Leaving for Bangalore

Leaving for Bangalore

Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006--Hyderabad (Cont.)

I got a call from Dominic, one of my Internet friends who has been communicating with me for quite a while. He said he and some of his friends were going out for the evening. He had to drop another friend off at the airport, so he asked if I could meet them at the entrance to the Public Gardens, a big park with museums near the government buildings. It's just a short distance from my hotel. I met them there at 8:30. We went from there to a nearby mall by motorcycle. On the way, I asked Dominic about his not wearing a helmet, since I have been reading about the new helmet law here in town. Just a moment later, a policemen pulled him over. It wasn't an "official" stop, it was one to get a bribe to let him go--a typical occurrence here in India. He had to pay 50 rupees (a little over $1) before we were allowed to continue to the mall.

The guys wanted to see a film, but all the ones Dominic was interested in seeing were already sold out. Here in India, there are huge crowds at cinemas, and it is common for the sign out front to say "Sold Out." Anyway, the four of us ate at a Subway there in the mall. It was a good sandwich--better than I have gotten when I have tried Subway in the U.S. It was filled with many more vegetables, and it didn't have the wedge cut which I hate; it was cut straight across the bun. Anyway, it was chicken terriyaki and was great. It was the Sunday night special at 50 rupees for a 6-inch sub.

The friends found two seats available for a movie they wanted to see, so Dominic and I set out on our own after exploring the mall. It's the most modern and fanciest here in Hyderabad. Still, it is small compared to malls in the U.S. Essentially, it was about 5 floors in a building with a footprint about the size of a small department store (a Mervyn's, for instance). It had shops on two levels, a multiplex cinema and game area on a third level, and an IMAX (the newest and largest in India). It also has features like a climbing wall so that people milling around waiting for their films can be entertained.

Dominic took me on a tour of Hyderabad and Secunderabad on his motorcycle. We went to the Old Quarter to see the Islamic-inspired architecture. We stopped at a popular ice cream shop that is open until 3 a.m. I had a 3 scoops of mango ice cream for 10 rupees (about 20 cents). He drove me out to Hi-Tech City to see the many new office buildings housing all the American and European companies that have service centers located here. It was an impressive area on the edge of town which reminded me of how the medical center was in San Antonio at the beginner. But in less than 10 years, this place has far more buildings and employs far more people than the medical center does. We went to Secunderabad after that; it's his hometown and was where the British established their military bases and lived during colonial times. We didn't get back to my hotel until 3 a.m.!

Monday, Nov. 27, 2006--Hyderabad

I slept until 11 a.m. with my earplugs in! I feel a little sluggish, but I'm really just passing time until I leave here so I was glad that the morning was already passed.

I ate Chinese noodles for lunch. I went to a small hole-in-the-wall I had seen before called the Shanghai Express. It's a small storefront place. The cook has a wooden cooking station which is stored inside the storefront during the night. Then it is pulled onto the sidewalk during the daytime. He has a big wok and offers only noodles or rice with the same seasonings--cabbage, carrots, spices, and dried tomato chunks. A plate costs 15 rupees (about 33 cents). It was spicy and good. Inside the storefront are small plastic stools where one sits to eat. There's room for about 8 people, and it was full with the seats turning over constantly as people finished and left. He has a very successful small business. I may go back there again.

I didn't post to the blog although I was online today. I had a very slow connection. The problem, I think, is that too many people were online in the shop trying to use ONE modem line. The cyber cafes here in Hyderabad are not as nice as the ones where I have been elsewhere. Often they are just local shops that also provide other business services. They have one high-speed line for the Internet and 3-5 computers hooked up to it.

I finished reading Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian in the evening. Although it won the Nobel Prize for literature, I was disappointed in it. Although supposedly a novel, it was more like a collection of essays and short stories. Each provided interesting information about customs, myths, localities, etc., but the lack of a continuous story made it seem like a long, less interesting book than I wanted to be reading. I gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 4. I think he was honored with the prize more for the fact that the Chinese government was unhappy with his writings than for the quality of that book as literature.

Dominic came at 10:00 and picked me up. He wasn't supposed to report to work until 1 a.m., so we went out for ice cream and were going to spend more time together until he had to leave. Unfortunately, one of his supervisors called him just as we were served our ice cream. (I had fig this time; he had pistachio.) Apparently, there had been a miscommunication about his working hours. One supervisor had told him to come to work at 1:00 rather than at the usual earlier time, because he had been there in the morning at 10:00 for a training session and would be attending another training session tomorrow at 10:00 after finishing his night of work. Anyway, this supervisor wanted to know why he wasn't at work. (He apparently hadn't read the messages that had been sent to him.) To settle it, Dominic had to leave and go to work. He was frustrated. It just served as a reminder to me that it is much better to be retired than to be an employee!! I went back to my hotel and got to bed at a decent hour.

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006--Hyderabad to Bangalore

Well, today is the day I leave for Bangalore, my last stop in India on this trip. My bus isn't until 6:30 p.m., however. I checked out of the hotel at 11:00 and paid them to keep my luggage until 6:00. I am spending the day just waiting for the time to go to the bus station. I've been on the Internet for a couple of hours. I will go have lunch. I have started a new book, so I will probably go to the Public Gardens and sit and read a big part of the afternoon. Then there will be the long night of the miserable bus trip ahead of me. My ticket, however, is for a modern, a/c bus with only 3 seats--1 on one side of the aisle and 2 on the other. I have one of the single seats reserved so that no one will be beside me.

My flight to Copenhagen departs a week from tonight. And I will be back in Texas a week from LAST night. The trip is finally coming to a close. I'm looking forward to the few days of seeing everyone in Copenhagen. And I am really looking forward to being back in Texas. I need to be sure not to plan more than about a month in any one country and not to plan more than about 3 months to be away at a time in the future. Next summer, I already will break those rules, but it should be better. I will be in Indonesia for 6 weeks, but that should be much easier than being in India. And I will probably be gone for about 4 months again. When I plan future trips, however, I will try to adjust to the new plan.