India Trip 2019

June 28, 2019

India Trip 2019 - part 1

I need to document this for my India trip. - Note to self

Hello! Namaste!

It's been a while and I know I don't get a lot of traction in my blog anymore as I've neglected this for a year. It's ok, that's fine. I just wanted to share my India trip.

Last June 15 I went to Hyderabad, India for business, and sneaked in a few leisure trips.

This was my first time in India and have absolutely no idea what the country was like aside from a few tips from friends that have been there and what was shown on the Discovery Channel or Nat Geo (which is mostly showing Kolkata or Chennai, not much Hyderabad). To sum up, this was the list I was given on what India was like (again this is not my view and was told prior to going):

HOT AF (i checked the temp it can go up to 47 degrees)
Do not drink anything out of a bottle/can
Dirty
Full of people
Traffic is bad

Alright, what I gathered wasn’t really helpful, also terrifying. But that did not stop or scare me from continuing on my trip.

I did my own research and came up with my own checklist of where to go for the 2.5 days that we were free to do some side trips. I was fascinated by the pictures and the information ive come across with but still have some reservations on it.

Day 1 of India Trip.

June 15 came flew to India via Cathay Pacific. (Shoutout to Cathay Pacific for the roomie plane) We left MNL at 540PM PHT Saturday and landed in HYD at 1230AM IST and settled in our hotel by 330AM, Sunday. We had a whole day planned tomorrow as it’s one of our free days, and we planned to go to the Old City.

Old City comprising of Chowmahalla Palace, Charminar Market and then the Science Museum and Planetarium. Side note, in every country I go to, I always go to a museum, because I'm a child.

Hyderabad, India in a word, AMAZING. This country is absolutely beautiful. Beautiful places, beautiful people and delicious food!

We first went to Chowmahalla Palace (entrance for foreigners are 200 INR + if you want to take pictures add 50 INR), it means 4 palaces in 1 location. This was absolutely breathtaking. They were able to preserve the architecture of the palace, the chandeliers, the porcelain. The building has seen better days, but it still stood tall and proud. The garden is well kept and green. Plumeria trees lined up and provides shade and sweet scent under the hot sun.

There were also vintage cars and motorbikes that belonged to the royal family.

It gets to be very hot so if you plan to visit, wear cotton, carry water, fan and/or umbrella.

Next, we went to Charminar, the old market place. It’s only a 15-20 min walk from Chowmahalla, but if you’re like me and wanted to experience everything, I rode a tuk tuk to get there (cost about 20 INR each person) This is everyones’ market, you can find anything and everything here from bangles, shoes, toys, fruits, spices, old rupee coins, literally everything. We went to an elevated area to see the whole of Charminar and it was a feast for the eyes. It felt like stepping into a different world, much different from what I am used to.