Days 316-324: Southern India
Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mysore
We hit a few of the big guns of southern of India as well as the smaller town of Mysore. We got our first look at the future of techno-metropolis India and soaked in the warm weather.
We arrived in Hyderabad – otherwise known as Cyberabad for it’s booming IT industry – to find that the All India Congress Committee (the folks currently running the country) had picked the same three days to have their national conference here. Even the budget hotel choices were packed and we felt lucky to get a room at all. The town was absolutely covered in Indian flags, banners, and posters with pictures of the PM and president of the Congress party.
The Charminar (Four Towers) is Hyderabad’s most famous sight and is a neat quad archway in the middle of the road.
Hyderabad was our only stop in the state of Andra Pradesh and we discovered that the state is known for it’s incredibly spicy food. Whoa doggies! Thank goodness there were loads of sweet shops to help temper the firey fare.
The bane of our waistlines: a sweet shop in Hyderabad tempts passers-by with savory treats.
Hyderabad’s Golconda fort incorporated enormous boulders into the walls.
Golden arches at Golconda fort.
Um…. Thanks, but we’d rather walk. (Back of the autorickshaw reads: Have the keys of Hell and Death.)
The Qutb Shahi tombs were huge onion domed buildings that were a remarkable amount of space dedicated to individual dead people.
An overnight train ride brought us to Bangalore: the land of those useless Indian call centers you get transfered to when trying to find out where the heck your Amazon order is. This town has a lot of money for India and the “MG” Road area (Mahatma Gandhi Road) is incredibly posh. The hotels even charge a 12.5% “luxury tax” on $10 budget rooms.
The dreaded hybrid toilet. Precarious to pearch on the slippery, elevated footpads, but the seat is too small to cover the porcelain. Avoid it at all cost.
Certain, ahem, unmentionable attivities are resereved for the left hand in India (amungst other places) and so eating food is limited to the right hand only. Since most meals involve some kind of flat bread (roti, chappati, naan, dosas), this forced us to learn the “one-handed roti tear” to avoid grossing out the locals. It’s slow and awkward to us novices. We were lucky enough to have room service at one hotel and Kelly was slowly performing the one-handed tear on her breakfast dosa. Marcus remarked, “It’s probably okay to use two hands when you’re in the privacy of your own room with the curtains drawn.”
You know you’re in South India when the dosas are bigger than your arm. Is that Kelly’s left hand near that dosa!?
Marcus gives the local soda a Thumbs Up.
Although India is noisy all the time, there seems to be a coordinated time near sunset when individuals bang drums and ring bells at temples. We call this period “noise time” but haven’t a clue what is going on. One temple cheated at noise time and built a machine with an electric motor that would bang a drum and ring a gong – at least until the power went out.
A richly-decorated and colorful Dravidian temple to Ganesh.
Blooming lotus at the Lalbagh botanical garden.
Only in India does the food pyramid look like this. Part of the big horticulture show on the run-up to Republic Day.
We discovered that the fusion food movement is big in India. They have incorporated Chinese and Indian foods into “Chindian” fare. Marcus’ favorite is “paneer manchurian”, which are fried pieces of unfermented cheese in a spicey garlic sauce. We also found some “Mexdian” (or would it be Indican?) that tickled our tastebuds too.
Bird waiting for roti crumbs.
It was a short train ride to the appropriately named town of Mysore. We say appropriate because Kelly fell on her butt on Golconda fort’s slippery stairs a couple days before and had to say, “My sore ass!”
Kelly’s not to fond of people touching her. She may want to tell that to the tiger about to eat her head.
What’s the time?
The Maharaja’s Palace in Mysore was really impressive. Gorgeous stained glass window ceilings, huge decorated columns, richly carved doors, and lots of color everywhere. The’ve covered the palace with about 100,000 light bulbs and lit it up for Republic Day.
Now we know why there are power shortages. It’s good to be the Maharaja!
Big time entertainment in Mysore.
“Your future holds a peaceful time on the beach in Goa.”
Tags: India
Kelly & Marcus
February 8th, 2006 at 5:48 am
Great to get another blog before you hit the ststes…
Hope your flights are uneventful and that you can get some sleep!
Travel safely xoxoxxo
February 12th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Hi All – FYI Kelly & Marc arrived in CA safe and sound on Feb. 10th. – they look wonderful! What wild tale they have to tell – WOW! It’s so great to have them home for a bit….
Marc’s Mom
February 16th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Hi Marcus,
it’s Denis. From the South Pole. The whole BICEP team just finally left yesterday, so I had a little bit of time for myslef and got to search for your blog. I’ll have to read though it more carefully but it looks very complete. How do you find the time to keep it that updated.
well it sounds and looks liek you are definitely having some fun. I wish you the best.
If you are interested in my not-updated-as-often Pole blog, here it is:
http://bmode.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/spblog05
Cheers mate
Denis