Just riding

Another Saturday on the bike. Here's a snapshot of the GPS track; you can also see the full track (but unannotated this trip) if you want to.

I only took a few pictures.

I began being pretty goal-directed. I made a quick run down to the grocery store on Road #1 to get cereal; after dropping that off at home, I made another quick dash out to Magna to get curd and juice.

With next week's breakfast assured, I put my two blown A/C adapters into my pack and pushed off toward Secunderbad, where I've been told I should be able to find replacements.

"Toward Secunderbad" is a relative term; I really try to avoid main roads, so I cut through the slum behind the house and through Jubilee Hills to get to the end of KBR Park. From there I took the main drag thru Srinagar Colony to get to the Green Lands area (where I was last weekend). Not exactly efficient...

As I passed thru Srinagar Colony I spotted this sign. Yeah, I want the folks at "bs" on my team!

I stopped for lunch at The Moon restaurant in the Hotel Tureeya Grand, across from Lifestyle near Green Lands. The buffet, pure veg, is advertised at Rs.88; that's before tax and 5% service fee. It was OK, but nothing special. Refueled, I set out in search of electronic shops.

Sort of. It turns out that Hyderabad and Secunderbad are separated - very effectively! - by a combination of rail lines and water. There's a main flyover that would have taken me directly into Secunderbad, but what fun is that, I ask you? So I nosed my way along the rail line, first west, then east, looking for a crossing.

If you look at Google Earth, it's obvious that it just can't be done. I wound up finding an informal "path of desire" across the tracks; I picked up my bike and schlepped it over the rails. On the other side, I discovered that I was now on the top of about an 8-foot wall - with a bicycle. After some waffling, I eventually wrestled the bike down off the wall and continued on the far side of the tracks.

By this time all pretense of being goal-directed was gone, and I just nosed around looking for a way over the next obstacle - a waterway that runs east-west, more or less paralleling the train tracks on their northern side. Again, had I been able to consult Google Earth, I would have discovered that the crossings on the map are pure fiction; there's just no way. So it goes. I nonetheless had fun exploring.

At one point I came upon what the what the map tells me is a "significant historical site." OK.

Just as I had concluded that the water crossing was impossible it started to rain, so I decided to call it a day and head for home, using that dreaded flyover to re-cross the train tracks in the opposite direction. I biked the rest of the way home in the rain - which was actually not a bad experience. I was wearing hiking pants and a sun shirt, which don't mind being wet, and the rain was never heavy enough to generate the sort of large puddles that would have made biking really unpleasant. As it was, the cooler air was very nice. Rain's not so bad..

Close to home, on Road #12, I spotted a sign for Springs Guest House and decided to check it out. It's a pretty high-end corporate-oriented place - the rooms are nice, they provide breakfast and laundry services, WiFi internet access, parking (if you have a car) - it's not bad. There's no fixed price; we sparred a bit, and I finally extracted an offer of Rs.1800 per night, double occupancy. Plus 5% tax, so call it Rs.1900/night. Not cheap, but a lot better than a hotel.

They have a second set of rooms in a building even closer to my house; one could get a room there for under Rs.1000/night. But it's a lot like the IBM guest house at My Home Navadweepa - the rooms are small, the A/C is window units instead of the quieter split units, and there wasn't much privacy to be had.

Then home, and here we are. I'm waiting for Anil and Anu to show up for dinner; I offered to take them out to Little Italy, on the condition that I do the ordering. Should be fun!

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Hotel Tureeya Grand Rooms @ Rs. 2450/2750 (single/double occupancy) suites @ Rs. 3150 +9140 2373 1365 / +91 98480 78365

Springs' Corporate Services A.V.S. Rao +91 98482 53166 / +91 92462 45548 springhomes1@yahoo.com Reliance Manor Flat # 304, Plot # 7, Road #12 Banjara Hills, Hyderabad +9140 6677 5548 Stone Valley Door # 8-2-416, Flat # C-17, Road #4 Banjara Hills, Hyderabad +9140 6659 5548 Banjara Hills Road No. 14 8-2-316/13/1, Road # 14 Banjara Hills, Hyderabad +9140 6450 5548