the diary of a traveling dreadhead: turistas!

DAYS 7&8

Touristy. That’s what we were this weekend. On Saturday, Sam, Teresa, and I grabbed some nasty breakfast from a local “bakery” (oh side note: there are tons of “bakeries” all over Hyderabad, but they are nothing close to the bakeries you are used to, trust me) and then went to Hussain Sagar Lake. We had done some googling and found that this place was highly recommended. It is the largest man-made lake in Asia, at 24 square kilometers, was built by some guy named Hussain in 1562, and there is an awesome gigantic Buddha statue in the middle! We walked around the lake, had some interesting interactions with Indians, then took a 5-minute boat ride to the statue. The statue is 18 meters high and pretty cool! Sam, Teresa, and I were trying to take pictures in front of it, but we got a little interrupted because every single Indian there was asking to take pictures with us! Literally it was as if the statue did not exist and WE were the tourist attraction. Check out the pics – they are pretty funny!

Later that night, Arjun (an AIESECer who lives near our apartment) took us to see some of his friends’ bands perform at a bar. The first 2 groups were really good, but it went downhill from there. It was fun being at the bar surrounded by music and young, cool Indians, but we left around 10, and got stopped in front of an apartment because there was a huge drum and dance circle congregated in the road! The drums were so loud and awesome, there were men walking around with huge lampposts on their heads, and the Indian men dancers in the middle of the circle were AMAZING, indescribable! Probably some of the coolest and best dancing I have seen in my life. Too bad American men don’t know how to move like that. Pictures for proof & check fbook for a groovy vid.

Sunday we continued our tourist streak. We slept in, then went to Lal Bazaar, a place that was recommended by the sareee maker on our street. Basically, it’s a street lined with run-down stores, selling anything you could imagine – bangles, mangoes, scarves, jewelry, army uniforms, old washing machines, used waffle makers, etc. Teresa and I bought 6 bangles for 10 rupees or some ridiculously low price like that, and I also got a radical tie dyed scarf that I will probably just use for decoration or something for about a dollar fifty. The bazaar was pretty fun and funny because once again, we stuck out like sore thumbs. It was as if white people in the Lal Bazaar were the highlight of these people’s lives and their questions in broken English were very entertaining! After the market, we went to the Chocolate Room, a restaurant in the city center that has all things chocolate – shakes, ice cream, sundaes, brownies, and even chocolate pizza! So typical American stuff, but it was delicious nonetheless. Later that night, we met up with an AIESECer friend and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 in IMAX. While waiting for the doors to open, Teresa and I were lounging against a wall, when a guy came over and asked to take a pic with us. Being super fed-up with being stared at, Teresa declined so I just agreed and said sorry. Instead of leaving us alone, the boys just casually posed next to us while their friends’ casually held up phones and oh so subtly snapped pics. I started cracking up, and I think they took this as me being happy to be in pics with them, so before we knew it, we were surrounded by 15 Indian guys and a bazillion camera flashes. We also got asked to teach an etiquette class… weirdest request thus far, but we are considering doing it just for some extra money and to say we were Indian etiquette teachers! Dad, I hope you don’t mind if change my career track now and stay in India to teach girls how to be ladies.

Very fun weekend and after speaking with the AIESECers, I’m definitely more excited for work tomorrow. I understand that I won’t get the internship I had imagined, but I’m going to make the best of this amazing opportunity to be in India and if I can’t completely change the world in 6 weeks, I’m going to get as close as I can.