday night). This part of the restaurant was self-service so after reading over the menu, and consulting with Anant on our decisions, we placed our orders. After finishing our food we decided to head next store to the Kirachi Bakery for some sweets. Definitely a good ending to a fun and busy day!
No comments:
Post a Comment