Tourist Time!

    Thankfully the city wasn’t as shut down yesterday as we expected, so we did get to go out a bit – not to another local shelter like we had initially wanted to, but got to explore some markets. The markets here are definitely more sparkly than those in any country I’ve been to before! We’ve been to a couple different markets now and there’s definitely a difference in the feel of them. One you could wander around without getting hassled at all, one they constantly tried to drag you into their stall with the line ‘something different for you!” and another, they were begging, ‘please, madam.” All of the textiles here are gorgeous, so many different colors, everything so different from what you’d see in the US.  There are pretty saris everywhere, nothing I would ever wear, but all nice to look at. Much of the jewelry is really bright and shiny, sparkles everywhere that you can see from quite a distance - stores filled entirely with bengles, or intricate earrings and necklaces filled with countless stones. If anyone has any requests for anything from India, let me know!

      We went to the Old City this morning, which is a Muslim part of Hyderabad. We started off going by going to my first super tourist thing (tourist price between 20x that of a local, still less than 2 bucks but definitely a big difference). The Charminar was a very intricate monument in the center of the area. We walked up the dark spiral staircase, round and round, some of the steps really steep  I took a picture out of one of the windows and was surprised to find a pair of strappy red shoes sitting in the windowsill looking out over the city. From the top was a really cool view looking down on all the autos moving around the hectic street below.  Really interesting architecture throughout as we circled the building, and of course views in every direction looking out at mosques in the distance and the market below. After descending the staircase, it was time to wander the market a bit. Lots of little stalls along a narrow puddle-filled road filled with no sidewalks, so we were walking alongside the honking motorcycles and autos. The little yellow autos are adorable, I want to ride in one at some point, but maybe when we are in Vizag, a much less diesel-infused city – they don’t have doors or windows, so are apparently not so fun to ride around in here. Little shops filled with shoes in every color and pattern (I wish I could wear flats!), tons more jewelry and saris. We got there not long after they opened – 11am – so it wasn’t too crazy crowded, but often those markets are apparently so swarming with people that you can barely move. 

      Then headed over to an old fort. We didn’t walk all the way to the top, but walked around the grounds quite a bit, past the mosque, through the stables and the queens quarters. It was a very different feel to the ruins than those I am used to in Latin America, such a different appearance than Incan and Mayan ruins, but of course amazing to wander around and not what I was expecting. There was a definite Muslim style to them with the shape of the doorways and the impressions on the walls. I don’t have enough creativity or brain power at the moment to describe it well, but photos should help. It was a really big area and we didn’t make it all the way up to the tower but could just see it from a distance, surrounded by big rock boulders that were part of the wall and lots of greenery. Apparently if you clap at the bottom, people can hear the clap at the tower at the very top of the fort but nowhere in between, so it used to be to signal danger to the guard at the top. With the wind blowing like crazy to keep it cool enough, it was a really nice place to walk around, and I could have spent a lot longer there, but we hadn’t planned for a full day outing and eventually headed home for a late lunch. It seemed to be the place to be, as there were a lot of families walking around, including women somehow managing to agilely make their way up the stairs in their long saris.  On the drive back, we stopped at a roadside stand and got some coconuts, which they slashed off the tops and stuck a straw into. These weren’t the kind that you eat the flesh from since they only have a very thin fleshy component, but they were filled with really refreshing coconut water and were fun to drink from.

       We’ve been driving around the city quite a bit in the last couple days. I still have absolutely no sense of direction here since I’m just getting taken everywhere. I’m not at all used to having a driver, to getting cleaned up after – we just left our coconuts in the car, to being so catered to. I keep trying to put on a seatbelt every time I get into the car, I can’t seem to kick the habit, way too automatic… though I guess that’s a good thing. A seatbelt would probably be much more needed here than in the US, but that’s just how things go! Probably the most interesting thing to see as we are driving through the city is the stark contrast between the rich and poor areas which are pretty much right on top of each other. There aren’t really slums in Hyderabad, but there are definitely worn down areas with rugged buildings, dust, and tons of trash. In the same area you can find tall shiny buildings with clean windows and gated driveways. Apparently it is much more dramatic in Mombai where you look out the windows of the skyscrapers down into the slums, but it still is interesting to see how closely the two very different socioeconomic components of the country overlap in one place.