Charminar

Hyderabad - Today, we had our breakfast on the Executive floor on the 8th floor - spread is not as wide as downstairs but I still had my delicious mangoes.  One of the chosen by the waiter and it was really sweet.  I was told that the best season for mangoes are in the months of April to June.   Prior to that the mangoes are sour.

This time our taxi arrived on time and we reach our customer destination a bit late as the taxi driver was not sure where this Ascendas IT park was.  Completed the meeting and decided to use the same taxi driver to bring us to Charminar.  Booking another taxi is a lot of hassle and takes a long time for the taxi to arrive.

The town around Charminar was crowded with lots of people as it is the focal point for people to buys their groceries and stuff.   The Charminar was build by Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah in 1591, built in granite, lime, mortar and around which the state of Hyderabad sprung up.

Charminar

Charminar is a square structure with 4 towers in the four corners of the square, each of whose side is 20m in length.  We were queuing up to enter the Charminar until a tout pull us a side and said 'foreigner' come! come! - so we followed him to the front of the queue but the catch is that foreigners pay 20x the price - 100Rp for foreigners and 5Rp for locals.

View from the top of Charminar

View from another side of Charminar

Mecca Majid in the background

Mecca Majid is a mosque and a walking distance from Charminar.  It was named because the bricks were brought from Mecca to build the central arch. 

Mango hawker taken whilst waiting in front of the traffic police station

Went also to Nazim's Museum - below the museum is a school and we were the only people in the museum.  Entrance fee is 70Rs per person and the guide at the entrance made the museum a very interesting experience.  His knowledge of the artifacts and collections was very good and as a reward a 100Rs was his tip.   This museum had a man-pulled lift which I was told is the only such lift in the whole of India.  Amazingly it is still working.   I pulled one thick rope and the lift lowered, and another thick rope at the other end and it goes up - quite easy due to the physics of pulleys.

 Hyderabad Food Market

Did not have time to go to Chowmahalla Palace and Salar Jung Museum because it is closing soon so we decided to go back to Mariott.  Maybe next time....

My Silkair plane on the Hyderabad International Airport tarmac.

Nightmare with Taxis

Hyderabad - We booked the taxi yesterday night to pick us up at 9am for a meeting at 10am.   I had another round of sumptuous breakfast but no taxi came to pick us up at 9am - so Lesley called them and was told that the taxi broke down and a new taxi is going to pick us at 9.20am but instead came at 9.30am.  We reach our destination at 10:30am - rush up and apologize profusely to our customers. 

Along the way - there was a Westin Hotel in the Hi-Tech Park location which we could stay instead of travelling 1hr to and fro.  

On the way back to the Hotel, the taxi driver took us on a scenic ride along Necklace Road with runs around the Lake that is in the heart of Hyderabad called Hussain Sagar.  This Lake was built by Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali in 1562, during the rule of Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah. It was a lake of 24 square kilometres built on a tributary of the River Musi to meet the water and irrigation needs of the city. There is a large monolithic statue of the Gautam Buddha in the middle of the lake which was erected in 1992.   The taxi driver said to say "can you smell the lake?".   In fact, yes - it was a foul smelling odour emitting from the Lake.

Next to the hotel, there is Sudaman tomb and a muslim graveyard.  

Sudaman Tomb

 

Words just outside the Marriott hotel

GRAVEYARD PLEASE DO NOT PASS URINE

It is quite common to see Indian man standing by the road or against a wall peeing - this sign is to tell them off not to do it.

We were recommend to a good restaurant - Ohri's (www.ohris.com) which is located at Libery Cross Road, opposite Gandhi Medical College , Basheerbagh.   I decided to use the bajai 3-wheeler taxi because it was nearby - negotiated the price down to 200Rp because the taxi driver had to wait and then bring us back.   It was an experience sitting taking the Bajai taxi weaving through the traffic - honing and honing as he goes along.  Big trucks and cars are just inches away from you.  Not an experience for the faint heart.

The food taste good at Ohri's Silver metro restaurant taste good - the theme is a undergound subway.

The stairs leading down to the Silver Metro restaurant - made to look like a metro stairs.

The restaurant decor

Hyderabad Hi-Tech Park

Hyderabad - Woke up by the morning call @ 6am as we need to leave the hotel at 8am to reach our customer at 9am.   Met Lesley @ 7am downstairs and I had a sumptuous breakfast of Masala Dosai, Dili, Wada, Indian Pizza, 2 fried eggs, guava juice and 2 Indian mangoes.  The Indian mangoes are sold quite expensive in Singapore and I just got to try them here - 2 big Indian mangoes but one of them taste like it was pluck unripe off the tree as it was not that sweet.

Approached the front desk to book a taxi and was advised to book a Hotel taxi - which cost an over-priced amount of 1,600Rp as we found out when we booked a local taxi on the way back that cost us 300Rp - that is day-light robbery.

We had our lunch at the customer canteen that caters to their 1,000 employees - they had North and South Indian food and I chose their Northern Indian dishes. 

Both Lesley and I decided to rest at the Executive Club on the 8th floor which have free drinks, finger foods and Internet access.   The view from the 8th floor is spectacular....but it started to rain heavily.  As reported in The Times of India that this is a 'pre-monsoon splash' - it was just pouring down and the traffic jams were horrendous.

View from the Executive Club

 Pool and foosball (table football) table

After the rain had died down - we booked a taxi to take us to Paradise restaurant to try their world's famous Biryani.  As the saying goes ' if you haven't tasted our Biryani, your haven't tasted Hyderabad'.  As it was raining and heavy traffic jam - a 4km ride too us 40 mins. 

Address: Paradise Restaurant - Paradise Circle, MG Road, Secunderbad.

The famous Paradise Biryani

We order Chicken Biryani and Mutton Kerbabs.   The waiters were attentive and service was good.  The Chicken Biryani that came in a pot was shared between Lesley and I.  There was only 1 piece of chicken for each of us.   The mutton kebabs was very tender and delicious.