Travel

India Rediscovered

Well Finally! After over a week of inactivity on the Blog due to the slight problem of not having any Internet connection, I finally have managed to get a good connection. Where? Hyderabad airport in the 'Port Lounge', and what's more its FREE!
So here we go on what has happened in the last week or so, I know Europe have won the (sorry completely thrashed!) Ryder Cup. The Imps lost and home but won away to the top team (5 on the trot now), and the shuttle is OK. But what of my journey? Well it's 12:55 am here as I write this, but the trip began at 4:30 am on 17th in England...

I left in good time, well thinking I was going to be faced with a few security issues I left earlier than I had to. Got to the Birmingham airport, and found that the security issues had mostly cleared up, this I got through no worries and found myself with 2 and a bit hours to waste (Bugger!), the good thing was I was going by KLM which meant another few thousand air miles to add to the 142,000 I have already. Trouble is I have never been able to use them, I mean every time I go for a free flight paid by air miles, surprise surprise there are none available on the day that I want, or there available on the day I want but, not for the return. Any chance it may be a con???
Anyway, flight went well, and I arrived at the hotel in Hyderabad at about 1:30 am on the 18th. Now the first thing you notice about Hyderabad is the smell. I do mean SMELL kind of like a bad egg smell, or sweaty sock type smell, but it is there and it kinda lingers if you know what I mean!
So after a nice long sleep it was onto the cement plant, and a 5 and a half hour car journey. Remember the Calcutta Taxi ride I talked of last time, well this wasn't as bad, but it was close. Having to spend your time avoiding bikes, motorbikes, other cars, trucks, tractors dogs, people, cows, goats, and things I don't even have a name for must be a joy for the car drivers of India, for they have to do it all the time, even my good friend Keyur, who is my co-worker and interperetur here was looking, shall we say apprehensive on a few dozen occasions, and he was in the back seat!

Still we got there in one piece, and didn't have to start till the morning, hum this is sounding familiar 2 days of travel and I still hadn't started work yet!
For those of you who don't know what a cement plant is about, here is a photo of the site, a dank and dismal, filthy place, but it is more than 30 years old, and you do get clean ones...sometimes!
The dirtier one on the right is the coal mill.







So now you have an idea of what I face, it's not all fun and games travelling let me tell you.
OK so the job didn't go too badly, at first but by the end of it I had just about had enough I can tell you, just when I thought all was well, the proverbail bee came and stung my arse. Still at the end both systems worked and the customer seemed happy, which is the main thing.

Now one thing I would say is that the food was vegetarian, and you had what you was given, so most of the time I had Roti's (like a pancake) and rice, and very little else, then one day as I went to go to the dining room, the chef/room keeper/laundry man et al, said I was having dinner in my room, strange I thought maybe the dining room was full. But no, he opened the pan and the delicious aroma of chicken poured out. The guy had not really cooked chicken before, but he had done wonders it tasted delicious! I didn't eat the giblets, there is a limit to my pallette, but cooked to perfection comes to mind.
The next night he told us we were eating outside this time, I had a wry smile on my face, chicken on the menu again, and this time it was better than the last. I gave him a few extra Rupees for those two meals let me tell you.
So to last night, and my stay at the Taj in Hyderbad, after a 6 hour car journey avoiding the usual goats, cows, cars buses, trucks etc, etc etc.
I felt like dinner a bit later, and got taken to the restuarant attached to the hotel, imagine my surprise to find MEAT on the menu, not just any meat, LAMB, CHICKEN, PRAWNS!!!!
I had the house king prawn special, with fried rice, and then polished off the BEST meal I have had in India. If you visit Hyderabad be sure to go to the Taj, that is only 3 clicks from the airport, and eat in the restuarant you will NOT be dissapointed.

So that brings me to here, and after this I am going for a nice kip, 1:35 am, only another 12 hours to go!