India 2006

A few days ago I was digging through my desk and found some CD's that had pictures from a trip that I took to India a few years back. This is the story of how I survived! ... Ok it isn't that dramatic, well the first part of the trip was.
My work colleges and I went to India for various reasons that are quite boring.
On our way flying over the Pacific Ocean we get to the International date line and I had just finished watching whatever movie that was on at the time. I flip to the little navigation program they show on the plane and notice the plane is going the wrong direction. WTF!!!

Just then the pilot comes on and says that we lost oil pressure in one of our engines and he has turned the plane around to land in Anchorage Alaska. once we landed safely in Alaska the airline booked rooms for everyone at a ski lodge that was about an hour out of town. What started out to be a bad situation turned into a pretty cool side trip and I was able to see a tiny bit of Alaska, and let me tell ya it is beautiful!!
One thing that was interesting is that it was June when I was there and it was day light till like 1:00 in the morning, which really messes with your mind. Next morning the airline had the plane fixed and we were on our way. The next stop was Singapore, I have been here a couple of times on previous trips and this is the cleanest city I have ever been in.
We stayed here for the day and then flew out that night to Hyderabad India.

Ahhh India, what a strange and interesting place. First thing I noticed was that when we got to immigration there was no one there to check visas and passports. We basically could have walked right through with no checks. Once they woke up the immigration officers we went through and then they sent us right back out to a hallway that we had access to. It was not secure at all, which was weird to say the least. Next was to get our bags and then find our ride. While we were waiting on our bags a fight broke out between one of the security guys and another guy. The civilian was slapping the security guy and yelling at him it was kinda funny. Once all that was over we got to our hotel and it was a very nice hotel it was pretty swanky and extravagant. Marble floors and pillars and a grand entry way. The next few days was back and fourth from the hotel to the office, not a whole lot of excitement there except for one day when a buddy of mine offered to pick me up and I said sure why not.
That morning I waited for my buddy to come and get me. When he arrived he showed up on his "motorbike". Now I love to ride but I wasn't sure about this. First if you have never been to India let me explain how the traffic laws work, there are none. Basically the biggest life form wins. If your a pedestrian you yeild to everyone else, motorcycles you yeild to cars, cars yeild to buses etc... So when I was picked up by my friend on his motorcycle I was a little nervous to say the least.

At the end of the week we went to a place called Charminar which is in the heart of Hyderabad city. When we got there, there had to be several thousand people just hanging out. Turns out Charminar is right in the middle of an open market, I have to say that the amount of traffic and people that were there was a little over whelming. The other thing that probably added to the crowed was right across the street from Charminar was Mecca Masjid, so named because the bricks were brought from Mecca to build the central arch, and we were there on Friday night right before the call to prayer happened. After we left Charminar we headed to Birla Mandir which is a white marble temple of Lord Venkateshwara The idol in the temple is a replica of the one at Tirupati.
Next day we all met in the hotel lobby and went to the Shahi Tombs. These tombs are said to be the oldest historical monuments in Hyderabad. They form a large group and stand on a raised platform. The tombs are built in Persian, Pathan and Hindu architectural styles using grey granite, with stucco ornamentation, the only one of its kind in the world where an entire dynasty has been buried at one place.
After we spent time at the tombs we headed over to Golconda Fort.
The origins of the fort can be traced back to the Yadava dynasty of Deogiri and the Kakatiyas of Warangal. Golconda was originally a mud fort, which passed to the Bahmani dynasty and later to the Qutb Shahis, who held it from 1518 to 1687 A.D. The first three Qutb Shahi kings rebuilt Golconda, over a span of 62 years. The fort is famous for its acoustics, palaces, ingenious water supply system and the famous Fateh Rahben gun, one of the cannons used in the last siege of Golconda by Aurangzeb, to whom the fort ultimately fell.
All in all my trip to India was interesting to say the least. I saw some neat stuff and met a lot of great people who ultimately became some very good friends of mine.

More pictures of my trip can be found here.