Hyderabad

Our guidebook spoke well of Hyderabad, and it made a convenient stopover on our journey towards the southern beaches. So we boarded our train, found our berths and settled in for the long 22-hour journey.

For some reason this train was actually fairly quiet, and our compartment that normally sleeps 6 people only had the two of us and one other Indian lady. It meant I could sit on the left-hand side of the carriage having two seats all to myself and I could even pull a curtain across to give myself complete privacy from the passing tea and coffee sellers. So basically I spent the whole day just reading my book (The Secret Lives of Bees), while occasionally looking out at the Indian landscapes drifting past. Again the train was super-smooth, comfortable and quiet, and so it made for a brilliantly relaxing day. That night was another super-comfy sleep, and the timing again meant we arrived early in the morning, this time at 8:30am.

We had actually arrived in Secunderabad, which is just an extension of Hyderabad. So a quick local bus journey to Nampally and then the usual scouting for a decent place to spend the night. Sarah scouted first, but couldn't find a recommended place, so I went looking and found it just around the corner!

We had 2 full days to explore around Hyderabad, and again it was a pretty cool city. The main sight is the Charminar, a huge and very impressive structure. We had to get a rickshaw there after my initial attempt to walk resulted in us arriving back where we started! We got to check out a couple of cool palaces too, one with a wardrobe that is 72 metres long, and also the huge private collection of one of the old-order Nizam rulers. In fact I found the collection all a bit sad really. Yes, it was all very lovely art (especially the 'Veiled Rebecca'), but just the thought that one guy could amass all this 'stuff', or even want to amass so much 'stuff', just didn't sit right with me at all - especially in a country as poor as India. So basically I just thought it all amounted to clutter and functionally useless tat - I used to think of myself as fairly minimalist before this trip, so I daren't even think what I'll be like when I get home!

After the museums on both days we ate at a real gem of a restaurant, Hotel Shadab (which was tricky to find due to our guidebook map being a bit useless, but all the locals knew where it was). It came very highly recommended, and certainly didn't disappoint - it was by far the best biriyani I've ever tasted (for which the place is justifiably famous), and also some of the most tender chicken too. It was a mad busy place (we had to wait the first time), and we were the only Westerners, but the service was quick, efficient and friendly, and gave the place a fantastic atmosphere. In fact, it was the perfect example of how a cheap, characterful local place can often beat the pants off any of the fancy-dancy five-star restaurants.

On our second day in Hyderabad we got a local bus out to the famous Golconda Fort. Again all very impressive, with an imposing setting on a hillside (although what appeared to be smog made any distant views quite hazy). That evening we caught our 3rd overnight train to Chennai (used to be called Madras), which we planned to merely skip through enroute to a fishing village a couple of hours further south.