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Published: November 19th 2006
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Show off!
He rode like this for quite some time, weaving in and out of traffic! Well, after lunch the adventures continued. Ramchanda was very helpful as a tour guide and started by taking me to the
Balaji Temple (aka the Birla temple, after the company who built it). Apparently this is a fairly modern temple, which is dedicated to Lord Venkateswara. The whole thing is completely made of marble - which is good because you aren't allowed to wear shoes in. In fact you aren't allowed to take much in at all, Ramchanda even asked me on the way whether I'd eaten meat at lunctime because I couldn't go in if I had. Fortunately the mars bar in the hotel mini bar was free of meat ;-) Aside from shoes, you also couldn't take in cameras, or mobile phones with cameras in them. I must confess was slightly worried about leaving my phone, camera and shoes in the car. I had visions of wandering the streets of Hyderabad in bare feet, trying to find a lift home. However, Ramchanda said he would wait with the car so I figured it'd be fine. The main downside is that I couldn't take any photos of the amazing view of Hyderabad that you get from the top of the temple.
It was a little weird having so many people looking at me. I thought maybe I was being paranoid at first but all the same, it was nice to see Ramchanda waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.
From there I wanted to go for a drive around the lake and then Lumbini park. For some reason we ended up making a slight detour to some 'handicraft' stores, where the man assured me that because my driver was his good friend I'd get a great discount. I elected not to make any purchases... When we got back to the car there were beggers sitting around the doors. The kids had their hands in my pockets trying to pull out my wallet and phone. It's hard to work out how to reconcile the poverty here, its in your face in a way that you just don't get in Sydney. Ramchanda said something stern to the kids and sent them away but yeah, I'm still trying to work that stuff out.
The drive around the 'necklace road' was nice, there was even a dog show on which I kind of wanted to see but due to some
My new friends
The family that decided to adopt me communication difficulties we didn't end up stopping. There was some crazy guy showing off an interesting style of riding his motorcycle, which he kept up for a good few minutes (check out the photos!).
My favourite part of the day was Lumbini park. Although the blatant staring is still really weird. I got a boat out to see this enormous statue of buddha that sits in the middle of the lake. The boat itself was interesting, when I saw what we'd be travelling on I was praying we'd get there safely. Which we did. It seems like there's some unwritten (or maybe even written, I dont know, I can't read hindi) rule that says men are not allowed to sit next to me. In this case they sat at the extreme other end of the boat! Then a family got on and the girl started chatting with me. They were absolutely lovely and insisted I be in their family photo in front of the statue. A few people asked me to be in photos with their wives or children - usually they came up and stood next to me and asked while someone was poised to shoot as soon
The girls
These girls followed me around for a while, giggling every time I looked at them and smiled. They were a bit shy and I think a little bit flattered when I asked if I could take their photo before we got on the boat to go home as they got the go ahead. It's really really bizarre. Hyderabad really isn't big in terms of international tourism I think - aside from at church in the morning I didn't see another anglo saxon person all day. I guess that means I stick out a little with my IT worker's complexion!
Ramchanda somehow sweet talked his way into the park to meet me off the boat and show me the way back to the car. He did such a great job I was trying to work out what was a fair amount to tip him. I eventually settled on what works out to a bit under $10. It doesn't seem like very much at all, but the HUGE grin on his face when I gave it to him made me wonder if maybe it was a little much. Oh well, he was worth it.
Back to the grindstone tomorrow, so there probably won't be any new adventures until next weekend. Hope you're all well!
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sherif
non-member comment
man you must feel like a freak, sounds like everyone just stops and looks!! you should just walk for a bit, get a few people following then turn around and go ARHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and make some big monster sound... and then proceed to say, 'thats how we say HELLO in Australia'.. just for a laugh.. come on it will be funny!