Stop #4 was the Chowmahalla palace and it was a superb hacienda. The Asaf Jahi dynasty that ruled the Deccan area of Hyderabad, occupied the palace which took over 200 years to build. The palace was obscenely large, and we wandered through grand halls draped in marble. The palace is exquisitely preserved and serves as a rented facility for many social events that frequent the calendar year in Hyderabad. The grand pool in the main courtyard was a site to see, though not as well maintained as the inner palace rooms and staircases.
We climbed up a staircase and spent some time viewing artifacts related to the people who occupied the palace and what they possessed during their lives. We got "busted" when we exited the palace as we were trying to get out the back which was prohibited. We were at the palace for the shortest time of the five venues we visited since we were all hungry for lunch.
Next was lunch. We drove for what seemed like 30 minutes, through geography in Hydearabad that was brand new to me. We entered a gated complex and on the left was the home of Ohri's. On the way in, we were asked that familiar question in this city "Buffet?". I was buffet'ed out so we chose the menu. We were escorted into the dining area along a marble walkway flanked by pools of water. The menu was small but there was lots of choice. Is started planning already for how I was going to trick Aditya into letting me pay as I knew it would be a struggle. They ordered then I got the lamb. After the server left I was asked if I got some appetizers too and said I had not.
A while later the appetizers arrived ... cheese fritters and something I did not recognize. It was brown and grainy, bitter of sorts, and somewhat spicy. I downed a fritter and part of the brown hockey puck as my lamb arrived. It was the size of a football so downed as much as I could. Naturally Aditya and the wife refused at they are vegetarians. Chit chat was nice and we had a lovely 90 minutes of time over the meal. We finished off with two dessert mud dishes, made up of ice cream, chocolate, and peanut butter, all members of the "sweet and brown" food group. Aditya picked up the bill, and we headed out to our last stop of the day.
Stop #5 was the Golkonda fort fort, about 15 minutes from our lunch hangout. There was the regular admissiomn fee, paying a lot more for the foreigner, and a guide swindled his way into the mix for an extra fee. We started the trek towards the fort, and stopped in an intricate archway. The guide pointed out that if one stands in the centre of said archway and claps one's hands loudly, that lookout a way way way up the fort structure could hear the noise. A likely story, but we did hear clapping once we reached that lookout about one hour later to my dis-belief. This clapping was used to announce arrivals and departures to and from the palace to help ensure that the gates were never opened longer than it allowed people to pass through. I think they should use this technique for crowd control at the Apple store in Beijing where I recently read there were near riots when the iPhone 4GS arrived in China.
The walk to the top of the fort was long and probably ascended 300 or more rudimentary stone stairs. The gang kept checking to make sure I was ok an of course I was. We saw the barracks as well as the gun slips, and stopped with the guide to impart entertaining facts about said edifice. About an hour later, we were at the summit of the fort, and looking forward to the trip back down to earth.
The trip down was not as easy as I had thought, as said rudeimentray stairs were hard to navigate sometimes. We stopped again on the way down for tidbits of trivia from the guide. Close to the bottom there was a theatre where, in a meer 60 minutes, there would be a light show with a script to accompany in English. I suggested we did not want to hang around that extra hour waiting for something that was bound to start late. We headed out of the fort and this MARVELLOUS day with the Allamraju's ended.
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