Monday February 6 – Bijapur to Hyderabad

Had breakfast in the grimy, dirty hotel restaurant – took us quite a while to find something we felt comfortable eating – and left town as quickly as possible.  While we’d had large rooms with separate living rooms and large bedrooms, the cleanliness level of the Hotel Pearl left much to be desired.  At one point last night I heard Ferris let out a scream.  I rushed over to find several rather large dead bugs on the wooden platform of the bed on her side of the mattress.  The way I look at it, given other cleanliness issues in the room, I was just happy the bugs weren’t alive.

The drive from Bijapur to Hyderabad is an all day affair (8 hours) despite how it looks on the map.  Often a drive looks like a pretty straight and easy shot from one place to another on the map but the reality of the situation is always different.  Indian roads, even the “major highways”, are two-lane and filled with a slow-moving but charming assortment of vehicles of Indian daily life such as the bullock cart and overstuffed auto-rickshaws, small trucks and buses that attempt to fill a critical need for mass transportation where the official system falls far short. 

Had an interesting lunch at the Raaz Panjabi Dhaba family restaurant somewhere on the road.  It was the usual hot day and men were making naan over even hotter pit ovens.  We had an assortment of delicious dishes plus my new favorite Indian soda (a great alternative when Coke isn’t available) Thumbs Up!  

Lunch stop.

The loo.

Finally we were in striking distance of Hyderabad, a city of 8.5 million.  We got on an elevated multi-lane highway on which we were virtually the only vehicle.  I kept waiting for the thing to suddenly end I was so convinced it must be a road still under construction.  Eventually we met up with a handful of other cars and drove on for what seemed like hours more.  At some point we began pulling over to ask anyone we could find how to get to our hotel, the Taj Falaknuma.  I suddenly realized that at no point during the trip have I ever seen our driver(s) consult a map.  It seemed as if a map might come in handy right now, in such a big city, but far be it for me to question the wisdom of Ramesh or Bala who always knew where to go as if by sheer intuition.  However intuition seemed in need of help and we continued to pull over.  At last we encountered a man on a motorcycle who offered to take us to the hotel.  Later I learned that this is apparently a sort of human GPS system in frequent use in Hyderabad. 

Somewhere on the road to highway to nowhere we passed an office building shaped like a giant Pepperidge Farm Goldfish!  It has an open mouth that’s painted red which appears to be a deck of some sort.  There are offices even in the tail.

Motorcycle man.

The Taj Falaknuma Palace

Being showered with rose petals...

Thanks to motorcycle man we arrived at around 6pm at our hotel which is a restored palace formerly owned by the Nizam of Hyderabad.  The Taj Falaknuma is located on the top of a high hill on the outskirts of the city.  Much to my embarrassment a horse-drawn carriage came to pick us up at the entry gate and carried us up a long drive to the front door of the palace.  As we entered we were showered with rose petals from the roof.  Rooms are gorgeous and the service is even better.  We were in great need of a hose down after our past few days on the road.  We put on our finest and met for cocktails on the terrace overlooking the city, then had an elegant Indian dinner at the hotel.

Cocktails on the patio.

Sunday February 5 - Badami to Bijapur

Left the Badami Court hotel early while Tollywood stars did yoga outside on the grass. Made a stop at the Kudalsangana Temple, a very peaceful white place with yellow gopurum at a spot where two rivers meet. Lakuma told us that temples are always built in such spots. These particular rivers are infested with crocodiles but this fact didn't seem to deter visitors from bathing and sitting in the water. Kudalsangana is a Shiva temple and I noticed a vendor selling suicide linga. Many people were sitting outside under cover of the temple promenade enjoying the weather and relaxing. Along one side of the parking lot vendors sold children's toys, snacks and soft drinks, temple trinkets and glass bracelets. Ferris bought an arm-full of pretty green ones.

Lakuma had arranged for us to have a pack lunch since we had a long drive to Bijapur. Around 1 she found a small village gate (a cement archway with platforms on either side) for us to use as a place for lunch. We sat on newspapers and ate a bowl of vegetable biryani with our fingers. We drove for a long time on a combination of local roads and highways. Arrived in Bijapur (pop 100,000) at around 3pm. Spent the remainder of the afternoon visiting Muslim sites.

Bijapur is noted for having fine examples of Mughal architecture in the Deccan. Bijapur's population is about 50% Muslim and 50% Hindu. The atmosphere here certainly has a different feel to it. I've been to many predominantly Muslim towns and to Muslim countries but can't say I've ever felt so alien or unwelcome. In 2004, people in Damascus couldn't have been more friendly (perhaps they see many more Western tourists than does a town in the middle of nowhere like Bijapur) but here we were greeted with sullen, expressionless, staring faces. Of course I may be misinterpreting these expressions, but I don't think so. Having said this, the Mughal architecture was lovely.

Our first stop was to Ibrahim Rauza, a 17th century palatial tomb "beautifully proportioned with slender minarets, carved decorative panel of lotus, wheels and cross patterns and bold Arabic calligraphy bearing witness to the tolerance of Adil Shah of other religions". Jama Masjid, built by Ali Adil Shah I in the 16th c, is a large functioning mosque and there were 20 or so men at prayer when we visited. With the exception of the minraub (sp?) which was decorated in gold with calligraphy and representations of architecture and nature, the rest of the building was largely plain white.  The Gol Gumbaz, a vast tomb of Mohammad Sadil Shah purports to have the world's second largest dome unsupported by pillars. The site closed around 6:30 and we returned to the hotel.

I must comment on the Hotel Pearl. It reminds me of some hotels I've stayed at in China because of its level of hygiene, or lack thereof. Everything in this hotel is dirty, including sheets, floors, bathtub; the works. Our bed had no top sheets and we had to call housekeeping to ask for them. Our bathroom has a tub with long brown dirt streaks at precisely the point you were supposed to lie back and put your head on a built-in pillow. Around the top edge of the tub is a thick circle of grime. The shower is simply in the middle of the bathroom and I have to hope that if when I use it (with shoes on of course) that water will indeed flow to the drain in the corner across the room. [Cut to tomorrow morning - I tried to shower and found that water shot out through three pin-hole openings only, barely enough for me to even feel on my hand never mind shower with it! If I'd thought the water would have shown up in a picture I would have taken one it was so funny. So taking a shower was out; took a modified sponge bath instead.] Our bathroom's louvered window doesn't close all the way and has no screen. Meanwhile we're in the middle of malaria mosquito territory and are doing our level best not to get bitten. We put on deet repellant morning and evening. I can't even begin to describe the hotel restaurant and its level of cleanliness. Let's just say we're all praying to every god we can think of that we are well tomorrow and not in need of antibiotics.

Before dinner we met to talk about making a change to our itinerary. We feel that Gulbarga, the town we're scheduled to be in tomorrow night, will be more of the same. We investigated and have made arrangements to go directly tomorrow to Hyderabad instead. Ferris and I are happy about this because we had previously had a very limited time in Hyderabad - not even a full day - and now we'll be able to see something of the city.