Some more pictures

A view from the hotel. There is a wetlands area behind the hotel. It is part of what are called HUDA (Hyderabad Urban Development Authority) green areas and are maintained by the government.



Luis and I at Charminar. Continuing the self portrait with a hat tradition.


The IBM office building at MindSpace, Hitec City, Madhapur, Hyderabad, India. You can hardly tell but it is blue.


Here is more information on Hitec City and Hyderabad that you would probably ever be interested in...Wikepedia Hitec City

Charminar and pearls

Saturday, May 3

Spent a little time at the pool this morning. Actually 11am to noon. I forgot to bring any sunscreen but figured an hour wouldn't be bad. I wasn't even in the sun the whole hour. Okay, everyone is going to say how stupid I was. And you are right. I am very red. Not painful. A little itchy and that wasn't until much later. Hyderabad is at 17 degrees north, Dallas is 32 degrees north, Minneapolis is 44, Washington, DC is 38. Hyderabad is only 17 degrees latitude from the equator.

Charminar is the structure shown in the right part of the page. No one knows for sure why it was built but it was probably intended to be the entrance to the city.

Hyderabad is the center of the pearl trade. Luis, the project manager, was here last Fall and found a reputable pearl dealer. The pearl dealer sent a car to pick us up and drive us to his shop. The pearl shop was just a narrow store with a long display case and row of chairs in front of it. Luis had experience here and asked the pearl dealer to show us pearls. There were thousands if not hundreds of thousands.

After the pearls we went to the Charminar and climbed the very narrow spiral staircase to the sightseeing level. You can walk around the entire floor. These pictures are from the some of the sights we saw.






We came back down and were greeted by "John" who volunteered to be our bodyguard. I was in search of a shot glass for Stacey and a fake Rolex watch for Blake. "John" was assisted by is friend "Shawn." Here are our bodyguards.


The streets are crowded and you have to watch out for vehicles of all sorts. We weren't successful finding a shot glass but we did find a superbly fake Rolex for 200 rupees ($5 US). We headed back to the pearl dealer to pick up the pearls. "John" and "Shawn" who I know wanted to be paid for their bodyguarding were not at all please with their payments. No amount would have pleased them.

The pearl dealer offered to have us driven where ever we wanted. I had read that the light show at Golcondar Fort was well worth it. There was a 7pm show and leaving the Charminar at 5:30 should have given us plenty of time. Well, it didn't and the show started at 6:30pm instead. Golcondar Fort is the immense fort built 400 years ago. The light show had started but we went in anyway. It gets dark early here.

Well, it was boring. It was in English but included a lot of recorded songs/poems that were in Hindi. If we were able to understand the songs, it may have been better. We had to take a three-wheeler all the way back to the hotel.

I have such varied reactions to all I've seen. And I've only seen bits and pieces. There wasn't extreme begging that I had been warned about. There are more people in Minneapolis at the street intersections asking for handouts than here. There are lots and lots of people and the streets overflow with people but it isn't overwhelming.

The Muslim population is prominent and there are mosques blaring calls to pray everywhere in the old city. Maybe the whole thing is that it is new and different for me.

Atmosphere

Friday, May 2

Finally had some traditional Indian food. We had food brought in for lunch today since the cafeteria was closed for International Labor Day. For some reason they thought I wanted pizza. So we got Pizza Hut. I don't even eat pizza at home much anymore let alone Pizza Hut pizza.
The guys though ordered chicken with rice and curry and said they had to eat off by themselves because they eat with their hands.

I ate the pizza so as not to offend but then went over and asked if I could try the chicken and rice. It was delicious. A little bit spicy but not much. The chicken and rice and curry are all cooked together. The chicken is on the bone. I ate with my right hand as you are supposed to keep your left hand on your lap.

The canteen in the basement sells American Sweet Corn. If Dave MacKenzie sees this, he will be so jealous.

We worked late as usual. The taxis in MindSpace are just for the call center workers and you generally cannot hire them on the street. So Luis and I have been walking out to the entrance to MindSpace to try our luck at getting a ride. We had been real lucky either convincing a call center taxi to take us or a driver from one of the hotels take us. These vehicles have been air conditioned. Last night there weren't that many taxis out. I was up for taking the three-wheeled motorized rickshaws. They are open air but have a roof. Basically it is a motorcycle with three wheels and generally two passengers but you see them with a lot more riders than that.

The driver was great and weaved in and out and around traffic. We made it back to the hotel in no time.

In the evening there is a smokey dusty haze and smell of open fires. I think it is a combination of the tent dwellers and some open-air eating areas that have fires for cooking. The haziness, odors and dim light along with no wind give the city a completely different feel than it has in the morning under the blazing sun and almost constant breeze.

Work, Work, Work

So much for International Labor Day. The team here offered to work on this holiday in exchange for another day off later. So instead of working some from the hotel and then sightseeing, it is off to the office and put in a full day's work.

The IBM office is in an area of Hyderabad called Hitek City. And within Hitek City within an area called MindSpace. There is construction all over the place. New office buildings and a large Westin Hotel right across from the IBM office. The amount of steel and concrete is
unbelievable. The energy consumption must be staggering. But contrast that with street cleaning which involves women with brooms made from palm fronds and lawn care being done by a man cutting the grass by hand with a knife not much bigger than a razor blade!


This is really a country of extremes. The government successfully launched a rocket the other day with 9 satelites it. The 9 satelites were all successfully put into orbit. They are planning on sending an unmanned mission to the moon later this year and eventually put a man in space. Yet there is such incredible poverty - as Luis put it "misery." People sleeping in the street medians and along the sides of the roads. Tents made of discarded plastics and tarps. Corrugated metal structures. All this right next to new and modern office buildings and condominiums.

Another update

Wednesday, April 30
My reports are really for the previous day. I'm writing this from the hotel while waiting for the shuttle bus to go to the IBM office.

Still not able to eat very much but slowly feeling better. We went out to lunch as a group. Drove across the city to a shopping mall called City Centre. Mostly western style clothing stores and such. There are restaurants on the top floor. Luis, the project manager from the US that came over is Hispanic. As we were riding up the elevator at the mall two women get on speaking Spanish. In a country of 1.3 bill lion who would ever think you would run into Spanish speakers?!

Hyderabad is a hilly city. We drove through the area of the city called Jubilee Hills to get to City Centre. Not tall hills but rolling with enormous boulders everywhere. Hyderabad and its neighbor, Secunderabad, are referred to as the Twin Cities. How about that!

Still haven't done any site seeing for real. On the taxi ride back to hotel we passed a big festival near the hotel and had to wait while they shot off fireworks on the street. Tomorrow is a holiday - Labor Day. I'll be working from the hotel but plan on getting done at a reasonable time and going to see the Charminar and maybe do some pearl shopping -- Hyderabad is known for fresh water pearls.

Subway

Tuesday, April 29

And I'm not referring to transportation. We had Subway sandwiches for lunch yesterday. We were working through the day and missed lunch time so had Subway sandwiches brought in. I had a chicken sub Indian style. Either the sandwich or the water or both have really not agreed with me. In the US it would be called Montezuma's revenge. I'm still queasy today.

We worked late, 8:30pm, and got a ride back to the hotel with one of the team members. I was expecting a whirlwind drive through the streets of Hyderabad. Didn't happen. I think he was nervous and also timid but we had a slow drive from Hitec City, the area with all the national and international business offices, to our hotel.

We did go through the one traffic light that I have seen so far. Other than that one intersection it is just every vehicle for themselves getting through intersections or turning onto streets. They drive on the left hand side of the road like in England.

Hopefully my stomach and everything below will calm down today.

First full day in Hyderabad, India

Monday, April 28
I've been in Hyderabad almost a day now. It seems so long ago that I left Minneapolis. The travelling has definitely
taken a toll on my brain and body.

The ride from the airport to the hotel was interesting. The airport just opened 20 days ago. Very modern of glass and steel.
But it is very far out from the city. About 40 kilometers. The hotel provided a pickup which was immensely appreciated.

The traffic wasn't the horrific packed and dangerous cacophony I had expected. Sure there were lots of vehicles and
of every time. Trucks, buses, cars, three wheelers, bikes, ox-drawn carriages and even 2 camels. When I saw the camels
I figured all I needed to see now were elephants. Didn't though.

So incredible images of poverty along the way contrasted with new and modern and expensive looking housing. People living
in handmade tents right next to the street. But also these modern town homes and apartments right near by.

I spent Sunday trying to find my bearings. The hotel is very western. Clean, modern and efficient. It is connected to
a large convention center. A wedding of someone famous or with money was going on. All incoming vehicles were
checked for bombs.

As part of my recuperation I worked out in the well-equipped gym and best of all had a full body massage with foot
reflexology and eye recuperation. It was very very nice to say the least.

I did absolutely no touring and did not venture from the hotel. Today is first day of work.