High speed sightseeing!

---

After the 28hrs (total) travelling or something I had just done I found that hotels in Hydrabad were either fully booked or too expensive so I dropped my bag in the locker room at the bus station and decided I was going to take another overnight journey, now heading to Hampi. This time I had to take a bus which was my first long distance journey by bus in India. Armed with my Diazepam (Valium) which I hadn't used up until this point I wasn't worried about sleeping well though.

With only 13 hrs until my bus leaves and with Hydrabad being a very big city that really warrants a minimum of 2-3days I knew I had to move quickly. Normally I don't like doing this because you can miss out on lots by rushing but I had spent plenty of time relaxing and was ready to see how much I could do in one day. My budget meant that catching local buses and walking quickly on foot was also essential between destinations but this was half the fun and didn't really slow me down.

During the day I stopped of at a massive fort (built originally by the Hindu Kakatiyas but heavily influenced later by the Qutb Shahis) with all sorts of clever things going on inside it and some tombs of the Shahi Kings that were in a similar style to the Taj.

While wondering around the tombs I came across one of the old bathing pools which had a large drop from a building above it down to the water. A collection of local indians were having fun doing crazy things, narrowly missing each other and jumping into the water. When they asked me if I was going to try at first I made the excuse of having to catch a bus later but after a while I eventually plucked up the courage and started taking my clothes off... To my suprise the Indians suddenly turn around and all start telling my I'm not allowed and that the police (not far away) will come if I go in. So I missed out on doing that but it was cool to watch anyway.

Later that day I headed back into the city centre after sprinting to jump on a bus that was moving with considerable speed (standard practice here - the buses have no doors for this purpose) and made good friends with one of the blokes on the bus who had sadly had all his family die and was left working in a furniture shop looking after his kids. He seemed happy enough though and it wasn't a plea for sympathy. He also gave me some good advice and tried to teach me some Hindi (swearing you could learn it in a week...) so I liked him.

In the city I stopped off at a couple of the cities architechtural treasures including mecca masjid which is a mosque big enough to hold 10,000 people (NB this is not 'the' mecca but a very big one nonetheless). In the evening I scoffed a quick Biryani, which is a speciality here and very different to the English Biryani and then jumped on my bus.

The bus was reasonably comfortable with seats that went right back although with my relatively long legs i wasn't left with all that much room. I took my valium in preparation for the journey which was going to spend a lot of time on dirt roads and slept like a baby all the way to Hospet the next morning where I changed buses and took the short journey to Hampi.

---

Photos

Golconda fort
Not the best photo but a reasonably impressive place with lots to explore

Qutb Shahi Tomb
There is like a small town of these things which get bigger and bigger the moer recent they are

Leisure time at the tombs
These nut cases frequently jump right next to each other in the water to try and scare each other, missing by inches sometimes

Char Minar
There is loads of beautiful islamic architecture is this extremely clean, high tech and organised (for india that is) city

Mecca Masjid
Since seeing this mosque which can accomodate 20,000 people (locals say more) I have been told it is the largest in the world after 'the' mecca