So I got back from Hyderabad today morning, in time for work. And just reflecting back on the last three days, it's been a helluva trip!
So it started off Friday evening when we headed off to catch the bus, which was about an hour late. We had booked a sleeper bus, which is basically like an overnight train to Chiang Mai, with a few very important differences...
First off, each row had three seats, arranged in a 1:2 format. Of course, these were divided into top and bottom bunks. While booking the tickets, I expected the two "seats" that were together would be like how a seat would be... separated with some sort of divider in between. Well...NO! It was basically a slightly bigger bed, for two people. So here I was, stuck with a random dude for a twelve hour journey. Regardless to say, it wasn't the most comfortable trip ever, but I felt good knowing on the return trip, I'll get my own individual bed. The ride back though, was good up till when the bus stopped for dinner. I decided to get off and ordered some channa masala. Bad mistake! It didn't occur to me that there were no pit stops in between, and even if there were, I would be passed out. So yeah....you can fill in the blanks.
I was traveling with 4 other interns from Bangalore and we met up with two other guys who were coming from Pune. We stayed in the company's campus in Hyderabad, which made Bangalore's campus look ordinary. The rooms were huge (yes, much bigger than what I have now, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture though). The campus itself was also much nicer.
The entire city impressed me a lot. The traffic seemed to be more disciplined, and not as bad as Bangalore. The city itself seemed to be more planned and in a better condition. The buildings looked good, and there weren't too many incomplete buildings. I kind of wished I was based in Hyderabad lol...but like the saying goes, "the grass is always greener on the other side", and I don't want to land up like this:
Anyway, we went sight-seeing around Hyderabad. I think a large percentage of the travelling that I did was on the autos. And it was fun, definitely let me see much more of the city than I would have in a taxi (in which I would have merely fallen asleep....not to say that I didn't fall asleep in the auto hahah)
A few interesting things to note about the auto though:
1. In the beginning we were too far away from Char Minar and no one was willing to take us (the two Pune guys and myself). So I asked one of them to take us to the main road, and the guy agreed. But it wasn't just us three in the auto! There was another couple as well as another guy. So that's 7 people in a pretty small vehicle, for just possibly 4 people max.
2. On Saturday night, when we were trying to get into the town, the auto who agreed to take us had earlier been helping a dude who's motorcycle was broken. So we waited for them to negotiate something (they were talking in Telugu so I couldn't understand). Anyway, the motorcycle dude got a headstart as we were busy negotiating prices (on that note, I think I did a good job negotiating prices the entire trip! Ok giving myself a tad too much credit but still...every time before getting an auto, I would ask a local how much the price should be, and I was always able to get it in that range =))
To get to the point, 2 minutes after we started our journey, we see the motorcycle dude stuck again. The auto guy stops and talks to him. The guy was trying to buy a wrench from the auto dude. The auto finally agreed, but told the guy to actually make sure if it fits (he insisted it won't). Turns out it didn't. So this is the awesome part. The motorcycle dude then gets on the bike, holds on to the auto and the auto guy starts riding towards the main road. It was awesome, and I think that truly shows Indian hospitality.
Well, we saw a lot of the touristy stuff (Char Minar, Mecca Masjid, some palace, the Qutb Shahi tomb (hahah should have heard one of the guys trying to pronounce it), the golkonda fort). The only thing we missed out was this museum that was supposed to be really good. The taxi dude had told us that there was some sort of incident in that area and everything was closed down. Although we were slightly disappointed, I think we were all hungry enough to just forget about it quickly.
I must note though, while the palace may seem nice, and I wouldn't mind living there (just like I wouldn't mind living at most of the other places), it was probably the least interesting part of the trip. It's just a HUGE palace, with many buildings of old stuff and expensive stuff. The kings back in the day didn't know the meaning of "king-size" though. Should've seen the sizes of their crockeries, glasses and tea cups. TINY! You would think that if you were rich and had ridiculous amounts of money, you would buy BIG things. So you can enjoy more. The car collections were tight though. The buick was especially nice. I wish they maintained the cars better..could probably be worth a lot of money now. There is a fine line between scrap metal and antiques though....
The restaurant we ate at on Sunday afternoon was called "Paradise", and it was nothing short of it. The restaurant had about 3 or 4 floors, divided into sub-restaurants. I'm not sure if they all served the same food but there definitely were A LOT of people there.
Obviously since Hyderabad is known for it's Biryanis, so that's what we ordered. Also had some chicken appetizers and stuff. Apparently though, the real Hyderabadi biryani can only be found in people's houses. Possibly the "love" is what makes all the difference?
Oh yeah, I also gave a short speech regarding saving the environment. But I don't think anyone understood what I said though, because I intentionally stood away from the mic a bit. We were at this waterfront food court kind of thing, and they were talking something along the lines of if you sign a board, they'll plant three trees for each signature. So I thought, heck, it won't hurt! While signing, the cute MC asks if she could ask a few questions and I just couldn't say no hahah!
There were a lot of funny and good moments in the tri (such as the inability to do basic arithmetic...lol)., and I would like to thank everyone (especially the six other interns) who helped make it an awesome trip. Thank you!
Well, as for pictures, I guess we'll have to wait for Facebook =)
So it started off Friday evening when we headed off to catch the bus, which was about an hour late. We had booked a sleeper bus, which is basically like an overnight train to Chiang Mai, with a few very important differences...
First off, each row had three seats, arranged in a 1:2 format. Of course, these were divided into top and bottom bunks. While booking the tickets, I expected the two "seats" that were together would be like how a seat would be... separated with some sort of divider in between. Well...NO! It was basically a slightly bigger bed, for two people. So here I was, stuck with a random dude for a twelve hour journey. Regardless to say, it wasn't the most comfortable trip ever, but I felt good knowing on the return trip, I'll get my own individual bed. The ride back though, was good up till when the bus stopped for dinner. I decided to get off and ordered some channa masala. Bad mistake! It didn't occur to me that there were no pit stops in between, and even if there were, I would be passed out. So yeah....you can fill in the blanks.
I was traveling with 4 other interns from Bangalore and we met up with two other guys who were coming from Pune. We stayed in the company's campus in Hyderabad, which made Bangalore's campus look ordinary. The rooms were huge (yes, much bigger than what I have now, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture though). The campus itself was also much nicer.
The entire city impressed me a lot. The traffic seemed to be more disciplined, and not as bad as Bangalore. The city itself seemed to be more planned and in a better condition. The buildings looked good, and there weren't too many incomplete buildings. I kind of wished I was based in Hyderabad lol...but like the saying goes, "the grass is always greener on the other side", and I don't want to land up like this:
Anyway, we went sight-seeing around Hyderabad. I think a large percentage of the travelling that I did was on the autos. And it was fun, definitely let me see much more of the city than I would have in a taxi (in which I would have merely fallen asleep....not to say that I didn't fall asleep in the auto hahah)
A few interesting things to note about the auto though:
1. In the beginning we were too far away from Char Minar and no one was willing to take us (the two Pune guys and myself). So I asked one of them to take us to the main road, and the guy agreed. But it wasn't just us three in the auto! There was another couple as well as another guy. So that's 7 people in a pretty small vehicle, for just possibly 4 people max.
2. On Saturday night, when we were trying to get into the town, the auto who agreed to take us had earlier been helping a dude who's motorcycle was broken. So we waited for them to negotiate something (they were talking in Telugu so I couldn't understand). Anyway, the motorcycle dude got a headstart as we were busy negotiating prices (on that note, I think I did a good job negotiating prices the entire trip! Ok giving myself a tad too much credit but still...every time before getting an auto, I would ask a local how much the price should be, and I was always able to get it in that range =))
To get to the point, 2 minutes after we started our journey, we see the motorcycle dude stuck again. The auto guy stops and talks to him. The guy was trying to buy a wrench from the auto dude. The auto finally agreed, but told the guy to actually make sure if it fits (he insisted it won't). Turns out it didn't. So this is the awesome part. The motorcycle dude then gets on the bike, holds on to the auto and the auto guy starts riding towards the main road. It was awesome, and I think that truly shows Indian hospitality.
Well, we saw a lot of the touristy stuff (Char Minar, Mecca Masjid, some palace, the Qutb Shahi tomb (hahah should have heard one of the guys trying to pronounce it), the golkonda fort). The only thing we missed out was this museum that was supposed to be really good. The taxi dude had told us that there was some sort of incident in that area and everything was closed down. Although we were slightly disappointed, I think we were all hungry enough to just forget about it quickly.
I must note though, while the palace may seem nice, and I wouldn't mind living there (just like I wouldn't mind living at most of the other places), it was probably the least interesting part of the trip. It's just a HUGE palace, with many buildings of old stuff and expensive stuff. The kings back in the day didn't know the meaning of "king-size" though. Should've seen the sizes of their crockeries, glasses and tea cups. TINY! You would think that if you were rich and had ridiculous amounts of money, you would buy BIG things. So you can enjoy more. The car collections were tight though. The buick was especially nice. I wish they maintained the cars better..could probably be worth a lot of money now. There is a fine line between scrap metal and antiques though....
The restaurant we ate at on Sunday afternoon was called "Paradise", and it was nothing short of it. The restaurant had about 3 or 4 floors, divided into sub-restaurants. I'm not sure if they all served the same food but there definitely were A LOT of people there.
Obviously since Hyderabad is known for it's Biryanis, so that's what we ordered. Also had some chicken appetizers and stuff. Apparently though, the real Hyderabadi biryani can only be found in people's houses. Possibly the "love" is what makes all the difference?
Oh yeah, I also gave a short speech regarding saving the environment. But I don't think anyone understood what I said though, because I intentionally stood away from the mic a bit. We were at this waterfront food court kind of thing, and they were talking something along the lines of if you sign a board, they'll plant three trees for each signature. So I thought, heck, it won't hurt! While signing, the cute MC asks if she could ask a few questions and I just couldn't say no hahah!
There were a lot of funny and good moments in the tri (such as the inability to do basic arithmetic...lol)., and I would like to thank everyone (especially the six other interns) who helped make it an awesome trip. Thank you!
Well, as for pictures, I guess we'll have to wait for Facebook =)
At least you got to sleep with a hot guy. And you keep bumping into him on campus too - that's just fate! Lucky you...
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