Days Eight - Ten

Ladies and Gentlemen! I apologize for the lack of posting in the last few days but I was without internet. I never knew how internet addicted I am until the last few nights!

Day 8
Hena and I planned on going to the Theosophical Society- however since the Society is a place where people live it is only open four hours of the day in two hour chunks. If we had seen it, we would have missed our train to Hyderabad. So we did some necessity shopping at Spencer Plaza- that was partially without power- no ac, some stores had no lights- it was interesting.
I got to ride on my first sleeper train. Let me tell you- a lot of people can sleep in one train car! There are nine or ten coupes in a car and eight or nine people sleep in each coupe depending on the car model! The first interesting thing was our seats got reassigned so that we were separated. So we talked our way into sitting next to each other and wound up getting to sleep next to one another too! The couple with a child across from us was adorable! The father, Ranbinder, is a jockey. Hena is sure she recognized him but she's Googling him now. The mother was beautiful. Her name is Rupali and Hena says based on how she was dressed she was probably from Jaipur (another state). I wonder if people in the US can do that- guess where someone is from based on how they dress... eh, I doubt it. The daughter is Paree, which means fairy or angel. She was soo sweet! We went to sleep around 9:30pm and were surprised at how cold the train got overnight but hey, we lived! LoL

Day 9
We arrived in Hyderabad at 5:30am or so and Prem (means love) picked us up. His family has their own car which was very nice for us! First we went to their house (also a flat but with an enclosed yard and garage under the building) to freshen up and plan our day. We
had breakfast a Tiffin Center. It has quick breakfast food all day, so quick most of the customers stand and eat! Thankfully there is a small dining room with a few tables!
From there we walked back to the flat and got the car to travel to the Birla Mandir. This is the only Hindu temple built on a hill- all the other hills have mosques. The entire temple is made out of marble. There are shrines to many different gods, goddesses, and one holy man. And unfortunately they allow no pictures inside. So you all can only see it from the outside. Prem told us the story of how the three main, and most powerful gods, when threatened by a female deity more powerful than the three gods combined tricked her into giving her third eye and trident to Shiva. This gave him some of her power and with her weakened and him strengthened the three gods split the female deity into the three main goddesses so that she could no longer threaten their supremacy. I just thought- go figure, chauvinism happens everywhere. LoL
From Birla Mandir we went to the Birla Planetarium and Science Museum. They also allow no pictures. I was so mad at this point- I wanted to take pictures for you guys!!! Anyhow, we were a bit crowded at first because there were a lot of school age kids on tours. They filtered out and we got to play with all of the Fort Discovery type exhibits- that all worked this time! LoL! We also toured the modern art gallery, the archeology museum, and the art collection of one of the Birla women whose name I don't remember.
Next we had lunch at Eat Street. Basically a mini-mall of walk up food services. Since I had experimented with breakfast I went with a nice safe sub from Subway for lunch. I can only stand so much spice in one day! This is where I got the news that Obama had been elected- I was like "Really? Wow. I wonder how he's gonna screw up- or will someone kill him first..." Hena just laughed and asked me if the South was going to succeed again thinking it would make me laugh- I hope they don't ..................... lol.



CORRECTION:
Before we went to the fort we went to see the Tombs of Qutb Shahi Kings. There are seven main tombs and around twenty something lesser tombs.They are very spread out and we didn't see all of them because they all started to look the same (built around the same time period and all). Also of note was a full size Roman-like bath complex that they used to prepare the bodies. However we did run into a cough syrup commercial being filmed. LoL


After lunch we went to Golconda Fort. This ruin is gorgeous! And I took as many pictures as I could before my camera died! [I was able to purchase more- no worries!] The palace contained in the fort was the origin of two sayings we use all the time. "The walls have ears" and "the light of a thousand diamonds" were both begun here. The sources of those are the way the king had the walls and ceilings built so that he could hear what anyone in the room was saying or doing from certain spots in the palace! He was that paranoid of his courtiers!! Also for his harem of wives (two hundred and sixty wives) the room where he picked which one he wanted that night had a thousand huge diamonds set in the walls with lamps behind them so that his wives would all shine.
From the fort we went back to Eat Street because that is where the boat left from for the Buddha Statue. We had waited earlier near lunch but for the boat to leave they have to have six passengers and no one else was trying to go then. The wait was worth it. The statue is lit up at night and is beautiful. It stands in the middle of this lagoon- that stinks very badly because of chemical waste being dumped in it- on an island. It is one of the world's largest freestanding Buddha statues. Also from the island my wonderful camera got pictures of the Birla Temple lit up at night as well! I was giggling happy... : )
After that we went and got some shut eye.

Day 10
We woke up early because Prem had to go to work. His parents grabbed breakfast for all of us and we ate together at the flat. We accompanied Prem to work after dropping our bag off at the Cloak Room at the train station. Prem agreed to keep the other unlockable one in his office. :) Did I mention he's the sweetest kind of guy. Complete push over- but adorable! From there Hena and I walked to Mecca Masjid first. Since no bags or cameras were allowed Hena agreed to stand outside with the bags while I toured and then I'd hold them while she toured. Well about the time I was walking to the gate here comes Hena snapping away pictures! Evidently she'd noticed another family with bags inside and pointed it out and since she had been respectful of the no camera thing the guards told her to go ahead and take pictures! Dude, was I surprised! The mosque is huge, it's the second largest mosque in the world- it will hold 10,000 worshipers at one time. Hena said this happens every Friday for Friday afternoon prayers which is amazing to me!

Next we walked to Charminar. This thing was tall- with no hand rails in sight- lol. This structure was built to celebrate the founding of Hyderabad and the end of the water shortage in the area. Coincidentally the city is named for the princess it was given to as an engagement present- diamond ring looks paltry in comparison... LoL. The view from on top is really nice- I'm going to attempt a collage.... CORRECTION: I do not have enough time- bleh.
As we were leaving this news crew interviewed me then Hena about our reaction to Charminar- the anchor was a complete ditz- she kept fumbling her very simple lines and forgot our names! There was a crowd of about thirty people surrounding us by the time we were done and slipping out was slightly difficult but hey- we managed.

Next we walked through the Laad Bazzar and I swear if I could stand the heat I would invest in a burka so fewer people accost me! Beggars grabbed me twice, and store clerks and street salesmen loved to get in my face. LoL it was interesting- the pale skin that makes me look wierd back home is a huge factor in my beauty here- the paler a girl is the better- and people paler than me are rare. LOL!
Then we went to the Hotel Shadab for lunch- we picked it out of the Lonely Planet guide and while Prem was skeptical the food was fabulous! I had pineapple chicken- yum yum yum! It was good enough I kept the leftovers to eat later on the train!
After that we went to the where my camera had to have a pass to get in that cost almost as much as the pass for me to get in! : ) The palace was pretty, and in good repair but when we saw the ballroom I literally Chowmahalla Palace had to suck in air. I have never seen that much cut crystal and marble in one place. There were also exhibit rooms or clothes, weapons, all kinds of things. CORRECTION: Did I mention I got interviewed again by a different news station here... LoL... So did Hena for that matter... lucky Prem didn't get bothered.... : )
From there we went to the train station, picked up our bag, got on the train and came home. Once again our seats had been reassigned but we got lucky this time! We got assigned to the side berths and no one was assigned to go in the middle berth so we had lots of space. : ) (Newer trains have nine people to one section... *sigh*)
We got home around 8:30 am or so and after taking Sheru to work we came back to his flat.
I'm about to freshen up and Hena, Muchu, and I are heading to the Theosophical Society- hope we manage to make it this time... lol : )