india

August 8, 2004 &bull travel

I finally got my India trip pictures in the gallery. Below is some information about my trip. I still have to get our New York pictures up; I’ll be working on those next.

Adapted from an e-mail written on 06/20/2004
My flight from LA to Singapore (I flew out of LA on Monday, 06/14/2004 at 9:30pm) was pretty uneventful, which is always a good thing when it comes to airline travel. Singapore airlines is incredible. The service was awesome; food, alcohol, movies, music, and TV shows galore. The business class seats recline completely so sleeping wasn’t a problem. The flight was about 16 hours.

I was in Singapore from 5:30am to 9:30pm. Luckily I found a couple city tours to keep me busy. By the time my 9:30pm flight to Hyderabad rolled around I was dead-tired. By the looks of the other passengers, everyone else had been in Singapore for a while, too. I slept for about 3 hours of the 4.25 hour flight, which means I was insanely tired. (As I a rule I don’t sleep very well on airplanes. Well, at least when I have to sleep sitting up.)

I got into Hyderabad around midnight. The airport was pretty interesting. Quite the contrast when coming directly from Singapore. It was very quiet and somewhat “grim.” I don’t have any good comparisons, except that it reminded me of an old office building or something. Whitewashed walls, grimy marble floors, old wooden desks, etc. I was a bit nervous waiting for my luggage — I figured there was no way my stuff would have made it, considering the long layover in Singapore. But, through an act of God it made its way onto the belt and into my hands.

I finally located the driver from the hotel and we made our way to the car. As soon as I stepped outside the airport doors a young boy, probably around 13 or so, hit me up for some cash. He had a metal brace on his leg, but I’m not sure if it was legit or if it was just a prop. He didn’t seem to have a problem jogging next to me as he followed us to the car. He proceeded to peer into the backseat with his nose practically pressed on the glass. I was a bit startled at how persistent he was, but I was so out of it that I didn’t get rattled too badly.

The drive to the hotel was interesting. It was late, but there were still a lot of people hanging out. It’s hard to describe the city aside from saying it looked pretty shoddy. Tons of broken-down buildings and areas — almost camps, if you will — where a lot of people are just sitting around or sleeping. By US standards, even the “nice” buildings are still not very nice. But, we made it to the Taj Krishna, my hotel, around 12:30am (Wednesday).

I was planning on sleeping in and going to Wipro, the company I’m working with for part of my stay here, around noon. However, a corporate IT guy from Qualcomm was here and Thursday was his last day in India. He called me at 7:30am and told me to meet him in the lobby at 9:15am so I could go to the Qualcomm office with him. So much for sleeping in. But, considering I didn’t have a car lined up yet and I kind of needed this guy’s help in meeting some of the local QC folks, I figured I should go along.

My first drive during the daylight was pretty surreal. The streets are busy, swarming with cars and TONS of motorcycles and scooters. People don’t seem to be too worried about whatever traffic rules are in effect. Where there’s space, there’s a car and/or motorcycle. Rush-hour is unlike anything I’ve experienced. Everyone honks constantly, but it’s more of a warning to the other drivers than a display of how pissed off you are (unlike the US). Anyway, we went to the QC office and hung out there for a bit. Around noon I made my way (via a driver) to the Wipro office. My driver picked me up the next morning at the hotel (around 9:00am) and dropped me off at Wipro again. I worked at Wipro till around 10:30pm. Believe it or not, but the driver was still outside, parked in the same spot, waiting for me when I walked out of the office.

I spent most of Saturday sleeping. :\ Jet lag is catching up with me as we are 12.5 hours ahead of San Diego. I got a ton of sleep, but still seemed to be tired. I spent a little time hanging out at the pool. I was hoping to go out with one of the locals on Sunday, but wasn’t able to get in touch with him. I’m hoping to get out at some point this week, but I definitely want to go with a local. While I’m sure I wouldn’t have any problems going out by myself, I just don’t want to risk it. This isn’t a place where you want to get lost or worse, depending on how you look at it, lose your wallet/passport. I was planning on going on an all-day city tour on Sunday and was asking the hotel concierge for some details. He kept saying that it would be really crowded and asked me multiple times if I would be OK with that. I asked him if he thought I would be OK with it; he said as long as I could keep track of my belongings things would be OK. Well, I can buy another camera and even get another drivers license. But without my passport, which I feel I should have with me at all times, I’m in a world of hurt. Suddenly another day by the pool sounded a lot better.

The level of service at the hotel is amazing; basically anything a human being can or will do, can be purchased. Cheap. For example, you can get a car/driver from the hotel for an entire day for about 1000 Rupees. The exchange rate is about 45/1. So, that would cost about $23.00.

Adapted from an e-mail written on 06/26/2004
I was supposed to fly out tonight (a little after midnight), but because I was having some problems with my project I had to extend my stay into next week. I’ll be flying out on Thursday (07/01/2004) morning.

Today was really the first day I was able to get out and do some sightseeing. I went out today with two guys from Wipro (along with “my” driver); we started out around 9:00am. Our first stop was a Hindu temple named Birla Mandir. It’s made almost entirely out of of white marble. Since it’s on one of the highest points in the city you can see it from almost anywhere in the city. Photography wasn’t allowed so I wasn’t able to take any pictures.

This was my first visit to a Hindu temple. It was a pretty awesome experience. Shoes are considered unclean so we had to take our shoes and socks off in the car before we went up into the temple. Outside the actual temple there were many people hanging out and praying, etc. Lots of many interesting looking people — it was great. We walked around a bit and then went inside and were given a drink of holy water, which was poured into our palms by one of the “priests.” We walked out and were given a small piece of coconut, which we ate. We then left the temple and went to the Charminar.

The Charminar is probably one of the most famous landmarks in Hyderabad. It’s in the old part of town, which generally means “not very nice.” The area is dominated by Muslims (lots of women covered in black from head-to-toe — there’s only a slit for their eyes) and was pretty busy. No, make that super-busy. I was told by one of the locals that it actually wasn’t very busy, but for me it was nuts. As soon as we got out of the car beggars were at my side, tugging on my clothes. It was a bit uncomfortable and truthfully I was a bit nervous (i.e., silently freaking out). Thankfully the dudes from Wipro were looking after me. Even so, it was definitely a unique experience. You have to be mindful with your belongings so taking pictures is a bit challenging. But, I was able to get some pictures from below as well as up in the first story. I was even asked by some Indian kid if he could take my picture, but my “guides” waved him off. I wasn’t really sure what that was all about and didn’t really ask.

From the Charminar we went to the Salar Jung museum, which was cool. Standard museum stuff so not too much to report from there. Except that it was really hot. :)

After the museum we went to Golconda Fort, which is this huge military fort from the 1500s. There are a lot of ruins which you walk through, etc. It leads up to structure on the top of this hill with a great view of the city. We were going to wait around for the light show at night, but decided not to since the mosquitos are really bad at dark and there are malaria dangers for foreigners.

We’re planning on heading to Warangal tomorrow (about 120km from Hyderabad) to check out an ancient Hindu temple.

Sightseeing trip on 06/27/2004
We left Hyderabad around 9:00am and took off for Warangal, which is a couple hundred kilometers northeast of Hyderabad. (I was traveling with the same three guys as yesterday. Two of the guys were from Wipro and the third was the driver I have had the whole time I’ve been here.) I don’t know the exact calculation, but I’m guessing that equals about 80 miles. In the US that would take a little more than an hour. In India it took us about 4 hours. We got into town and the first order of business was to find some food. This was a bit of challenge since my hosts were VERY concerned with finding something that wouldn’t make me sick. We finally settled on a hotel restaurant that, while not being the nicest place I’ve ever eaten at, seemed a lot better than the alternatives we saw along the way. The food was awesome, but was a bit spicier than any of us had expected. Let me put it this way: you know you’re in for an interesting meal when you are eating the same food as the Indian sitting across from you, and his eyes are watering. I made it to dessert, though, with flying colors. All four of us ate a three course meal (although our driver ate, he wouldn’t sit in the same booth with us; against company policy, I guess) for 450 Rupees. About $10.00.

After lunch we went to the Thousand Pillared Temple. For the first time in my life I saw wild monkeys running around. That was pretty cool. Otherwise, it was standard Hindu temple stuff. Barefeet, priests, prayers, cows, holy water, and gods. I’m not a Hindu, but I would have to say that the experience was somewhat spiritual. Everyone visiting the temple was in a really peaceful mood. It was an awesome experience.

I thought the Thousand Pillared Temple was the only temple we were going to visit, but my guides said there was another one “up the road” they wanted to bring me to. Two and a half hours later we were there. Along the way we hit a political rally that basically had the entire highway closed off for security reasons. It was right out of a movie. Civilian “deputies” walking around with machine guns, politicians crackling on the loudspeaker, chanting and urging the rabble to take some type of action. I would have taken some pictures of the scene, but being the only white person in a 200 mile radius (where there are like 20,000 people in that same radius) I wasn’t crazy about sticking a camera in peoples faces.

Anyway, we made it to the Ramappa temple, which was the best temple we visited. There were four main structures, each with a ton of intricate stone carvings. Like the other temples we visited, it was an interesting experience. It was by far the most remote temple we went to. It was literally out in the country in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. I can’t remember how many villages we passed on the way there, but it seemed each one was more primitive than the last. But, not in a bad way — just in a “wow, look at those huts” way. It seemed that almost all of the people we met out in the rural areas were laid-back and very friendly. There were really no beggars out there so overall it was peaceful and very enjoyable.

We made our way back to Hyderabad and got in around 10:30pm. I was wiped-out. But, it was so worth it, having been able to get out of the city and see two temples that were close to 1000 years old.

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