Well, I've been in Hyderabad for about 18 hours now and it's been quite the whirlwind adventure already.
I landed in Hyderabad's new fancy, schmancy airport (just opened in March) at around 3AM local time, after almost 24 hours on a plane or in an airport. The trip went by fairly uneventful, mostly because I slept through almost the entire two flights. The 18 hours since landing have been quite the opposite.
After picking up my baggage, I walked outside and, despite it being well into the wee hours of the morning, the area just beyond the airport entrance was mobbed with people. Hordes of them were clinging to the fences that protect the open-air walkway that extends from the airport doors. Everyone is yelling: many for their family members; taxi drivers for their fares. I don't think I would have known what to do if it weren't for the fact that some guy was holding up a sign with my name on it.
I pointed at him, visibly disappointing a large contingent of taxi drivers hoping I'd pick them. He runs around to the exit of this walkway where I meet him. I started talking to him about how busy the airport was before I realized he didn't speak a word of English. I resigned myself to just follow him to the cab. When we reached the parking lot, a group of young men approached us and started saying something to the taxi driver. The taxi driver seemed to get uncomfortable as he scurried away. I really wish I knew what they were talking about :-(
As we headed out of the airport, we approached a sign that indicated we should stay straight to go to Hyderabad or turn left to go to Bangalore. As perhaps you should have expected, we went left. Before long, the driver turned down a straight with a handmade sign that read, "Way to Hyderabad." The road was mostly dirt, with blockades every few kilometers. The driver, naturally went through each blockade. Eventually, we navigated our way to Hyderabad.
The driver approached what looked like a 5-star hotel with a gated entrance around the compound. Now, I was originally booked at this hotel, but someone at Amazon decided I should be moved to lower cost housing because of my length of stay (I think most people only stay for like 2 weeks). Of course, I couldn't communicate any of this to him. So, we waited until we pulled up to the hotel itself before I could ask someone at the hotel to sort it out. The person there was very helpful, calling up my actual housing (luckily I had printed out all of the information). We got back in the cab and drove to the new housing which was located down a dark alley. Quite the opposite of the posh experience most Amazonians get... I don't think I would change it for the world though.
I finally got to bed around 4:30 AM. I woke up this morning with no real signs of jet lag (don't quite understand that one) and decided to tackle the day. I asked the person at the front desk what to do, but he wasn't terribly helpful. So, with no real idea of what to do, I just started walking. I ended up walking about 15km (I know because I cabbed it back and saw their meter) into town (yeah, I'm way out in the middle of nowhere).
The walk was a very interesting experience. Hyderabad is a very confused town in a lot of ways. It seems like there are forces trying to make it a modern day city, but real pressures that make that difficult. Signs everywhere encourage people to keep the city looking nice: "Hyderabad is a beautifyul place; let us keep it clean." Yet, I didn't see a trash can to throw out my empty soda bottle until I reached a shopping mall. Other signs indicate the police want to reduce the madness on the roads: "Ensure safety on roads. Follow rules." Yet, nobody does. There are high-end clothing stores springing up everywhere. Yet, you see children lying on the streets right next to them. There seem to be many jobs pouring into the city, especially with the rise of the hitech city (aka Cyberbad). Yet, that seems like an ivory tower with its gated community (the hotel was just one of many buildings in that gated area) and there is extreme poverty all over the city.
Speaking of the madness on the roads... I've never experienced anything quite like the roads in Hyderabad. I pretty much spent my entire walk on this relatively major road. And what you typically find is two lanes going in each direction and then whatever is left is shared by cars, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, pedestrians, bicycles, stray dogs (any of which could be going in either direction at any time). You also have people crossing back and forth through this madness as if they were playing a game of Frogger (I followed one guy who crossed this madness three different times with a camel!!!!). I was pretty timid at first, but within minutes, found myself just walking wherever I felt like it. There's this pretty interesting system where every car seems to constantly be honking. I think they're mostly honking to indicate to cars or pedestrians that they're approaching from behind or passing. But, this happens so frequently, that it pretty much becomes white noise; I found myself desensitized to horns pretty quickly.
Then there are these auto-rickshaws. They're kinda like taxis, except they're 3-wheeled, struggle to make it up hills, have no doors, and probably make up 40% of the traffic on the road (another 40% is probably made up of motorcycles). A bit prideful and determined to do my walk, I must have turned down at least 50 of them today.
I eventually gave into the auto-rickshaws because I wasn't about to ride the 15km back to my hotel. After some confusion, he and I eventually sought a translator who helped me explain where I needed to get to (apparently the map wasn't good enough). You wonder briefly about your safety while walking through the street through this traffic; you get in one of these auto-rickshaws and it's a whole need ballgame. My driver was weaving through traffic, blew through every red light, and almost hit about a dozen cyclists. I paid about $3.00 for the 15km taxi ride and the thrill of being in that rickshaw was well worth at least 10x that.
I also stumbled across a bazaar today. The 20RS (~$0.50) charge to get in was enough to keep out the poor (I didn't necessarily realize this until a group of beggars jumped me the moment I left). Inside, kids played cricket, families had picnics, people rode around on paddle boats. I walked through a bunch of the stands where vendors sold scarves, pottery, jewelry, etc... I sat down with a number of them and was probably duped into spending way more than I should have. But, I found myself getting into some real conversations with these people (though I wouldn't be surprised if some of what they told me was fabricated). I found it hard to bargain too hard when you know these people are working for their livelihood.
Anyway, enough with my boring stories. I need to get to bed so that I'll be ready for my first day in the office tomorrow... though, I can't imagine 9 hours at a desk will compare with today.
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