Day 1 - some food and some shopping

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So here I am in India. The remainder of the flight was pretty uneventful, which is probably not a bad thing! I arrived at Hyderabad airport and found there was no customs check at all which surprised me, especially considering the article that was on the front page of the paper this morning. As promised, there was a driver from the hotel ready to meet me, with my name on a board. I was really quite pleased he was there because there was an enormous crowd outside the door of the airport, held back by barricades. I guess they must have heard that I was coming!

The hotel is quite nice, I have a very picturesque view of the construction site below my window. I guess the lake view goes to people who take the more expensive rooms. I pre-ordered my breakfast for this morning last night, and I got quite a lot more food than I was expecting! Julie & Cindy will be interested to hear there is lots of 'English feaking spood' on the menu though. There's also an Australian chanel on the tv. When I flicked past it earlier home and away was playing...

I somehow managed to avoid jet lag and was all set to go into the office this morning, however my boss was quite kind and said I may as well take the day off...while I can. So today while the boss was in the office, he sent the driver back to take his wife and I shopping. It was an interesting experience. The shopping centre was fairly small and had about 2 floors of mens clothes and a small corner of women's clothes. The prices were very attractive though, I think I'll be heading back there before I go home! It was good to have someone else to venture out with though, especially because it can be a little difficult to understand some of the stronger accents. I'm sure I'll get used to it after a couple of days though.

The roads here really are organised chaos. From where I was sitting it looked a lot like everything was pot luck, but we didn't see any accidents (at least no yet) so I obviously the drivers have some kind of code. From what I've seen and heard, the 'code' involves using the horn regularly.

We met the guys for lunch at an Indian buffet. It actually was much better than I expected. I was a bit worried when I discovered that the chicken noodle soup was spicy, however there were some other rice dishes and some kind of spinach and corn concoction that wasn't too spicy. I'm not sure I could eat there regularly though, think I'll be taking the hotel's packed lunch fairly regularly!

Obviously the city is quite different to anywhere in Australia - one of the more audible differences (other than the constant beeping) is the Muslim calls to prayer. It's like there's some kind of giant PA system that echoes it around the city - actually there probably is. Not surprising of course, given that I think about 50% of the population of the city are Muslim. My driver last night was telling me about all the things I should go and see while I'm here and it sounds like there are some pretty cool mosque's and palaces that I'll have to go and check out. He said that he's available on the weekends to give tours, so I think I'll try and organise that with him sometime fairly soon.

Hmmm. All the lights just went out and the TV turned off. It's back now though 😊

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Photos

A really big breakfast
Maybe tomorrow I'll just order toast

Comments

[jaswin]

welcome to india
You are one of the lucky few who get to see India in their life and very few who can understand it , hope you will be one of those very few people who will not only see India but understand it as well. Enjoy your trip

[Jennifer]

Good to hear
Well i am happy to see that you are certainly being looked after! And i am glad that you have managed to find some not so spicy Indian food!