Charminar and the bangle bazaars

Today we did more exploring in Hyderabad. Smirti and Ashok from the office were excellent tour guides and showed us around. First we went to Charminar, a famous tour in Old Hyderabad, the Muslim part of the city.







Indian kids loooove to be photographed. They're always asking you to take their picture, and then they like to see themselves in the digital camera playback window. It works out well for the tourist since they're really cute and photogenic. This little guy asked me if I would take his picture. He was selling strings of Hyderabad pearls (or more likely, fake pearls) outside Charminar:



Then we went bangle shopping at the bazaars, which must have been very boring for Ashok. I've never seen so many bracelets in such a small area. The shops literally glow with all the bling:





Bangles galore!





Here I am at a place called Eat Street where we went for dinner:



Eat Street is a little strip located alongside the lake in the center of Hyderabad. There are kiddie rides there, and a bunch of outdoor restaurants where you can sit and gaze out at Hyderabad's famous Buddha statue in the middle of the lake.

While we were there, I got a tarot reading. It was awesome because parrots choose your fortune for you. I felt kind of badly because the parrots were sleeping when I sat down, and the man had to tap their cage to wake them. One of them shook himself into alertness, dutifully marched out of his cage, and chose a card for me before turning around and going back to bed:



Key takeaways from my reading:
- I have to be careful in November (reasons ambiguous)
- December will be fabulous
- My hardest times are behind me (yay!)
- I should concentrate on giving to the poor and needy because I tend to live extravagantly
- I will live to be exactly 94
- I should not get my fortune told again for another year (reasons ambiguous)



Here are Smirti and Ashok on Eat Street: