Agra home of the Taj. Mahal, a wonder of the world. I must admit straight away that the baby Taj is in my mind a more detailed and ornate piece of work, and hence in my opinion more pleasing. Though the Taj is simply a very imposingly impressive work of art and devotion.

Whilst visiting the sites I ran into a Frenchman (what a Frenchman? Travelling? Surely not? It feels as if there must be no French left in France as I have seen and met so many on my travels) By the name of Vince. We scaled the red fort and the baby taj together before parting ways. It was extremely joyful to have a conversation with someone other than Pigly who’s conversation is starting to resemble his appearance; tattered and worn.

The next day I went via bus out to Fatephur Sikri a colossal palace build by Akbar for his son. Apparently Akbar had three wives a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian and no children and he sought out a holy man at the Center of what would be the palace and the holy man told him he would have a son and it came true and so Akbar built this grand city palace over the spot. The holy man is entombed inside the palace in his own shrine. It was the capital of India for about 8 years until it had to be replaced due to lack of enough water.

A very awesome place to visit, lots of awesome market streets and grand views around the palace into the countryside. There was a festival happening and people everywhere.

I decided in Agra that I was over Indian cities and needed to keep moving towards the mountains to acclimatise. So I reluctantly skipped Jaipur and Delhi and moved instead to Patna just past Varanasi.

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I arrived early in Hyderabad, disgracefully early. In fact as I woke up the train was already abandoned. Lucky mine was the last stop. The sleep had been rough to say the least. I had a top bunk and had heard the stories of packs needing to be chained and watched so I opted to sleep with my pack and saddlebags between my legs like I was straddling a horse with Pigly on top. I say sleep but it was more a continuous lucid dreaming.

I hastily booked a hotel around the corner using Agoda. I’m not being paid to say this but that website/app is simply my best friend. In as little as 5 minutes I can have a hotel anywhere booked and it hasn’t let me down yet.

I set out to the hotel the roads were abandoned and light was creeping into the city. I arrived and entered through the kitchens out the back and woke everyone up as was escorted through to book in. The concierge was less than impressed about being woken at such an ungodly hour. With my stuff stored I fell asleep.

After two more hours of shitty sleep I set out to find the Charminar, but first I needed a stop at the station to secure a ticket on what I hoped would be a direct overnight train to Agra…

After an about an hour and many frustrating returns to the ticket booth, as well as an adventure down the road to find a xerox machine, I had finally purchased my ticket in what is simply the worst system, and I say system generously.

I hailed a tuk tuk and set off for the Charminar. As we neared the Charminar the streets suddenly took on a very Silk Road Arabic trader feel and it was like going back in time and the most impressive sight I had seen so far, beautiful architecture blended with alleys and traders everywhere, gold, jewellery, carpets, porcelain and food and the chaos of it all

We passed through an archway and their it loomed in all it’s glory, The Charminar, built in the 1500’s by the then Muslim rulers who occupied Hyderabad. It is both a monument and a mosque, though the mosque on the second floor is closed off to tourists.

On my way through the ticket booth, a man flashed me his tour guide badge and began haggling me for a tour price, offering me a discount as I was the first foreigner to arrive today, It was only 10:00am. I politely declined and began the walk up the inside to the first floor, which is probably about the height of most buildings 4th or 5th storey.

The view from the first floor is pretty encouraging. It looks out over the markets and surrounding districts for quiet some way, and the hustle and bustle of the streets and alleys below is very entertaining. The architecture and grandeur of the monument itself is somewhat dampened by the amount of graffiti all over everything. Graffiti in the form of people hacking their names into the walls and proclaimed love symbols – disgraceful. But nonetheless I was still inspired and happily self satisfied by the feeling of finally felling like I was somewhere foreign and less western.

In fact my whole day felt like I was the first westerner to discover this ancient place. It’s not that their isn’t massive concrete boxes and western buildings all around, it’s that here I could ignore them effectively. For someoneo seeking to find a world separate and different, ancient and untouched from massive western influence, Hyderabad satisfied.
From the first floor I could see high minarets and what looked like palaces poking up from the city which for its most part was fairly level at about 2-3 stories. The high court, which I would later drive past, a huge red domed mosque rising up, and many more. From my vantage I could see my next destination the old fort built round the same time and the seat of power in Hyderabad the Golconda Fort.

After exploring the surrounding markets a bit I set out for the fort, supposedly the second largest in India, the largest being the amber fort, or so I’ve been told.

The ride to the fort was through the back streets and alleys and not a major rode and it was simply full of a blend of Muslim and Hindu culture stuffed together in tiny spaces.

The outer wall of the fort appear out of nowhere, a simple part of the surrounding neighbourhood. We passed through the ancient ornately pressed gateway giant iron coated wooden doors standing ajar.

The old houses lining the street are the original houses and each a different colour as we moved through to the inner wall two great Persian style structures stood opposite the entry. I walked through and into the biggest fort site I’d ever seen. A mixed state of decrepit disrepair and reformed cleanliness. The true outline of the buildings of the fort is impossible to determine. After shooing away two tour guides I managed to reach the parapet wall and began walking the length of the fort. The view of the surrounding area is spectacular and added to by the old style of the neighbourhood surrounding the immediate area.

There’s no official route or path and it’s the biggest make your own adventure I’ve ever been to and that’s exactly what I did. I stuck to the out wall and climbed through scrub and broken sections of fort exploring openings and spying different vantage points as I made my way up to the top sections. Spathe sections I passed through had no people and plenty of scrub and decaying fortification adding to the adventure. I climbed and explored my way up for over an hour before reaching the top section of the fort to find the only two really decent remaining structures being a mosque and what would effectively be the keep. Commanding an unrivalled 360 degree view of the entire surrounding area and city of Hyderabad.

I spent the next 2-3 hours exploring my way back down through other sections of the ruin, avoiding guards and staying off the beaten track finding all manner of special nooks and crannies a stairwell with its middle section collapsed into a void was a particular highlight as well as stumbling upon a hidden secret within the fort…

After running all over the fort like a madman I chartered another tuk tuk to the tombs of the rulers of this area who during its establishment 1500-1700’s built giant domed tombs for themselves about 2 k’s from the inner fort within the outer fort at a place called the

Chennai previously the great British colony of Madras, gateway to the British Indian empire. It was from this fishing village that the British expanded and eventually conquered India. The original fort and the first church are still here, although he fort is somewhat now a ministers garrison and is in a dilapidated state. There are some amazing relics here including the first ever Indian independence flag, flown from the fort when India first gained independence.

This metropolis is staggering. I overextended myself on my first tour around this city. The first thing you notice is the heat, then it’s the glare and finally but most unsatisfying is the smell. The smell is pungent like a thick syrup, swirling around your head. As you walk around the smell changes and near water it is the worst. A syrup so pungent I had to cover my mouth, and gag into my throat until my queasiness passed.

As I walked around the streets I see chickens having their necks slit and thrown into buckets that shake as the chicken perishes. You have to watch where you step less you stand in human excrement or worse splash yourself with water which pools as the sides of the road. And this is just a small street in the main city. People or all shapes sizes and faiths walk about a sense of constant urgency developed from all the movement. I must have been staying off the beaten track because I did not encounter another westerner in my entire time (4 nights). My hotel was perfectly pleasant and I spent a lot of time thier, venturing out for walks along the streets. This area was truly cheap with meals costing around $1-2 and drinks less, I cannot believe that I can buy coke cola for rupees 40. About 20C Australian. And everyone does the Indian head shake which at first threw me completely. It’s such a subtle movement that at first you think a persons head has come loose and is about to roll down their shoulder.

Colonial style buildings are everywhere but most of the architecture is in an appalling state of disrepair and failure. However if you find a place to view the city from you see a stretching visual of different architectures, Persian domes and spires lined with colonial towers and more modern towers all intertwined, brick and concrete and the occasional thatch mesh together in a blender of different colours.

I managed to pick up a loverly infection in my legs which requires an exorcism be performed to extrude the greater pus demon of nurgle. After extraction the infection moves to another location. One such area took a turn for the worst and began weeping pus and blood and then healed over trapping the pus inside, I think I will always remember my first self-operation armed with my trusty leatherman I managed to reopen the infection to continue the exorcising. Can’t believe that guy managed to take his whole arm off to escape, I had trouble with a tiny patch of skin! In the end a course of antibiotics has been needed to sate the beast and I believe all is wellish now, time will tell.