With two days to pass in Hyderabad before moving on toward our next volunteer post, we decided to save the second day for the most prominent tourist attraction, Golconda Fort. That left the first day open to just aimlessly wandering around town, waiting for the camera lens to capture any interesting oddities that might pop up to greet our eyes.
These sights included a shrine just down the street from us; a pottery vendor displaying his wares on the street; a horse riding arena; and of course, many, many fascinating faces and figures. Some of them were gathered in the street outside a building that may have been a temple; the folks were all sporting their colorful native attire, and were just mingling out in the street as if awaiting the arrival of a UFO. We really wanted to get at least one photo of them, but it was impossible to do without their noticing. After all, we ourselves were the sore thumbs in this scene.
As always in India, the locals took notice of us wherever we went. At one point, Dennis had gone out on an errand and was making his way back to the Airbnb when at one intersection he became a bit confused and paused to look at his phone and get his bearings. A produce vendor nearby noticed and said to him, “it’s that way”, and pointed out what was indeed the correct direction.
And later, a man on a motorbike pulled up to chat, and when he found out that we were volunteer English teachers, he invited us to come to a language school that he himself operated, and conduct a couple of sessions with his students. He gave us his name and phone number, in case we decided to accept the invitation.
And in truth it was tempting. After all, it’s our aim to try to reach as many people as we can who need our services; that’s why we’re doing this gig. But ultimately, we decided that with such a limited time in town, we couldn’t accept this particular offer on this particular occasion. Maybe next time.
July 6, 2022
world travel with a theatrical flair 