Steintore
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Steintore
Mon, 09.12.2013: Warangal, sunny, 26°C
Unbelievably, Kirsten managed to sleep. I just tossed and turned all night. A man on the other bottom bunk bed got off around midnight and I contemplated getting the torch and fetching the sheets from our other bed, but I didn't know if someone else would get on who had a ticket for that bed so I stayed where I was.
It turned out that I could have slept there because the next person for that bed didn't get on the train until after 10am. Oh well, too late now! We finally arrived at 12-05pm in Warangal, 25 minutes later than scheduled - not bad! It was a good job we had downloaded the train schedule because there are no announcements telling you what the next station is! We may have a problem with the next overnight train we've booked as we will arrive in the dark at 6-30am and won't be able to see any station names!
We spent 45 minutes in the queue at the reservation centre to change one of our tickets to a different date. The Indian people do not understand the term 'personal space' and just push into you. It got really crowded in front of the counter with people pushing in front without queueing up.
We finally got our tickets changed but are on a waiting list. Hopefully we will get our seats! Then we haggled with a tuc tuc or two to get a reasonable price for taking us to the Hotel Ratna. We checked in and had to fill in a number of forms and our room wasn't ready yet.
We had to wait a little and when we finally got into our room, the bathroom was all wet, there was no toilet paper and only one towel! What is it with the one towel thing? Do the Indians always share a towel? Surely they can see that we are two people! Oh well, at least there were sheets and blankets on the beds so we didn't need to ask for those!
I wasn't fit for much due to lack of sleep but Kirsten had managed to sleep quite a bit so she did some work on the computer. There was no hot water so we used the hotel room kettle (we have a kettle in the room!) to boil up some water for a mandy style shower using the bucket provided and used our own kettle to make a cup of tea or two!
We ordered room service without really knowing what we would get. Kirsten ordered the Andrash chicken meal which came in various bowls and was quite hot and spicy. I ordered a dhal (lentil curry) which they told me would be non-spicy but turned out to be the hottest dish! I couldn't eat it and Kirsten didn't like her food so we ended up sending most of it back. What a waste! We are going to have to get used to this pretty fast and find something we can eat!
Train ride to Warangal. Room service.
We put the TV on and managed to find a sports channel showing English Premier League football! There were a number of power cuts throughout the evening and I even managed to write on the computer despite being dog tired!
Tues, 10.12.2013: Warangal, sunny, 26°C
We slept until 11-30am which shows how exhausted we were after the overnight train. We went down to the hotel restaurant and ordered spring rolls which were good and not spicy and cashew fried rice which was plain and boring. At least we didn't get blisters in our mouths!
We packed a bag and then got a tuc tuc to the Thousand Pillar Temple about 4 km away. It was built in 1163 and is intricately carved but crumbling - literally! There was scaffolding everywhere trying to hold it together. We were expected to take off our shoes at the entrance and then walk along the gravel to get to the temple. We managed to convince them that we wouldn't go inside with our shoes on to save our feet from the gravel!
We found another tuc tuc to take us to Bhadrakali Temple but had to wait for the driver as he disappeared saying he would be back in 2 minutes. Well, he took ages so I decided to drive! Take a look at the video!
Helen's rickshaw drive through Warangal
Bhadrakali Temple is known to be one of the oldest temples for the Goddess Bhadrakali in India, constructed around 625 A.D. There were a number of women honouring the Goddess with candles, flowers and fruit. There are so many rituals, Gods and Goddesses that we really don't understand everything we see. One day we will get around to reading about it and let you know!
Then we walked to the 'musical gardens'. There may have been fountains which danced to music at one point, along with paddle boats in a large pond. Not any more! The place was dry and crumbling and seemed to be somewhere for couples. Lovers trysts?
We searched for the sculpture garden which wasn't where it was marked on the map. So far, we weren't very impressed with the 'sights' in Warangal. We had taken a 15 hour overnight train to get here and at the moment it didn't seem worth it! But we did manage to find a bakery and even a proper supermarket! It wasn't a big one but it had fridges and a fruit and veg section. Definitely better than the hole in the wall shops that are the norm.
We stocked up on various things at the supermarket and, later, we tried out the things we'd bought at the bakery. One turned out to be pastry with a fried egg inside and my piece of chocolate cake was extremely dry despite the fact that it had been the first slice taken out of a gateau!
Although we aren't really impressed with Warangal, at least we wouldn't starve today!
Wed, 11.12.2013: Warangal, sunny, 29°C
We ordered breakfast but there weren't any Roti or Naan bread until the evenings. So they suggested something called Puri. When it arrived it turned out to be a very oily and greasy type of bread. The boiled egg wasn't hot and in the shell as we had expected but was cold and had already been taken out of its shell. In other words, someone had handled it with their bare hands - they don't use hygienic gloves for preparing and serving food here! Even the waiters will pick up food that has dropped off the plates with their bare hands and simply put it back on the plates for you to eat! Well we had our food stocks from the supermarket so all was not lost!
We packed up a bag and got a tuc tuc to Warangal Fort. We had haggled a price of 80 Rupees for the journey but no longer had any small notes so we paid with a 100 Rupee note. The driver only gave us 10 Rupees back and refused to give us any more. What a cheat!
The Fort dates from the 13th Century with carved arches and has 45 towers and various pillars within a 19km radius. We paid an entrance fee of 100 Rupees each and went into a fenced area that seemed to be the storage area for all the best parts of the Fort - as if they had been collected from a large area and were simply arranged in a square pattern for people to look at!
There were a number of piles of broken stones that had been carved and various statues lying on the floor. There were 4 stone gates that were huge and had been erected at the four compass points of the fenced area. One of them was leaning quite a bit!
We only spent 30 minutes there and then went to another part of the fort (another entrance fee) and walked to the top of a hill for a view of the area. We walked back out and then along the road, passing through two different parts of the Fort's walls along the way.
Then we hopped on a shared tuc tuc for only 50 Rupees to get back to the hotel. We went over to the supermarket to pick up some more supplies and got back to our room around 3-15pm. We boiled up some water for a shower and then washed some clothes.
Kirsten ordered an 'American Chaupsy' which turned out to be a very thick tomato based sauce with vegetables and dry, crispy noodles. (This is where some of the noodles fell off the plate onto the tray and the waiter simply picked them up with his bare hands and put them back on the plate!!) I ordered 2 Roti later which I had with Nutella! Yummy!
It was quite noisy in the hotel as there was a 21st birthday party going on down the hallway on our floor and a wedding across the road with loud music and fireworks. We still managed to work on the computer and even got to see some of the German Bundesliga football from last weekend!
Thu, 12.12.2013: Warangal, sunny, 29°C
We spent the day working on the website, labelling over 100 photos, and a couple of hours in an internet café where we could use a cable to plug our computer in directly, rather than using wifi.
We came back to the hotel for spring rolls and looked at the World Cup football groups for next years final as the draw had taken place a few days ago. It's not going to be easy for either Germany or England to get through their respective groups!
Fri, 13.12.2013: Warangal −> Hyderabad, sunny, 31°C
We packed our bags and had more spring rolls for lunch. We were hoping to find a supermarket in Hyderabad and some better restaurants.
We got a rickshaw to the train station at 1pm and had to carry all the bags up and down the steps to get to the right platform. There are no ramps or lifts for disabled people here which would make travelling by train very difficult.
Our train was 1 hour and 20 minutes late, arriving at 3-30pm, and there were no signs so we weren't sure which end of the platform to stand. Two other trains came through before that and we were standing in the right place for boarding those trains as we could see the compartment numbers. Of course, when our train finally arrived, we watched our compartment going past us and had to rush to the other end to get on! Trying to move through the inside of the train with our bags would not be easy. It is far better to get onto the right compartment in the first place.
We were in a 3A compartment - 6 beds with AC. Our middle bed had been put up into the sitting position and someone was sleeping on the lower bed. So we had to ask them to move whilst we lowered the bed into position.
Theoretically, you could put the middle bed into sitting position and all three people could sit on the lower bunk. There are signs up asking for this to be done from 6-30am onwards. The other people were also sleeping and the light was off so it was quite dark. It seemed that the woman wanted to lie down so we got the bunks sorted out and I climbed up onto the top bunk with the large rucksack as a pillow (not the most comfortable position!) and Kirsten took the middle bunk with the two small rucksacks. Our big bag went under the lower bunk.
The train took 4.5 hours and, once again the AC was switched on too high so we had to put our fleece shirts on. It was 9pm when we arrived in Hyderabad and the first taxi driver wanted 450 Rupees to take us to the hotel which as only 1.5km away. A ridiculous price! We said we would walk but were asked by numerous rickshaw drivers. After a lot of haggling and speaking to various drivers we got a ride for 60 Rupees which is more or less a reasonable price.
Then there was a bit of confusion because our hotel had been renamed to the Gopi Hotel. We had booked it online two weeks ago under the previous name. I jumped out of the rickshaw to make sure it was the right hotel. The language barrier was difficult to get through but I finally managed to work out that it was the right hotel but they had no booking for us! However, they did have rooms available.
We got a non AC room for two nights for 2,000 Rupees ($15 per night) which saved us money because we had actually reserved an AC room that would have cost us another 1,000 Rs. The room wasn't clean, there was no toilet paper and we had to ask for a top sheet for the bed. The sheet that was already on the bed didn't look too clean either!
We had already lowered our expectations when it came to cleanliness and hygiene before we flew over here, but it seemed we would have to lower them even more! Changing hotels wouldn't have made any difference. Maybe the 4 and 5 star hotels are better but we can't afford them!
Well, it's only for two nights so we just dumped our things in the room, secured the big bag with a cable binder, and went in search of food. We finally found a restaurant about 800m away and had a non spicy dhal (lentil curry) with Jeera rice (cumin rice) and some drinks. We also bought two pieces of gateau from the bakery next door to take with us.
It was after 10pm when we got back. The room was quite noisy from the busy street outside but at least the TV worked! It was the newest item in the room by far and we got CNN and BBC!
Sat, 14.12.2013: Hyderabad, sunny, 29°C
Someone rang our bell at 7-20am and we found a newspaper pushed under the door. So why ring the bell? The cakes we had bought last night were very sweet for our breakfast and then we went in search of an ATM.
The first worked for the locals but kept giving us a "Time out". We went inside the bank and an employee came out to check the machine. But it still didn't work for us. At least someone came out to check. The second didn't work at all - we checked inside the bank and they confirmed it. They told us about other ATMs nearby.
We finally found one that worked for us and went in search of a supermarket that doesn't exist! There are just the small 'hole in the wall' places in that area. We bought some more tea bags and asked the man at reception to get us a tuc tuc - he got a reasonable price for us far easier and quicker than we would have.
We paid 175 Rs for a 40 minute journey for the 15km ride out to the Qutub Shah tombs. Our driver made us feel very worried because he kept looking behind us and I noticed we were being followed by a white Jeep! Were we being set up to be robbed, or worse?
Our tuc tuc pulled over and the driver went to talk to the Jeep driver. Money changed hands and our driver came back with a bunch of grapes! Our driver apologised and we think he was being paid to show the Jeep how to get through to the other side of Hyderabad. We had certainly been worried!
Our driver raced off and got us to the Qutub Shah tombs - elaborate, Arabian style tombs of the seven Qutub Shahi rulers. The first King was born in 1445 and lived until he was 98 years old - 1543 the time when the tombs were built. There were lots of arches and domes and some looked as if they were being cleaned.
We spent almost an hour there and then got another tuc tuc to Golconda Fort. The fort is famous for its legendary diamond mines - the Kohinoor diamond and other Hope diamonds came from here. (We saw one Hope diamond in a museum in Washington DC.)
The fort was rebuilt in 1525 by Qutub Shah but it's history started in the 12th Century. We walked along a specially built pathway through the ruins of the fort and up 640 steps (!!) to the top where we got views of the sprawling city of Hyderabad with a layer of brown smog above it.
We walked back down the other side and had an ice cream as a reward for our efforts - it was too hot to climb so many steps, but at least we're fit! We had paid 100 Rs each entrance fee and then had to pay another 130 Rs each for the light and sound show - 1 hour, at around 6-30pm.
We got our seats and heard a generator starting up. We thought it was the beginning of the show but it was someone spraying some kind of smoke to keep the mosquitoes at bay. We were soon engulfed in smoke and had to move!! Lots of people were coughing, including Kirsten. We all moved back to our seats and were still attacked by mosquitoes!
The sound and light show was supposed to be about the history of the fort. It was in English but was more like a Bollywood narration with a few different lights being switched on in various parts of the ruins. It was at least 30 minutes too long and included 2 love stories, terrible singing and far too many names. The diamonds took only 20 seconds to be dealt with!
After the show, Kirsten took a few photos - not allowed to take photos during the show (who'd want to ?!) - and then we walked out. I spotted a café and on closer inspection it looked like we might be able to get some food in our bellies! We had two 'Eggy wraps' each (scrambled eggs in a chapatti) and tea. Plus some chocolate cake to take with us.
We got a hair raising tuc tuc ride back in the dark - the tuc tuc didn't have lights (not many do!) - and had several near misses! We got back at 9pm. We caught the final whistle for the live match Bayern versus Hamburg and watched Wolfsburg v Stuttgart live!
Sun, 15.12.2013: Hyderabad, overnight train to Hampi, sunny, 30°C
After eating our chocolate cake we went to Charminar to see the monument built in 1591 to ward off a dreadful epidemic. There were literally thousands of people, in and around it, with a lively Sunday market.
Getting through the hustle and bustle was not easy. The mosque was surrounded with scaffolding so we didn't take off our shoes or put on a head dress to go inside the grounds. Instead we found the Indian version of KFC!! It's called ABC and we had a chicken burger, chicken pieces (quite spicy), chips and a drink. The place was virtually empty but quiet!
We enjoyed the calm before the storm and then braved the crowds again to get a tuc tuc back. We picked up some supplies before returning to the hotel where there was a birthday party for a twelve year old girl to celebrate her womanhood! Oh boy, at twelve? Anyway, we only found that out after we had been given some Gulab Jamon - sweet dough balls in syrup.
We worked on the computer, packed and left the hotel at 8pm to get to the train station. The train arrived just as we did - it would be starting from this station and wouldn't leave for another 40 minutes. Our journey would be 9 hours overnight to Hospet arriving at 6-30am the following morning.
We had to make sure we got on the right carriage because the train would split into three at 3-30am, each part getting attached to other trains and going on three separate routes. Complicated? We weren't told that and it wasn't on our ticket, we just found out by looking at the train schedule. I made sure I had a list of all the train station names and times in my pocket for each train journey as there are no messages inside the train. In the dark it is very difficult to know which station you are arriving at so a list of the schedule helps. We still have to check with the locals though and so far we've managed.
We found our compartment and made our beds. The train started 20 minutes late and we got into our beds at 9-45pm. We would be getting off at 6-30am if the train was on time so we set our alarm just in case.
