Now to Southern India

View from Charminer
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Time for sleep... I'll catch you up on Hyderabad and Aurangabad next time.

Ok... Hyderabad.

I met some really nice people on my 24 hour journey to Hyderabad. I went in 3-tier sleeper, which means there are 3 cushioned bunks on each side of the section and then there are 2 on the end... i was on the end, so only 2. During the day, the middle bunk drops down as a seat back, so everyone sits on the bottom bunks. I was with an older couple, two men in their 20s, two men in their late 30s or early 40s and a guy around 50. They were all very good to me... and very curious... lots of questions... but also lots of advice about India. It was a nice trip.

Detail work
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My friend met me at the train and took me to my hotel and got me settled. The next day we went to Charminer - a tower built by Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah in 1591 to commemorate the end of an epidemic. It has four columns each topped by a minaret, in the Islamic architectural style. There are stairs inside the columns to climb up to the mosque. There are great city views from there... which you will see as soon as I can upload the pictures.

We also went to the Salar Jung Museum to see a special collection of jewelry owned by the Nizam family, former rulers of Hyderabad. It includes the Jacob diamond, one of the seven biggest in the world - almost 185 carats!

Another view from Charminer - note the Saddam restaurant on the left - anyone need an autorickshaw?
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The next day I went to the Nehru Zoo. The animals had much more room than other Asian zoos I've seen... I was happy about that. They had a lot of the local animals including a couple of white tigers... very pretty cats. There was also this hysterical sloth bear. The zoo keepers were next door feeding some other animals and I guess he was excited... he kept bouncing up and down while sidestepping along the edge of his moat...then he would walk back and do it all again... sloth bears have this big patch of longer hair that's kind of like a mane and it was flying up and down as he bounced... very comical.

another view
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My final day in Hyderabad we went to Golconda Fort, which was built in the 16th century. It was the capital for about 80 years before the king moved into Hyderabad and abandoned the fort. In the 17th century, the Moghuls invaded and the current king holed up in the fort for eight months. The fort held up to the invasion, unfortunately the guard at the gate wasn't so trustworthy and the kingdom fell to emperor Auranzeb's forces.

The fort is a beautiful place and while we were there they were filming "Satyam Shivam Sundavam" starring Nitin, who was there at the time. Apparently, the film is coming out soon. They were doing a dance scene - it was quite interesting.

Charminer
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That evening I caught a train to Aurungabad.