India: Hyderabad

I got an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Hyderabad. When I arrived in Hyderabad, I once again didn’t have a hotel booked, but I intended to find one near the central train station. I was hounded by a tout who was trying to make me pay 1200 rupees for the taxi into town. I told him that was a ridiculous price. He said it was fair because it was 40km away. Now this is where Google Maps is awesome. I told him to wait one second while I did a directions search from Hyderabad airport to central station. Google helpfully pointed out it was only 26km away. I showed him, but he refused to look at the phone. Indians don’t seem to believe in technologies like GPS and Google Maps. They think it is some false voodoo magic.

I decided I wanted a Camarel McFlurry, since they don’t have these at Australian McDonalds (as far as I recall). Whilst I was enjoying what turned out to be a delicious McFlurry, the same tout sat next to me and continued to try and convince me to get in his taxi. I continued to say no, and when I finished my McFlurry, I walked away and started looking for other taxi drivers. I eventually found a guy willing to take me for 600 rupees, which is a good price. I’m almost certain he wasn’t a real licenced taxi driver, but I didn’t care – as long as he got me where I needed to go. 

On the way there he was stopped by traffic police. They got him to get out of a car and there were discussions. He came back 10 minutes later with a ticket of some sort. I asked him what it was for. He said it was for going through a red signal (the term they use for traffic lights). He hadn’t done that while I was in the car, so I think he was probably lying and it was for something else – perhaps being an unlicenced taxi driver.

Eventually I found a hotel near the central train station. As soon as I checked in I began the quest to find cricket tickets. I asked reception to help me – they were completely unhelpful as expected. A search on the internet revealed some retailers where I might be able to buy tickets. A few calls later and I found which place I needed to go to get tickets. By this time, it was too late, and I would have to go the next morning.

The next morning came (as it usually does) and I headed to the TVS motorbike shop, which apparantely sold IPL tickets as well. I got there pretty early, and they told me they weren’t selling tickets for another 2 hours. I got a taxi back to the hotel, sat in my room for a while, they got the taxi back there again. This time there were ticket sellers, and for 500 rupees ($10), I got my hands on a ticket for the Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals game.

I then decided it was time I ate something other than a curry, so with the power of the internet, I found myself the location of a Pizza Hut. There were a few options for getting there:

45 minute walk.

In 40+ degrees heat, no thanks.

Local train.

At only two rupees ($0.04) it was an absolute bargain, and would provide an authentic Indian experience. I bought the ticket. Now in Western cities the size of Hyderabad, you might wait 5 to 10 minutes at worst for a train. But not here. A train had just left and it was going to be 1.5 hours wait until the next train. Screw that. On any account, it would have been taken some sort of miracle to work out which train to catch.

Bus.

This would also be a cheap option, but it’s not like there are bus stops and route maps here. Screw that.

Tractor.

I could have probably hitched a ride on this tractor:

Taxi.

Or I could get a taxi for 100 rupees ($2). Which I did.

Anyway, I immensely enjoyed my Pizza Hut 3 course meal and was ready to begin exploring. My brief research led me to believe there was a lake and some nice parks to walk around, so I went there. What a magical experience. Although I do have a few minor constructive criticisms:

Parks are supposed to have grass.

Lakes look better when you don’t use them as rubbish dumps. 

If lakes were supposed to be rubbish dumps, they would be called rubbish dumps. This is why rubbish dumps are called rubbish dumps.

Putting up ‘Keep the City Clean and Green’ signs, does not on its own right, actually achieve that. 

This is evidenced by the mounds of rubbish a few feet from the sign. Sure they have these same signs in super clean cities like Singapore, but they also have bins, rubbish transport and land fill. Also, the sign implies that the current status of the city is clean and green. It’s not. It’s really not.

After I was done with the ‘park’, I walked to a nearby marble temple. You weren’t allowed to take a camera or mobile phone into the temple. Instead you had to leave it with a trustworthy Indian guy. Kids this is what we call an oxymoron. Screw that. It was lucky then, that the security guard agreed with my sentiments and let me take my valuables with me. I did the usual. Walked up to the top. Walked around. Got stared at for being white. Standard stuff.  

The next day I went for a walk into the heart of the city. I found a supermarket (food bazaar), so I went in to buy a drink and a snack. They don’t have signs above each isle, but they have an equally useful system for finding what you want:

I purchased my foods and non-foods and went on my merry way. I saw a shoe shop and decided I should get some, because I assumed there would be some point in my future where flip-flops wouldn’t suffice. I wasted no time buying these shoes, mainly because everyone was creeplily staring at me. Hyderabad has pretty much no Western tourists, so it’s a bit like being the Queen of England here. Whenever you go somewhere you have pose for photos, shake people’s hands, have meaningless converstions with them and then do a really gay wave when you leave.

That night I was off to the cricket. I first stopped in at a pub for a drink. I met an Indian guy, who offered me a cigarette. I said I didn’t smoke, but this was a clove cigarette, which is apparentely fairly popular in India. I smoked it. It was like smoking toothpaste. Got minty fresh breath from a cigarette. Nice.

I got a taxi to the cricket and arrived reasonably early, so when I got in the stadium, I thought I’d check out the stadium a bit. It’s no Suncorp Stadium, that’s for sure. There’s a few people lingering around offering probably dodgy food. There’s an area at the back of the stadium where you can get drinks, and also probably raped, as it is completely unlit, apart from a bit of light that seaps through from the stadium lighting. You can get the usual softdrinks like Coke and Fanta. Well the sign says you can, but when you ask for it they give you the cheap crappy Indian equivalents of these drinks. They have no alcohol here also, so none of the usual shenanigans of cricket in Australia happens here.

I took up my seat in the nosebleed section and noticed the stadium getting fuller and fuller, until there were more people than seats. There was no actual seat allocation (just sections), so I realised that I couldn’t get up from my seat the entire of the game, or I would lose it. The game itself though was good to see, and the Indian’s really get into their cricket, so it was a great experience. I lived and breathed cricket (and oxygen) when I was a kid, so this was kind of like fulfilling a childhood dream to watch a game in India.

Yes I do panoramas now.

Despite the name, I would say Hyderabad was Hyderabetterthanexpected, although if it weren’t for the cricket I wouldn’t have come here. 

Summary

Awesome:

The cricket

Craptacular:

Too many people, nowhere nice to walk around.

What's Next

Goa - beaches and relaxation.