TOUR OF TAJ FALAKNUMA PALACE AND NOV 3 HYDERABAD CITY TOUR

Last evening after I wrote my blog, Charlie and I joined the champaign/palace tour.  The name Falaknuma basically translates as Mirror of Heaven.  It was built by a prime minister of the Nizam.  This man loved European architecture and design.  There isn't a thing Indian in the place except the workers and the ground it sits on.  Lots of 18th century draperies, chandeliers, furniture, clocks, tiles, stained glass makes the place a museum.  Apparently, after the Prime Minister spent hundreds of thousands of rupees and years of planning and building, the Nizam came to visit and fell in love with it.  The Prime Minister, knowing what's good for him, suggested he had built the palace for the Nizam.  Well, not exactly, but very prudent.  The Nizam did pay him for the property.  I took a few photos of a lot of the beautiful rooms.  There was much more.  After the tour, we went out on a balcony to hear a group of Sufi men singing Sufi songs and accompanying themselves on Sufi instruments.

A lovely hall called the Jade Room.  It was probably my favorite of the rooms.  The central case enclosed a lovely, huge Japanese vase

The ball room filled with other people from our tour

The billiards room.  The Nizam had a beautiful pool cue made for himself and ivory pool balls.  Apparently, he never lost, or no one ever let him lose.

One of the longest dining tables in the world.  It can seat 101 people.  The Nizam sat in the center.

The Sufi's singing their song on the balcony.  The yellow box was an accordion of sorts.  The man in the blue shirt was playing castanet like sticks.  In the back of the group men were playing drums.

After the tour we went back to get a photo of the queen's bathtub.  The first of its kind with hot and cold taps and a shower.

The library.  It houses over 4000 books including a 1911 set of Encyclopedia Britanica and a book written about the sinking of the Titanic from one of the Titanic's survivors.

A view of the main palace from just outside our room first thing in the morning.

Dinner last night in the hotel was in the "Italian" restaurant.  They did have pizza and pasta, but the main courses were really interesting.  The focaccia bread, for example, was accompanied by a pesto dip and raita.  We had to taste a bit of the mango-basil soup.  India meets Italy.

NOVEMBER 3  CITY TOUR.

We had a slow morning.  At 10, John, our guide took us on a city tour.  Our first stop was the Chowmahalla Palace.  Original palace of the Nizams of Hyderabad.  Apparently, it is patterned after the palace of the Shah of Iran.  We stopped first to see an enormous hall, called the Durbar hall which was used for ceremonies.  We stopped a bit to examine porcelain and glass owned and used by the Nizams, their houda,  and their armor.  The ladies room with models of the ladies and their outfits.  Lots of examples of clothing they wore.  Finally we looked at the cars the Nizams had used. A yellow Royals Royce that had only been driven only 300 miles in 100 years.  While we were touring the palace large groups of school children were there as well.  I took several photos of the kids who were delighted in trying out their English.  "Hello"  "How do you do?"  When we'd respond, they'd giggle. They were really cute.  VERY LOUD.  But really cute.

The Durbar Hall with the Nizam's throne in the center

School boys playing a game

The "how do you do?" girls.

After our palace tour, we went to the bazaar and walked around a bit.  The bazaar is at the base of the Charminar, a structure in the city's center commemorating people who had died of the plague. We stopped after the bazaar at a small shop that made bidriware.  Bidriware is basically lead that is molded into shapes.  Then, once cooled, it is carved and inlayed with silver.  We watched the work involved, which was painstaking and detailed.  I was just a bit sorry I didn't appreciate the final product too much.

A man selling paan leaves.  These are leaves from the betel tree that are rolled up and chewed then the juice is spat out.  Apparently it provides a bit of a high and it's a stimulant.  

Market scenes

More market scenes.  Hyderabad is about 40% Islamic

Charlie and I standing in front of the Charminar

More of the Bazaar

Some more photos - the place fascinated me

The man in the photo is stuffing the huge pillows with wool.  You can just see the wool inside the doorway.  None of it looked particularly clean.  Once stuffed, he sewed the pillows shut.

The back of our guide John

John again, and a cart filled with wares

A man working on the bidriware

We then went to the Salar Jung museum.  He was a wealthy man who collected thousands of objets d'art from all around the world.  We only visited the Indian art section of the place.  To be honest, I really didn't think this sounded so good, but I was wrong.  It was fascinating.  Some of the pieces we saw were spectacular.  A magnificent marble Ganesh (elephant headed god) sitting on a lotus, some amazing pieces of ivory carvings, and some full sized marble carvings of woman wearing light cloth. The latter really didn't look like stone at all.

At the end we drove passed Hussain Sagar, a large reservoir that has Hyderabad on one side and Secunderabad, another city, on the other. I can't help but think of the movie, "The Man Who Would Be King"  whenever I hear about Secunderabad.  We stopped at a crafts shop, the owners of which were from Kashmir.  We were horribly disappointing to them since we only bought a pillow cover.  

NOV 2 TOUR OF GOLCONDA FORT AND THE QUTB SHAHI TOMBS

We finally are beginning to feel rested and in the time zone.  Maybe it was the 9:30 PM pile of Bryani that helped?  We had breakfast at the Palace.  I was expecting a buffet.  Nope.  We were served a huge breakfast: juice, tea, croissants, eggs, bread, a tiered plate of miscellaneous items like walnuts, Danish rolls, and fruit.  While Charlie and I got through half of the breakfast, we decided we needed to eat like our dog, Wally, only twice a day.  Maybe even taking our pills and jamming them in our food like we do for the dog.  I can't take the regal good life.

While we waited for our guide, I took a few photos of the palace.  Later this afternoon we are planning to go on the champaign palace tour.   I'll take more photos of this place then.

The palm trees are coconut palms.  The city is below.  The palace sits on a hill about 2000 feet high

The nizam's palace apparently has been repaired but well worth the fun.

The grand staircase.

Our guide John showed up around 9 AM as planned.  We took a golf cart down the hill to the clock tower.  The driver and van were parked there.  No one can drive up to the palace - golf carts or horse and carts are the only vehicles allowed.

Our first stop was the Golconda Fort.  We drove a bit, passed the military installation near town.  Apparently, the Nizam of Hyderabad didn't really want to join India.  In 1948, the year of independent India,  the Indian government (military) forced his hand, and Hyderabad became part of India.

The fort is surrounded by an outer wall.  The inner wall is the section we toured.  We basically climbed 180 steps to see the sections of the fort to the top of the hill, and then climbed 180 steeper steps to see the rest.  Apparently, the steeper steps were the royal path up and down.  It was easier our way, since we weren't going to be dragged up the hill in palanquins.

A view of the fort from just inside the outer wall.

A bit closer

This is a photo of the ceiling.  If you stand beneath this section and clap your hands, or make any noise, the sound produces a number of echoes.  Best example of this I have heard.

View of the tombs from the fort.

Carvings done by a man who was prisoner at the fort for 12 years.  He literally did them with a rock on the rock

Another view of the fort from the inside

At the top we spotted two men wearing traditional Kerala sarongs

A view down the hill from the top of the fort

Workers were digging dirt out of a section of the garden and carrying loads of it to another area.  The work was done by woman carrying dish loads of dirt from head to head.

After our schlep up and down the fort, we drove over to the Qutb Shahi tombs.  These Tashma Hall type structures were, in fact, tombs for the Nizams and their families.  They are slowly being cleaned and repaired so some of the tombs look white, and others don't.

The commander's tomb

Nifty lizard on the wall

Another view of the painted trucks

Tomb of Fatima Sultana.  The roof has been restored.

After our tomb tour we drove to a pearl shop.  Hyderabad is famous for pearls, and I am a jewelry sucker.  We got back to the palace and rested until our champaign tour.

NOVEMBER 1 TOUR OF MAMALLAPURAM FLY TO HYDERABAD

We had breakfast on the early side, then checked out of the hotel.  At 8:45 Balla and Vijaiya met us and took us on the drive to Mamallapuram.  The Pallava seaport was at Mamallapuram and it has since become a World Heritage Site.  We made three spectacular stops.


Our first was at a field of erratic boulders with carvings into some of them.  In Pangaea times India was close to Anarctica and covered in glaciers.  The glaciers melted and huge granite boulders dropped out of the ice.  From these the Pallava carvers created a huge Penance carving.  There is also a cave carved from the rocks that remained unfinished, and other cave carved from rocks that showed a famous Krishna legend.  A village was becoming inundated by a huge storm.  The people of the village asked Krishna for help. His solution was to lift the hill over the people of the village and kept them out of the rain.

People catering to the tourists at Mamallapuram

Great optical illusion

Aha, the trick is revealed - it's center of gravity is not like a ball

More erratics piled up

A temple carved out of the rocks.  Vijaya is walking into the temple.  It was VERY hot, hence her umbrella

Charlie examining the pillars carved at the front of the temple - they weren't for support - purely for decoration

The carving inside the temple.  The Krishna carving's arm has a space between his arm and the wall.  Really interesting

Inside the area, a man offering coconuts for sale to the tourists.  A fresh coconut snack

This wall of carvings was from an enormous boulder.  Full sized elephant and calf, lots of depictions of gods, demons, a full carving showing Hindu myths and legends.  It is spectacular

A closer look

Our second stop was at a temple that was built along the sea.

The ocean was nearby with waves large enough for decent surfing, the area was lovely with a breeze, and of course the temple was fascinating.  Clearly, an area for lots of tourists and lots of people to sell things to them

The writing on the Coca Cola sign is in English, of course, and in Tamil.

These people were sweeping the field with straw brooms.  They reminded me of the Van Gogh painting

The seaside temple.  It was made out of sandstone that apparently had been dragged to this spot.  The casuara trees in the background grow quickly and support sand walls.  They were put in to keep the sea out.  Over the centuries, the sea eroded much of the carving.

Us in front of the temple with the ocean in the distance

The temple without us

This stone cutter and his comrades were preparing and excavating the temple.

The machine in the photo above is to make sugar cane juice.

Our third stop was a series of temples, and figures built from one huge chunk of granite that originally had been in the shape of a whale. Each of the buildings had different roof styles.  There were elephants.    The details of the roof lines were amazing, but most of the bottom of the buildings were incomplete.

Charlie and I are standing on one end of the scene.  Notice the full sized elephant carving behind us

The four main temple carvings.  The roof lines were very different.  The long one looked almost Dutch

We went to a Raddison Hotel in Mamallapuram and had a buffet lunch.  It was pretty good.  The setting was delightful.  They had built a large, open porch area at the front that was cool and pleasant to sit in, which was nice because we had to wait for lunch.

A crow that was hopping around the hotel outdoor lounge area.

After lunch we drove to the airport, dropping Vijaiya off new her house.  The weather by the beach had been unbelievably hot, but apparently it had poured rain in the city.  Since there is no drainage system, a decent rain storm causes huge puddles to build up along the sides.  This makes the scooters, bikes and took tuks drive around the mini lakes, and the traffic goes completely to pieces.  We eventually got to the airport, but the traffic in the opposite direction was SO awful, I suggested to Balla that he go to a hotel for the night.  Flight uneventful.  We were met at the baggage counter by a guy who said that he was our airport porter.    We learned by our actual guide, Buskar that the airport is private.  Regular porters, guides, et al aren't allowed at the airport beyond certain levels.

We are staying at the Taj Falaknuma Palace  It's a real palace.  We were driven to the gates of the bell tower and our suitcases were taken in a golf carts.  We got out and took a horse cart up the hill.  Charlie and I were treated like visiting Nizams.  We didn't get dinner until 9:30, but ate in an elegant Indian restaurant in the palace.  The dish of choice is Bryani Rice.  It's delicious, but we ended up ordering too much.