We thought we were going to Hyderabad, and
were a little surprised when our train terminated at Secunderabad station. But no problem—Secunderabad is just north of
Hyderabad, and the two sort of blend together anyway. We took an autorickshaw to the Hotel
Viceroy and settled in for a day of reading, TV watching, and resting. [They went all the way to India for that?] We decided that the
Viceroy, which was located near the east bank of Hussain Sagar Lake midway between
Secunderabad and Hyderabad, was overpriced at about 2600 rupees, and was too far from
everything, so we set out in the late afternoon to scout other hotels and find supper.
We happened upon Hotel Saiprakash on Nampally
Station Road in the Abids section of Hyderabad, and decided we liked it. Much less
luxurious than the Viceroy, it was good value at 730 rupees per night. We made the move at
midday the next day (Saturday) and then headed out for a movie.
On arriving at the theater, we discovered that we had two
hours before the next show, so Rita decided to do some jewelry shopping, and I did some
local walking [no surprises there on either count] and
stopped for a haircut. The barber spoke no English but, using sign language, I was able to
communicate my request for a haircut, and a beard and mustache trim. We agreed on a price
of 30 rupees and, about the time he started cutting, there was a power failure. He
continued without lights for a while, but it was near sunset and getting darker. After a
while he had to stop, indicating that it would just be five minutes. It was getting close
to the time I had agreed to meet Rita and, with the help of another shopkeeper, I
explained that I had to leave but would come back.
I returned with Rita, who was able to talk with the barber
(in Hindi, I think) and she explained that we were going to a movie soon. "No
problem," the barber said, and that we should go enjoy the movie, and then come back
and he would finish the job.
We saw "Charlie’s Angels" in a modern theater
with surround-sound for 25 rupees each (about 55 cents), probably the least I have paid
for a movie since I was a kid. (The movie in Bangalore had cost 50 rupees, including about
24 rupees Karnataka state tax; here the Andhra Pradesh state tax was about 1 rupee.)
We returned to the barber, who now had lights. He finished
the haircut and then trimmed my beard, my mustache, my eyebrows, my ears, and my nose
hair. [Thanks for sharing that with us, Allen.] I
was thinking that this was about the most complete trim job I had ever had, when he asked,
in sign language, if I wanted my underarms trimmed. I thought he was joking, and said
"No, thanks" but, the next thing I knew, he started to take my shirt off!
That evening, back at the hotel, Rita
received a call from home concerning an ongoing family situation, and after the call we
had a long talk. Rita felt that she had seen most of what she wanted to see in India
(Ellora and Ajanta caves being at the top of the list), and it was time for her to return
home. I opted to remain in India and ride the toy train to Darjeeling—one of my main objectives—and then return to Rajkot.
On Sunday morning, we visited the rail
reservation center and made reservations to leave for Delhi the next morning. Rita would
fly from Delhi to Singapore and on to LA as soon as we could change the date on her
existing reservation. We then took an autorickshaw to Golconda Fort for some sightseeing.
Golconda is a 16th century fort encircled by three separate
walls and built on a 400-foot-high hill. The second wall, at the base of the hill, has an
11km perimeter, and there is a third wall outside of that. The fort has a good water
supply and once held out against Mughal armies for eight months.
Back in Hyderabad, Rita did some last-minute shopping while
I bought food for the 26-hour train trip and walked around town. We had a New Year’s
Eve dinner at the hotel restaurant, and then went to bed early to be rested for our 6:40AM
departure. The cheering and fireworks at midnight woke us up and we watched the New Year
festivities on TV.
At 5AM on January 1st, 2001 we were up and getting ready to
leave Hyderabad for the long ride to Delhi via Nagpur, Bhopal, and Jhansi.
We send our wishes for a Happy New Year to all.
