July 2 - Charminar

After lunch on Saturday, Helen, Sahima and I went to the Charminar. I’ve been looking forward to getting to see that one, and to shop at the nearby Laad Bazaar. It took about 2 hours by bus to get there. This would be fine – it’s pretty exciting and fascinating and nerve-racking to watch the traffic – but I have to keep a surgeon’s mask on to be able to breathe decently. Oh well, I see a lot of other people with masks too. But it is still sort of amazing to me how so many people do get by here in these conditions. It is soooo polluted.

Street sign across from the bus station

The Charminar, the symbol of the, was built in 1591 by Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah after he shifted the capital from Golconda, where there had been a water crisis, to Hyderabad. It has four tours topped by minarets and is about 170 feet tall.

You pay to go inside – 5 rupees for Indians, 100 rupees for everyone else. You can climb up any of the towers. The staircases are really narrow spirals; the steps were almost as high as my knees.

Looking up inside the Charminar

The stairway

Apparently this is not a major international tourist destination, because I got a lot of excited attention. Lots of people asked me my country, were very excited when I told them U.S, wanted to know how I liked India, what part I was from, and so on. I had a few requests to be in pictures with people, and happily obliged.

Some views from the top of the Charminar, looking in different directions…

And some Charminar pigeons for Ava.

There is a huge, beautiful mosque nearby as well, but unfortunately it was closed for prayer and we could only look from outside the gate.

Charminar at night, lights changing color

After the Charminar, we went to the Laad Bazaar, famous for its bangles and cloths. We browsed around different stalls and tried out our bargaining skills. Sahima had a bit of an advantage as she can speak some Hindi, but I think we still did pretty well. Some Indian friends told me some examples of reasonable prices, and I was even able to beat those. I got a lot of attention in the stores, too. One shopkeeper kept asking about the “lines” on my eyes and saying they were very beautiful. I was really confused until Helen realized he was asking if I was wearing “lenses” to make my eyes green.

Bangles! There were shops like this all down the row. As you walk by, vendors from almost all of them call out "Madame! Madame!"

I came out with lots of pretty bangles, most of which I will be bringing home as gifts :).

There were a lot of interesting snack vendors. We tried some peanuts that had been cooked and mixed with spices that were delicious, and had some pineapple juice with do-it-yourself pani puri.

There were also snack carts with mounds of broken up Kit Kat bars that, for a few rupees, would be scooped into a paper cone for you. (I didn't actually try this one.)

After that, we met Milind, Mari and Uma for dinner at Paradise, a nice restaurant favorite for its biryani, a dish of spiced rice. It was delicious!

The famous vegetable biryani and some Mexican-seeming papads

Just like home.

We caught a bus and then an auto-rickshaw back to ICRISAT. Helen and I hopped in the back to get the authentic Indian experience. Fortunately the driver thought we were hilarious.

Also, we saw a snake on the walk back in campus.