Tikka and Tuk-Tuks - 10/15/17

Hello! It’s Erin once again, and I’m here to take you around our second full day in India. With nothing official on the docket for class, we all quickly got to work on what to do with our free time. Most of the group waited until after lunch to head out to the Laad Bazaar and nearby Charminar mosque, but a smaller group of us decided to forge out on our own and leave a few hours earlier. That proved to be quite the experience, since we needed to use the infamous “tuk-tuks,” or open-air taxis, to get to the market from HMI. However, I think I can safely say that tuk-tuks are my new favorite way to travel!!! After getting used to whizzing around corners and close calls with other cars of course, I got to enjoy all of the beautiful colors and aromas coming from the street vendors.
After arriving at the Laad Bazaar, we decided to climb the Charminar minaret for an overlook of Hyderabad’s Old City. From there we saw endless streets of colorful clothes and vendors selling fruits, which is definitely a view I’m not used to back home. However, our stomachs soon started to growl and we began the hunt for lunch. One of the members of the group happened to have a recommendation for a restaurant only two miles away, and we thought we could just take another tuk-tuk and get there in 10 minutes. But boy, were we wrong….We soon discovered that drivers here will tell you they can take you somewhere even if they don’t know where it is, and that proved to be the case. Thankfully with the help of 17 other kind and supportive strangers, we eventually got to our restaurant in one piece. It was definitely worth the wait, as we enjoyed a meal of incredibly spicy tikka masala and Hyderabad’s specialty of biryani (think Indian fried rice)! We then managed to cram a total of six people in the tuk-tuk back to HMI, which I see as a personal accomplishment.
All in all, today’s free day was full of new sights, smells, tastes, and experiences that I never thought I would have. Some points were a bit of sensory overload, but I truly loved it. Getting to walk around the shops, try a coconut for the first time, and navigate the city by tuk-tuk helped show me a different side of Hyderabad that I don’t necessarily get from inside a tour bus. And after swapping stories with the other group of students (who all bought beautiful tunics!), we ended the night by watching Gandhi together. It was a powerful story centered on India’s history, and combined with the rest of today it was the perfect introduction to an exciting new place.

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