Out and about at the weekend....

Taramati Baragati

Saturday I met up with Sujoy and his girlfriend Sneda. We went to a nice place for lunch - very posh Indian restaurant. Sneda ordered the food, which was served by a waitor all dressed up in traditional Indian costume and holding a skewer with flaming chicken! After lunch we headed out to Hussain Sagar Lake, famous for it's giant 40ft buddha on an island in the centre. Cameras were not allowed since someone was caught taking pics of girls recently, so we had to leave our SLRs with a security bloke. Luckliy I had my Canon compact! We took the boat our and looked around the statue for a while, taking some photos, including one of me looking like Lady Diana all on my own. We then went to Taramati Baragati which was a kind of arched building built in 1625 on top of a hill. On our way I saw a bloke crawling accross the street - not sure why! The views from Taramati were fantastic, and the sunset was breathtaking. On the way back we saw a buffalo that had been hit by a car, with about 20 people standing around it, probably thinking 'now what do we do?' They then took me back to my apartment - all in all a good day!

Charminar mosque

Sarah arrived in Hyderabad early Sunday morning. I met up with her at the Westin hotel around 10am. I was looking forard to seeing her again, and also having a bit of luxery for 3 days! We had breakfast and then chatted by the pool for a couple of hours - very nice & relaxing. I tried the pool which was pretty cold! After a brief lunch we met Venkata. He drove us into Charminar in the old part of Hyderabad. The streets were alive with activity! We part near the large mosque and wondered around the bazars. This area is famous for bangles, and Ventata helped Sarah haggle for one. There were shops selling all kinds of goods - pure sensory overload! We tried to gte into see the large Mecca, but Sarah was not allowed in as she was wearing shorts! I went in & took a few photos. A Muslim outside put some perfume of some kind on my hand - was pretty nice! I really like this area of Hyderabad - it's alive this people & amazing sites. Ventaka then took us past Hussain Sagar (on  the 'Necklace Road') on our way back to the Westin. Sarah and I had dinner with Rajesh at the 'Exotica' - on the top floor, open at the sides. There was a nice breeze and the food was great. We dropped Rajesh off and headed back to the hotel. Sarah had done really well given that she'd just arrived  that morning!