Golconda yet again

Yesterday IBM sponsored a day for ISL at Lahari Resorts, about 30km west of Hyderabad. I had Srinivas, my driver, take a somewhat convoluted route there that took us past some of my favorite Hyderabad places: Golconda Fort, the Qutub Shahi tombs, the "mystery tomb", Osman Saga (aka Gandipet) and everything in between. The "ISL Day Out" was not especially memorable (though I did get a chance to go swimming for the first time in a year); my pictures are in this album:

ISL Day Out 2007

However, seeing the sights inspired me to hop on the bike again today and go back out to Golconda.

As usual, I tried a (slightly) new route; I dropped off Banjara Hills via the bustee to the west, but headed south toward the military area before cutting west. This took me past this idyllic scene:

The new route cut out some unpleasant, high-traffic roads, which I was happy about. Eventually I found myself again at Sikkalam Cheruvu and one of the most northerly parts of the Golconda outer wall.

This picture was taken after riding a short distance east; I turned around and rode back to the southwest and through what I've learned is Jamali Darwaja (darwaja means "gate"). Once inside Golconda's outer wall I continued southwest to the main entrance to the inner fort, out Banjara Darwala and then west toward the "mystery tomb". This took me past one of my favorite sections of the wall, where I took these pictures.









Then on to the mystery tomb. I love this place:



I don't love what Hyderabad's new wealth is doing to it:



There will be houses right next to it.

From here I went south, looking for access to a pair of structures I've noticed before. I soon came to a little spit of land that juts into Ibrahim Cheruvu, where people were fishing.

These folks are playing Pachisi, better known to us westerners as Parcheesi.

Moments after taking that last picture my front tire began to lose air, and within 2 minutes it was completely flat. This put a bit of a crimp in my further explorations, as I just started looking for a way to get home without walking the whole way. Luckily, I came upon an open bicycle shop within about a kilometer. Rs.10 got me patches for the two holes in my front inner tube. I wonder what I hit?

Back on my wheels, I just tooled around for a while, discovering two more of Golconda's gates, and these very old doors:



There are more pictures from today's ride at this album:

Oct7 - Golconda, again