Big Weekend

I put close to 80km on the bike (and my knees...) this weekend. First off, links to the GPS tracks and photos:

Saturday: GPS, photos
Sunday: GPS, photos

As usual, I've only posted a few pictures here; there are more in the albums linked to above.

Saturday I pedaled out to Himayat Sagar, a large lake southwest of Hyderabad, via Golconda Fort. Here's the lake:



As usual, getting there was the fun part. My pursuit of back streets took me to the northern shore of Sikkalam Cheruvu, which has a nice view of the outer wall of Golconda.



I rode around to the southern shore and took this picture looking back.



At this point I was up close and personal with the wall.





Continuing back southwest toward Golconda, I encountered this scene.



Note the blue paint on the horns.

Things got very interesting just after I took this picture. The cart has no brakes, and as it headed down the small hill to the right, it nearly got away from the driver. The ox had to pick up the pace to a helluva trot to keep from being run down.

I soon passed through the outer wall, turned right and skirted the northwest section of the wall from the inside. I find this wall fascinating, and took a lot of pictures.





I was surprised when I came across this little temple. You can see the king's quarters of Golconda in the background (upper left).



From Golconda I had a fairly uneventful ride to Himayat Sagar. Unfortunately the batteries in the camera died shortly after I got there, and I missed some nice scenes on the way home. The batteries did revive long enough for me to take this one picture.



This is "Don Bosco's Shrine" or something like that. There's a society called the Salesians who take inspiration from St. John Bosco. I think it's interesting the way that traditional Catholic architecture was adapted for India. As I first rode up I thought I was looking at some very odd, ornate temple.

Today's ride took me in more-or-less the opposite direction, northeast to Secunderbad in search of electrical goodies. I struck out again, but the ride was good.

First, a picture for my dad. I remember when I was little that Dad would sometimes make trips to a hospital (in Pittsburgh?) to deliver eyes from organ donors for corneal transplants, an ongoing project of the Lions Club. Well, the association between Lions and eye health continues in India.



Next, a picture for Aunt Anne - yes, the wiring is as crazy in Hyderabad as elsewhere.



My route took me around the southern end of Hussain Sagar and past Indira Park. I've seen the park from above (from the Tank Bund Road), and it looked lovely; well, it's just as nice from ground level.





While cruising though the park (admission Rs.5, and well worth it...), I saw these odd-looking people with pale skin and yellow hair, boating.



I rode around the park, and on my way back to exit I saw them again. They'd drawn quite a crowd.





It felt really odd to see such unabashedly American visitors in Hyderabad.

I also came upon this little animal kingdom scene.



After leaving the park I passed through a noisy rally. Cambridge would be proud!



I had lunch at Tamarind Tree, one of the restaurants at Yatri Nivas. The food was great (I had masala papad and paneer tikka), but the service was just awful - they butchered my order and were incredibly slow.

It rained for much of the trip home, so no more pictures.