Today was our first full day in Hyderabad! The day started
with my first bucket shower-I think I did pretty well! Basically, just used a
scoop to cover myself with water and tried my best to rinse the shampoo out of
our hair. After we all had French braided our hair, we were off for the day.
Our first stop was a breakfast stand right down the street from the hotel. The
stand was quite crowded with families and men all ordering food. It was set up
similar to a hot dog stand, expect it had no electricity-all the food was
cooked on propane or fire. We had a
breakfast that was similar to what Happy had provided us the day earlier-four
small fried, airy pitas with 2 types of curry sauce for dipping, served on a
metal plate. The cost? 12 rupees (equivalent to 20 cents!). It was quite
delicious, and afterwards you put your plate in a basin on the street and can
rinse your hands with the water. While
the other girls were waiting for us to finish eating, we were getting asked for
money for the first time. Most accepted
our “nos” or our “not this time”, except one man who approached Amanda, who was
very stern with him. Regardless, he put his hand on the strap of her cross body
purse. Immediately, two men working in a nearby stand selling newspapers shook
their heads at him, and he promptly left us alone.
Amanda, Cassie and I eating our first street breakfast
After breakfast, we attempted to make our way to a
bazaar. We turned down what we thought
were the right streets and were just taking in the morning-the different shops
selling clothes and other household supplies were largely closed at 10am on a
Saturday morning. We stopped to talk to two young men for directions, and asked
where they were going. They said that they had college today-something that was
a bit surprising considering it was a Saturday.
After walking for a bit, we came upon a number of fruit stands, and
walked down an alley that had many vendors selling fruits. We then happened
upon an internet café down a random alley, which we used for an hour for only
15 rupees. Afterwards, we kept on walking through alleys, happening upon fewer
shops and more homes some of which appeared very nice.
Eventually, we happened upon a road filled with many
vendors, similar to a market, that sold mens and womens clothes, household
items and jewellery. We were all
excited, looking at the long shirts we might buy, negotiating prices with
vendors, and buying our first bangles. I
managed to only buy jewellery, but am excited to buy some long shirts and a
sari soon! After, we grabbed lunch at a
place that could maybe be described as a type of fast food restaurant. It was
all behind bars though, and you had to go through a metal detector before
entering, and men were frisked by a guard standing outside (this place was by
no means classy, so I found this a bit surprising). They had a list of hot and
cold menu items on the wall written in English, and we asked people who ordered
before us which dish they had. I had a
samosa ragada, which is basically a samosa covered in a SPICY curry sauce for
30 rupees (about 75 cents). It was good,
but too spicy and I couldn’t finish the whole thing. Afterwards, we bought
mango ice cream pops, which were sketchy for sure but yummy. After, we attempted to make our way back to
the hotel we were staying at, which involved a lot of guess work and some help
from strangers who always told us to go straight, even if that involved making
a turn of some sort. Along the way we stopped to buy sugar cane drink and fresh
pomegranate and mango. We knew we were
close when we passed the “Big Bazaar”-a department store that sells things for
about double as what we saw on the streets, but it was airconditioned so we
went in for a look and a drink. We made
our way back to the hotel and had a long nap. Now I’m wired at midnight,
writing this post. We’re having so much fun so far. Things that are surprising
to me here are:
-the fact that basically ALL signs-private and public-are
written in English, and that most everybody has some knowledge of English
-that its not sweltering hot-we were certainly hot and
sweaty during some parts of the day, but overall found it to be very tolerable
-people don’t seem to be bothering us too much, even though
we only came across one other pair of tourists during our entire exploration
today.
Amanda, Nicole and Cassie enjoying some mango popsicles after our spicy lunch
Anyways, that it for now. Tomorrow we head to CHAI to get
settled in. Hopefully will have some
internet access there! Ta Ta for now!
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