Unfortunately I did not get to shop as much as I had been planning to in Changi Airport. I did not get much sleep because my flight was at 12:20 a.m. (GMT+5.5). In Changi I had to keep going back and forth because the gate where we got in was far from the gate where I'm to board the flight to Manila. And I did not see any sign about what direction to take to get to Gate E28 (We got in gate E7 or something). I did not even get a decent breakfast at Changi, even though I wanted to. I was just too tired and did not feel like eating. I had maybe $20 to spend on breakfast and all I got at Spinelli's was Earl Grey tea. Blech. I managed to buy a neck pillow at that $20 store in Changi. I did not bring my blow-up neck pillow and was having a heck of a time sleeping because I couldn't position my head comfortably.
Anyway, you obviously also know that I had a great time in Hyderabad. I wasn't sad or weepy or anything. Not like I was my first two days in Munich. You know, I forget why I was sad my first two days in Munich. I better go dig up that blog post about it. I'm sure I'll laugh reading it because I can't imagine why I was sad and weepy then. All I could think of is that Munich is the first city I've been to where people spoke languages other than English, and I wasn't used to it. I felt lost, and scared that I will stay lost. And the town where my hotel is is a place where very, very few people spoke English. The up-side to the Munich trip was that I wasn't as apprehensive going out by myself, taking public transportation. In Hyderabad, I was advised by a Hyderabadi not to take the auto-rickshaws. I e-mailed this guy whom I found online. He had a website about Hyderabad. A week before my trip I asked him what places would be nice to visit and where I could find so and so stuff. He told me a bunch of things including what kind of transportation to take.
My teammates met me at my hotel, Ista, on Sunday morning, 11 a.m. Before I go into what we did, let me tell you about the Ista Hotel. The Ista is a wonderful hotel! I totally loved my stay there. It was my first time to stay at a five star hotel so you can just imagine how awed I was by the service and the facilities. They were so wonderful! I've mentioned it once here, I know, but I want to say it again: I still think those two boys from in-room dining are very, very cute! I only got one of the names, though—Jacob, I'll never forget you! If I could've stayed pen pals or e-mail pals with you, I would. You are too cute! I wish I could've gotten the name of the chinky-eyed dude. He was also cute.
At the end of my stay I gladly filled out the guest survey form and made sure to give it to them. In return, one of the hotel managers sent me an e-mail to thank me for taking the time to fill out the form. How about that! Too bad I never got the chance to check out the pool. I was wanting to but I found out that some people from our other sites (one from Tempe and one from Marlborough were also in Hyderabad visiting our office) were also billeted at the same hotel. I didn't want to run into them at the pool. Yeah, I'm shy that way (as if you didn't know).
So... I felt a little stupid when I first met my teammates. I immediately handed them the stuff I got for them (dried mangoes and a mini jeepney to remember the Philippines by haha!) and after saying hi and asking who was who, I led them outside so we could look for the driver and the car I had reserved for that day. When we were in the car, I was mentally smacking my head—I should've sat down at the hotel lobby with them first and gone over the itinerary. I'm stupid, what can I say. Plus I was also feeling way too shy and felt that I needed to keep things moving/going so I won't have time to feel so absolutely shy.
We first went to the Golconda Fort. I had read about it in an online forum and thought it would be a nice place to see. It was a nice place to see, but the timing could've been better. We should've gone there later in the day when the sun wasn't so annoyingly bright and hot. We didn't get to go to the top of the fort because 1) it was tiring, and 2) it was super hot. We'd have collapsed had we tried. I had fun looking at the empty rooms in the fort. You'll just have to get on Wikipedia to read about it because I can't remember half of the details. What was interesting about the place was their means of informing each other when there's trouble. Several places had this diamond-shaped depressions in the ceiling. This structure created an effect that helped them communicate with each other over long distances. For example, if you stood in the center of the place where the diamond-shaped depressions were, you could clap and the clap would echo 24 times (I think is what they said) and you could hear the clap from way beyond. There's also this room where they said the guests of the king were made to wait or sit, and in that room, whatever they talked about could be heard by the king from way up in his room! It had the same diamond-shaped things in the corners of the ceiling.
Oh, funny story at the Golconda. There's an entrance fee and it's 5 rupees per person and 100
rupees for a foreigner. The guy at the ticket booth said I was okay to go in for 5 rupees but the security guard would not let me get away with just 5 rupees. My teammates argued with him about it and they told him that I was from Northern India and that's why I looked the way I did. So then the security guard started talking to me in Hindi and I was like, "I'm sorry? What are you saying?" LOL! Raj had to pay the 100 rupees for me to get in. It was really funny.We finished at the Golconda at past 1 in the afternoon. We went to a shopping mall and had lunch at an Indian restaurant. Seena treated us to lunch as it was her birthday the week before. Lunch was very good. Unfortunately I took no pictures. I was too hungry and didn't want to make them think I was weird or something if I had to make them wait before they could eat just so I could take pictures. Plus the server started serving the food as soon as it was on our table so I could hardly ask him to stop and put things back. LOL. I'm glad my teammates were not into anything too spicy. I asked them to keep things less spicy because I wanted to be able to eat the food and taste it. :-D They were very accommodating.
Hyderabad is a lot like Metro Manila—the crowd, the traffic, the driving, the motorcycles, it was all similar and very familiar to me. They have places that remind me of Quiapo, Divisoria, Quezon Avenue, etc. The area where the Charminar is looks very, very much like Quiapo and Divisoria. You can buy all sorts of stuff there. I got my sister's beads and stones at some stall in Charminar. But Seena says that the Charminar isn't the cheapest place to buy souvenirs. She says it's even more expensive there as it is a tourist spot. I'm thinking the vendors at the Charminar know how to play the tourists.I'm glad I was with my teammates when I bought my sister's stuff. If they were not with me, I'd have probably been scammed! You won't believe how much one dude was charging me for a couple of strands of stones and pendants. It was crazy.
We didn't get to visit too many places that Sunday but I still had fun. They showed me the Hussain Sagar Lake and we drove around it before we went back to the hotel. I was so tired that evening that it was easy to fall asleep. I had a very, very good dinner of Murg Ka Raab soup and lemon cheesecake.
It was back to work on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday I took them to lunch at The Spicy Venue restaurant, and then they took me to this crafts village near the office. Unfortunately, we did not get to go through the whole place because I had to get back to work to get in touch with someone. :-( There were so many cool things to buy at the crafts village and it would've been nice if I had had the chance to go through each stall and bought stuff to give to friends. Not having enough time is a bitch, I tell you.
I wish I had stayed one more day like I had originally planned. But I had stuff to do back home. I'm hoping there will be a next time. I want to spend time with them again! They are my teammates after all and I manage them now. Hopefully the company will allow a second business trip to Hyderabad?
Click here to see pictures in my Hyderabad Flickr set.
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