The Great Bastille Day Birthday Canal Camp

Inspired by the great bike trip last month, we booked a lockkeeper's house along the C&O canal for the big birthday bonanza with Hyderabadi friends. Lockhouse 22, twenty-two miles upstream from the start of the canal, where a little ole lockkeeperman and his family used to operate one of the 200 or so locks on the entire project. The only catch? It was renovated to suit the period. No electricity, no plumbing.

Great evening of merriment and grilling, even though on-and-off rain made it a bit difficult, and rather muddy to boot. Upstairs bedrooms were pretty darn muggy and stuffy overnight...and the period-piece beds not all that comfortable. When we woke up, for some odd reason, all three ladies were covered with hundreds of bug bites. As for the five gentlemen? Not a single mark. We still haven't figured it out yet if it was mosquitos or bed bugs...we didn't see any of either during the day or night. Peculiar.

a semi-charmed kind of life

Wait. THE third eye blind? Yes, THE third eye blind, in Hyderabad, on a four-stop swing through the Hard Rock Cafes of the world's largest democracy.

Hyderabad turned 1998, give or take a few years, for a brief evening. the lead singer man might have said it best..."Wow, this feels like a basement party from years ago." truly a semi-charmed kinda life.

Number Three

Happenin’ Hyderabad!! Lonely Planet just named Hyderabad the NUMBER THREE city in the world to visit in 2013!! Congrats to Vanessa, Nick, Janani, Jen, Ann, Laura, Bekes, Rachel, Sara, Barrett, Jess, Earl, Carl, Kristine, RJ, Gaby, Kate, Sha, Berta and Brian for beating the rush!

#1 San Francisco

#2 Amsterdam

#3 Hyderabad

No freaking lie. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/themes/best-in-travel-2013/top-10-cities

This is particularly funny because Lonely Planet wrote a whole book last year on the 25 best places to go in India..and Hyderabad didn’t even make the table of contents. See also: http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/asia/discover-india-travel-guide-1/?lpaffil=lpdest-shoppod

Once Upon a Clock

Sometimes I gripe, but it must be said that Hyderabad is a fascinating time and place to pass through. A tangle of times, a parade of places. A litany of lives just going about living as you flash by, as the hands of the clock of time spin slowly and steadily on.

One of those ever-moving yet somehow never-changing neighborhoods and moments in time is simply “the Old City,” the proud heart of a long-gone empire that carries on day-after-day even as it crumbles brick-by-brick. It’s a love/hate kind of place, with the kind of human intensity that exists only rarely outside of this subcontinent. In just a few square kilometers, the most extreme of juxtapositions, the wealthiest of kingdoms alongside the most disheartening of poverties. In the space between, it's just you and a million of your closest friends, trying to make a bit of sense out of our time in this world. Almost a year ago, I fell in love in the Old City.

It was just a casual stroll down a dirt-packed side street tucked between the Charminar and the Salar Jung museum. There’s no name to call it by, it’s simply “the street with the wedding card shops.” I passed a storefront, just one of many. I looked up, mostly by chance. As soon as I saw it, I stopped dead in my tracks and stood in awe, just looking. On the far wall of the shop, high above an assortment of other clocks, was the most magnificent of clock I had ever seen. Stunningly large and perfectly antique, it was mesmerizing. I could only see the top half, which added to the mystery, like only a burka can do. Even more enticing than the beauty of the clock was the mystery. Instead of numbers, a seemingly random set of English-language letters manned the twelve positions around the clock. What did the letters stand for, I wondered, in the fascination that comes with something foreign. But then I kept on walking, as I so often do.

Over the days and weeks that followed, I found myself wracking my brain, trying to crack the code of letters of the top half of that clock, hoping to uncover the timeless secrets she held. Numbers in a Nizami language? Months of an ancient calendar? Stars of a powerful zodiac? For many months, I told everyone I met about the clock in the Old City. I realized was in love, I wanted it bad.

Today, the most recent in a long string of annual mid-summer birthdays, I just happened to find myself with 30 extra minutes in the Old City. Four other officers and I were early for the morning’s bidri workshop tour, one of the timeless crafts turned cottage industries that links medieval and modern India to the point of blurriness. Why don’t we try to find, I proposed, that clock I’ve been talking about. They readily agreed – it was my birthday after all – so we set out to find a once-upon-a-time clock on the far wall of a needle-in-a-haystack shop down a nameless street.

No less than four U-turns, three alleyways, two bridges and a fender-bender later, we rolled slowly down the street with the wedding card shops searching for a clock shop. Any clock shop. The closest we could find was a watch shop, but the doors were shut, typical before eleven on a Saturday morning. The others were a bit skeptical, but I promised them the clock was worth the search. A few blocks later, still nothing. We turned around in defeat. Lori offered some comforting works, but it wasn’t meant to be.

On the sad retreat, suddenly a miracle. One of the two big green wooden doors of Mahmood Watch Co.’s shop was now open. Through the window, half the store looked vaguely familiar. A slender man was slowly unhinging and opening the second door. We parked, watching the curtain lift on the drama, hoping. Sure enough, as the second door swung open, there she was, on the far wall of the just-opened shop, my clock. Princy gasped as she saw it. Elvin smiled. That is indeed a sweet clock, he said. We hopped out of the car, jumping puddles and dodging motorcycles on our way to the clock. I wondered if the five thousand rupees in my wallet would be enough.

I was still counting rupees in my head when I heard the first laughter. It might have been Elizabeth. I creened my neck around a grandfather clock to get a better look. In a single glance, I solved a long treasured mystery, collapsed into the sad feeling that can come only with the debunking of a hoax. The bottom half of the clock made it perfectly clear that the clock held no secrets. It was an advertisement. The twelve letters of m-a-h-m-o-o-d-w-a-t-c-h marching a well-spaced circle around two hands.

But the second realization was even more deflating. The clock would never grace the wall of my living room. Not even for a million rupees. The clock was, in fact, no clock at all. It was painted directly onto the concrete wall. The hands had never once moved. The shop full of clocks only mocked me. The shop didn’t intend to sell a single one, the entire odd collection just added to the mood of the watch sales and repair business.

I stumbled out of the store, laughing, shaking my head as I so often do in India. Every story may have its own place and time in Hyderabad, sadly the same can’t be said for my clock.

Elvin, Elizabeth, Princy and Lori join me on a birthday scavenger hunt, in pursuit of a long-lost timekeeping treasure in a hidden corner of the Old City.

Jalavihar

What better way to spend the Fourth of July at the waterpark?!

Andrew and I, surprisingly enough, are still alive after braving Hyderabad's (second) finest waterpark. Apparently there's a bigger one on the outskirts of the city, but I'd driven past Jalavihar on Necklace Road many times and (almost) always been tempted to check it out.

While the right-sized waterpark is unappetizingly close to Hussain Sagar, they promise the water treatment is first-class. (Here's hoping.) On a random day during the workweek, when we have off but most Indian do not, the crowds were on the better side of manageable, a pleasant surprise. (I would never, ever, EVER go on a weekend day in the middle of summer. EVER.) The price is right ($3) for all the rides you can ride, even if few of them are fun enough in their own right to ride more than once.

And as for a socio-cultural exhibition? Fascinating! 90% men of course. Ladies wear "costumes," not swim suits. Even the majority of gentlemen wear shirts or tanktops above shorts or even nylon pants. Swimmability is generally low, highlights in the wave pool include splashing and standing in circles. But the hourly Rain Dance? Thank goodness for the rope physically separating the men from the women! (Just ask Andrew.)

Overall review? Pleasant.

Hyderabad Zoo

well, it's not san diego, but hyderabad's got a zoo! it's a bit crowded, as could be expected, but the zoo's one of the better places in the city to take a stroll. some pretty decent animal attractions, including a white tiger. reasonable 50NR admission and a few places to buy snacks/food inside. you probably, though, won't find yourself writing home about it...unless you're just looking to fill a blog post.

i get a good feeling

Rachel knows me better than any person on this planet. We share Camp Nan A Bo Sho and ALPs. Her friends are my friends and my friends are her friends. She followed me out to DC once, and even as far as Hungary. It’s a bit of an odd role for one of my best friend from college’s little sisters to fill, but we’re long past that.

And Sara’s an all-time fav. A facilitator of fun and merriment. I met her when Rachel was off studying in Spain. A com-dis replacement of sorts, but I swore they’d become fast friends when Rachel returned. Sure enough, the ladies both live in Milwaukee these days, the closest of friends.

And daring enough to make the journey to India.

Quite a few friends proposed at some point or another a New Years visit but only Rachel and Sara emailed proud pictures of their new visas in November. For two months we excitedly planned out a two-week super adventure.

I’m pretty good at the hosting schtick by this point. And in truth, it’s not that hard when you’ve got a four-bedroom apartment and a staff of two.

Hugs at the airport are always the best, followed by a question-and-answer-packed car ride. Usually the same questions, mostly the same answers. Does anyone own those cows? Who is watching those goats? Why are there four languages on each sign? Does someone really live there? What is that smell?

Early morning arrivals are the best. The ladies landed from Abu Dhabi at 3:05 am, the first of the Middle East flights to arrive, which allows you to slip through the crowds and make a relatively peaceful return to my place. And when you time it right you can get a quick nap in before waking for the day relatively refreshed.

By Friday afternoon, they were ready to peek into the consulate to watch the start of the annual consulate cricket match before lunch at Chiran Fort. After checking out Hussain Sagar and Lumbini Tower for the umpeenth time, I pulled out all the stops in honor of the girls’ arrival: the grand opening of Chef Inam’s new steakhouse on Road 2! Our favorite restaurant by far, Chef Inam’s graduated from a dingy concrete box at Masab Tank to a cute and clean restaurant behind Melting Moments across from KBR park, just up from Coco’s. If you like mean, you’ve gotta put it on your Hyderabad short-list.

Saturday, New Years’ Eve day, we trapse through the history of Golkonda Fort and the Qutb Shahi tombs. After a pizza dinner, we napped and pregamed before a pricey New Years’ Eve at Rain. Sadly I was removed from the dance floor for dancing “stag” at one point, but after we met some new Satyam friends, the evening turned around quickly. Until the party ran out at 1am, of course.

After a rest, recovered and planning day on Sunday, we hit the Old City on Monday. I hit two Hyderabadi highlights for the first time, the Birla Planetarium & Science Center and the Salar Jung museum. The planetarium was fun, a nice little time-pass in a nice little area of the city. The science museum’d be a great place to take a 10 year old. And the Salary Jung museum was a pretty good collection, even if a bit random and labeled only rather spartanly. The ladies liked the Charminar a bit more than trapsing aimlessly through the streets of Lal Bazaar, but I did see an antique wall clock unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I decided immediately that I wouldn’t leave Hyderabad until its mine.

And as die-hard Badgers, we awoke at 3 am this morning to watch the mighty boys from Wisconsin battle in their second consecutive Rose Bowl. Rachel and I toasted Miller Genuine Drafts while Sara broke out the cheese. Friends back home dug our late night/early morning photos, at least until the 4th quarter, when Big Red ran out of steam versus a pretty darn good Oregon team.

The ladies are off to Goa for a few days now before we headed to Rajasthan, my first adventure outside of Andhra Pradesh in far too long. Cameras will be put to good use!

A Very Bekes Christmas

Avid readers of Hungarian Goulash might remember that “bekes” is Hugarian for “peaceful.” And thanks to friend-of-a-friend Laura, my first Indian Christmas was extra “bekes” this year.

Laura and I had only met once, years ago at Cooper Amy’s wedding. Sadly, she claims no Hungarian heritage. She quit an NGO consulting job not too long ago and decided some time in Asia is what she needed next. When I heard she planned to spend a few months traveling India, I was quick to put out the invite. India and this apartment, simply, are more fun when you’ve got someone to share it with.

For two months she hiked Nepal, circling Annapurna and climbing to Everest Base Camp. By the middle of December, though, she was getting cold in the mountains, so I recommended she arrive in time for a Zakir Hussain concert at the Chowmahallah Palce. A glorious evening of tabla in the nicest nighttime setting Hyderabad has to offer. And the drive back offered the mood-lit Charminar at night, a first for me.

Another first? The Andhra Pradesh State Health Museum. Tucked into a small building in the Public Gardens just up from the Andhra Pradesh State Museum, between L.B. Stadium and the Assembly. The three-chambered exhibit is an honest-to-goodness time capsule, transporting you straight to 1991. Nothing’s changed. The dust, the exhibits, the population figure: 790,000,000. The information is an amazing glance at health propoganda from a rural country emerging into modernity. Free and worth the visit, although they don’t allow anything other than sly pictures.

After a quick trip to Goa, Laura was back in time for Christmas. Complete with a quaint little tree in the living room, we opened packages and wined and dined with consulate friends.

And Boxing Day brought my first visit to Snow World, one of Hyderabad’s other best kitsch hotspots. For 300 rupees, you get to suit up and set into a giant freezer, a paradise at -5 degrees Celsius. The best part, of course, is the people-watching that comes with seeing local folks feel winter for the first time. Ever. And below Snow World? Some surprisingly good go-karts. With a track built into a cave, as that makes the most sense.

Nagarjunakonda Roadtrip

The list of things I miss about America is long. It's topped by Chipotle, of course, but somewhere not to far down the list you'll find "good ole-fashioned roadtrips."

Not too many "tourist destinations" within driving distance in this chunk of India. Guidebooks usually call Andhra Pradesh, in a variety of diplomatic phrases, something along the lines of a "subtle charmer." I've broken out on wheels just once, a bus trip to Laknavaramu with the Adventure Club. (Treks out to Bhongir only count as a mini-excursion, i've decided.) Atop my to-do list of regional destinations, higher than even noted Wall Drugs of the Deccan like Medak, Nizamabad, and Bidar, was Nagarjunakonda.

I got antsy sitting in Hyderabad since coming back from Nepal, so I convinced coworker Sarah* and new friends Aliza* and Mandy* to load up with Raghu and I and two burned CDs. We set out on the three-hour (150km) drive to Nagarjunakonda, a relatively pleasant drive down a relatively decent road.

The earthen dam itself is pretty impressive, and the reservoir'll the best looking body of water i've seen in months. I was allllllmost tempted to jump in. The valley was an international hub of buddhism back in the 200-300 AD range. The site was excavated in the 1930s, but was threatened when construction began on the dam in the 1960s. the ingenious solution? dig up the ruins and plop them on a hilltop, set to become an island in the new reservoir. The result is a pleasant island park, gardens and paths linking museums and reconstructed ancient buddhist structures. The one-hour ferry and entrance fee combine to about $5 a head, not an unreasonable price for a pretty pleasant out of doors experience. Worth the three-hour trip, if you've got time to kill in the Hyderabad metropolitan region. Two-and-a-half stars out of five.

* Denotes an awesome individual.

It's Business (Executive) Time

Most of the time i forget about New India. The India that everyone's writing books about. Masters theses. Newspaper articles. Business case studies. Magazine pieces. College essays. But then every once in a while i go out to Hi Tech City/Gachibowli/Cyberabad/Madhapur, and i'm like "Wow." It's amazing. A whole new world out here.


And thanks to JDB for bringing business time into my world with a mixed cd.

Skill Level C+

The basketball squad's performance in the AmCham basketball tournament? Quite respectable:

3-1 in pool play!

Only two season-ending injuries!

And a tough semifinals loss to a team that could both dribble and shoot... Oops.

Bandh-oberfest

For months, i had no opinion on Telangana. Sure i scoffed at random acts of violence on innocent statutes, but as long as the separatist strike didn't affect me, i didn't have much of an opinion.

But then came this weekend. Oktoberbest. The very best of the beer-based culture that I miss. Two days of Kingfisher-fueled revelry, even if that leaves a little to be desired. But then Telangana cancelled Oktoberfest. That's when i developed an opinion...

Likeable Laura

Returned from Delhi to a great surprise...Laura sleeping on the couch!

Bright and early Saturday, we set out for Bhongir Fort, my second day-trip to the monolith and fort an hour east of HYD. It was great to hike, walking doesn’t happen much here and I miss it. The ladies loved the drive, the history and the views!

Some local boys at the top recommended a Narasimha temple a few miles east of the fort. Raghu agreed it was worth the drive. Temples and pilgrimages are the biggest form of local tourism in India, but the Wisconsin Dells-like tourist trap of Hindu gods and goddesses was a bit surprising. Inside the temple, though, we were given the VIP treatment...they don’t see many firengis that far out. Laura tried to take the darshan with her left hand. The highlight for Ann, though, was certainly the troop of roadside monkeys.

Sunday I helped the ladies plan the next legs of their trip: HYD to Kerala. Then to Delhi and the Golden Triangle (Delhi/Agra/Jaipur) before setting off for Kathmandu the last day of September. Ann and Laura will hike – likely a circumnavigation of the Annapurna Circuit. As laura leaves, I’ll head to Kathandu to join Annie for ten days of trekking at the end of October. Hurrah!

And afterwards, a trip to Lumbini Park. A quick summer monsoon always drown our plans to get to the Buddha, but we made it at dusk. And then a first: the laser show!! I spent the first 15 minutes quite skeptical...THEN THEY TURNED ON THE LASERS!! It was so good!! I was amazed!! This has become a must-do on my visitor to-do list!! It’s so surprisingly good for one dollar!!

Derma Camp 2011

JDB and I don’t actually know each other all that well. In fact, we’ve only met twice.

But we’re pretty intertwined. We both worked at Camp Chief Ouray. Unfortunately our stays didn’t overlap, but I did work with her cousin and her brother. We both studied in Madison, albeit for only a brief period at the same time. She lived with one of my old ALPs coworkers and a law school classmate. And we’ve both hiked with the same friends, just never at the same time.

Thanks to the prodding of a meddling cousin and an overactive imagination, I was kinda hoping she was coming to India for a CCO fairytale, but alas a boyfriend back home nipped that plan in the bud pretty early on. (Darn O.P.G.F.s...) Instead, she had honest-to-goodness decided to come to India for the skin diseases. Enjoying her two-weeks of annual leave from dermatology residency to visit HIV clinics, leprosy colonies and health camps in slums.

Her early morning arrival was delayed an entire day due to problems in DC, but Raghu and I were able to whisk her through the deserted nighttime streets under the cover of darkness, so her first experiences in India were the far more gentle apartment surroundings. But from the first day, she dove into India, crossing streets like a champion and lining up a variety of observations. The stories she’d tell every night over dinner were pretty amazing.

Having a two-week houseguest was great. She jumped into high culture (diplomatic dinner parties full of bureaucrats) and low culture (Planet of the Apes) alike. She was the perfect excuse to discover new favorites around town: 1857 and Waterfront. We walked through the Bollywood Ohri’s, but didn’t stay for the buffet.

After all, we were off to Kerala!

Old Structures on Top of Hills

Janani's four days in Hyderabad were the perfect chance to hit two of the city's best tourist attractions, which I had yet to prioritize in 6 months of Hyderabading: Golkona Fort and the Qutb Shahi Tombs.


The fort is the reason there's the city of Hyderabad today, even though it's many miles from the city center. For years, the three-walled bastion on a rocky outcropping was one of the wealthiest strongholds in all of India. From the 13th century Hindu Kakatiya emporers through 16th century Muslim Qutb Shahi dynasty. All the great diamonds of the world passed through the walls. Gold. Pearls. Spices. Some of the richest men in the world sat on thrones here. My first impression was how similar it felt compared to contemporary castles in Europe like Hungary's Eger Castle.


By the 1600s, though, the water situation was getting dreary, so after a big famine the kind moved a few miles to the east, on the banks of the River Musi and built from scratch the Hyderabad we know and love.


The remains, though, are a jumbled blend of fortifications, temples, mosques, markets and lawns.


India: a whole lotta new and old, side by side. The newest residential developments from the top of the fort:


Raghu's favorite top-secret destination within in the largest fort wall? The biggest tree i've ever seen...and climbed into.


And the tombs of the Qutb rulers? Amazing monuments to a different day and age, even as they slowly crumble.

radio city

On-air with Hemant's morning radio show. A bit of Telugu, a bunch of English, wisdom of all sorts!


off to chennai for a week of interviews in the bigger, more well-established consulate.

Mother's Day Special

I've been a largely uninspired blogger. Of late and in general. I'll take this Sunday morning to make amends, which will be appreciated the most by my most avid reader/reminder-that-i-don't-update-enough: my Mom! Happy Mother's Day!

Sometimes it's not easy to feel like a diplomat when you're sitting in Hyderabad working the visa line. We're a visa mill. A factory. A manufacturing plant. A conveyor belt. It seems like our only real goal is to get through as many visa interviews as possible. When you a slog through 100 a day, coupled with the ensuing paperwork, that gets tough. The hardest part every day is simply the disconnect between how much each interview means to the applicant...and how little it means to the interviewer personally. It's grueling to take that on our shoulder, if you're the type of person who cares about people. And it doesn't make help to have a growing stack of paperwork as the number of applicants continues to grow, even as we're not ready for it. The result is i come home tired, swim, play on the internet and go to bed.

Sometimes as I'm stirring a six-foot metal pole in a red-hot burn barrel, watching sensitive-but-unclassified information melt into toxic white smoke (HYD is, after all, too new/small/insignificant a post to warrant a heavy-duty paper shredder), i bemoan the here and now and wonder why exactly the United States has sent me on diplomatic assignment...to man a burning barrel...

But the past two weeks have felt far more interesting. Almost, gasp, like I've found myself in an exciting, dangerous, fanciful profession:

- planning and strategizing with the regional educational advising coordinator over dinner. battling through eggplant to get to the much tastier dal.

- giving a long-planned tourist visa presentation for 80 travel agents and travel industry professionals at one of the nicest hotels in town. battling through 2 hours of questions with helpful but calculated answers that come pretty easily after four months here. seeing self in newspaper.

- invitation to join in drinks and dinner and conversation at the Secunderabad Club, a ritzy country club i'd have no business visiting in the United States, but it feels right here.

- helping two first-time public speakers get prepared for -- and nail! -- a presentation in Medak, a town a few hours west of Hyderabad. Mission accomplished, except i learned that my training plan needs to expand a bit in at least one area. the local staffers fielded the ole "does the united states discriminate against muslims?" question and could only muster a "no comment." Of course we can comment, because there's an important (especially in these parts) answer to the question: No.

- the braised lamb at Ruchi and Idoni.

- an assassination attempt on a local politician in the Old City. possibility of violence, tempered many think because it was Mulsim on Muslim violence, not sectarian. he's transported to a hospital 150m down the road, which has been periodically blocked the past week now by marching mourners.

- a close 7-6 loss in tennis doubles.

- after ten years, the USG finds and eliminates the world's most dangerous terrorist. he'd been hiding in pakistan all along, closer to India than the Afghanistan. americans feel good about america and our president. indians feel justified in hating pakistan, discuss starting their own raids into pakistan territory to hunt terrorists. consulate security seriously strengthened.

- checking out a potential permanent apartment...and turning down the chance to request it because it doesn't meet the same standards as the rest of the housing pool. not feeling too bad about being picky.

- playing tourguide and friend to visiting DC-wallahs. patio dinner at Our Place, a nice new restaurant.

- meeting the foreign commercial service. flowcharts, but no chipotle. yet.

- tailgating with Miller Genuine Drafts in the middle of the dusty Deccan Plateau. first live cricket match, even if the Deccan Chargers went down in a blaze of glory.

- dinner with the Indian Foreign Service classes of 1983, 1984, 1985 at the Indian School of Business. hobnobbing amongst mid and senior-level diplomats at Hyderabad's ten-year-old business school, which already ranks #13 among all business schools in the world, partnering with peers like Wharton and Kellogg.

Vanessa Jane (and The Weary Travellers)

Friends!!!!

Hosting visitors might just be one of the best parts of living abroad. Showing someone from back home your new world, peeling back the shellshocked and proving to someone that your little foreign story is real. Livable. Sharing Heves with mom and dad after their Olympic trip; show-and-telling Rachel and Margaret as spring came to Heves.

First Indian visitors? Camper-turned-coworker-turned-dear-friend Vanessa and her boyfriend Nick, a stellar lad in his own right. They both spent the past two years teaching English in Korea -- a great gig -- and celebrating the end of their stay with two months in Southeast Asia and two months in South Asia, four months of Asian galavanting.

I know first hand how tiring travelling can be, so i'd been pushing HYD on them as a mid-way resting point since they started planning their trip months ago. Air-conditioning, washing machine, car and driver, all the modern conveniences. Plus Miller Genuine Draft.

Three weeks ago, after a marvelous stay in Sri Lanka, they touched down in Thiruvananthapuram, the southernmost point in India, and have slowly been inching their way northward. The loved the flavor of Kerala. Savored the calm of Ooty. Dug the beaches of Goa. Wandered the wonder of the ruins at Hampi. All by bus and train and foot.

Saturday morning, they pulled into HYD via overnight coach from Hampi. Mixed reviews on comfort, as you might guess. But immediately i threw them into the fray in a weekend action-packed with Hyderabadi fun:

playing cricket (and MGDs) at the consulate
pool party with the foreign exchange students
afternoon nap
McDonalds on a tray
sunday morning brunch
trying to figure out what happened at the pool party
Old City and Charminar
Watching Lagaan (first half only)

Monday, they took off on their own while I was at work and gave the Nizam's Chowmahalla Palace rave reviews. That evening, Raghu and his wife Uma, brought over mutton biryani in honor of their 17th wedding anniversary. (we presented them with a nice basket of goodies in return.) It was nice to meet Uma, I hadn't before. We had a lot of fun mixing English and Telugu (for her benefit) after we insisted long enough and Raghu and Uma finally agreed to join us at the dinner table. (He ate, she didn't.)

Tuesday, they went to Golkonda Fort with Britta, which I haven't even been to yet. They had a good time trapsing up and down the 17th century fort. Wednesday was a full day of relaxation, followed by a delicious lasanga dinner in gloria's new kitchen. In all, it's been great hosting them, as it's great motivation to be more social then I usual am after work. And social, of course, is fun, even if it's tiring.

Today's a packing day, as tomorrow we're off to Mumbai! Beautiful Bombay... We wanted to take an overnight train, but you have to book 2 months in advance, yikes. So we're off by plane. Should be grand!

I hope this is the first in a long string of visitors. Janani's planning a Bastille Day swing through HYD. Jenn Bahmer'll be dermatologying here for two weeks in August. Anders and Simo are debating September. October suits Annie's fancy more. Madison/Colorado friends tease me with the possibility of a December visit. And Cousin Kristine will be going ma and pa in January. And I continue, of course, to lobby others. Including YOU. :-)

Hikes Around Hyderabad: Bhongir Fort

"Trek" three with the Great Hyderabad Adventure Club: An evening hike to the top of Bhongir Fort. And the first where two colleagues tagged along, Matt and Gloria were eager to both get out for a hike and meet some BEP-friends.


Fifty kilometers east of Hyderabad, one of many giant monoliths on this part of the Deccan Plateau. A giant rock, more than 500 feet tall, jutting abruptly out of dusty plains. Perched high atop the rock, a 14th century fort/palace and the long staircase snaking its way to the top. (We only half-used the convenience.)


Admission: 60 rupees. Bring your own water. Begin descent not long after sunset. Beware of troops of monkeys.

Ultimate

Apparently I've been getting frisky lately without even knowing it...