October 26
After breakfast, Jonty picks us up at the hotel and we drive to the old city to visit the extraordinarily beautiful Paigah Tombs. (Whenever I say “we drive” it means that our driver drives our guide and us.). Intricately carved in marble, these are the tombs of the powerful Paigah Nobles who were close to the Nizam. Unlike the tombs we visited yesterday, these are small in stature and not well known. In fact, we are the only ones there and have to rouse a guard to open the gate for us. 
     
We head next for a vegetable market. Jonty explains what we are seeing, how they are used and more. It’s more vegetables than I, personally, need, but Carol enjoys it.     
Here’s a creative guide who has built a cash drawer into his seat. 
After the market, we head to a private house, where Jonty has arranged for us to have a lunch prepared by the woman who lives there. We first see the altar in the home that they worship at daily.  As was true of the vegetable market, Carol likes this far more than I do. She enjoys watching the meal being prepared. Lunch is tasty.  
After lunch, we drive to the four palaces of the Chowmahalla Complex. Jonty tells us numerous stories and intrigues about the seven Nizams (Kings) of Hyderabad whose destinies and decisions shaped the history and culture of this region. The Seventh Nizam was once pictured on the cover of Time Magazine as the richest man in the world. The Sixth is the one who built the palace (hotel) we are staying in. We walk through the imposing Durbar Hall and the various rooms which have recreated a slice of life from the past. 
Hyderabad’s charms lie beyond the monuments. The charm of the city is found wandering the through historic Lad Bazaar. We risk life and limb riding in a tuk-tuk from the palace to the bazaar.   We see the iconic four towers structure in the heart of the market We walk through the colorful and chaotic market where vendors sell an extraordinary variety of items ranging from mundane household goods, to the colorful bangles for which the city is so well known. Carol buys a bunch of bangles, with Jonty’s assistance. It is a slice of Hyderabadi life – vibrant, chaotic and absorbing.
After the bangles, we return to the hotel, bid a fond goodbye to Jonty and try the palace tour again with another, understandable guide. This time it’s far better and the quite incredible palace is a treat. These few photos won’t do it justice, but at least they’ll give you some idea.   
My favorite is the dining table that seats 101 guests, which we are told is the largest in the world.
We return to our room and find that the two swans who were at the foot of our bed have morphed into an octopus.
We’ve about had it with going to restaurants, so we opt to order into our room. I order–would you believe it–a pizza, and it’s absolutely fantastic. Carol’s minestrone and a paratha are also excellent. We pack and get ready for tomorrow’s very early departure.
October 25
Our guide in Hyderabad is Ms. Jayanti ‘Jonty’ Rajagopala, a B-school graduate from XLRI, Jamshedpur who comes with over 13 year’s experience in sales, marketing and program management with organizations including Titan Industries and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Apart from specialty tours in and around Hyderabad, Jonty also leads an annual 12-day culinary tour across India. A certified, albeit fussy foodie, her biggest passions of food, history and her love for offbeat locations keeps her exploring the length and breadth of India.
Jonty started her tour company with the aim of showcasing her own country in a different way. For her, the most interesting part about India is the cultural diversity, even within a state, not to mention across the subcontinent. Being an avid traveller, she’s always curious to know more about the people, traditions, and especially the food of a region that she visits. The experience that she aims to create is based largely on what she has enjoyed on her travels…slightly offbeat and full of interesting stories and conversations with locals, all of which you would not experience on your own.
Jonty gives us a very succinct and well-thought out overview of South India, including notes on its history, differences from North India, its weather, including the importance of the strength and timing of the monsoon, the central role of the Himalayas in weather and politics, and a description of the different Indian states.
We start our day with a visit to the Golconda Fort and the exquisite Qutb Shahi tombs. The history of the fort dates back to the 12th century when it was originally built of mud by the Hindu Kakatiyas. Within the fort are the royal palaces, the harem, halls for both public and private audiences, royal baths and a temple. The huge vaults once held the famous Kohinoor and Hope diamonds.   
We also visit the Qutb Shahi Tombs of 16th and 17 th century kings.
  
 
Lunch is at Simply South, a highly-regarded South Indian restaurant. Jonty knows the owners and chef and, since she is an expert on food, we entrust all ordering to her. We are rewarded with a very diverse and delicious meal, much more fun than I’d anticipated.  The restaurant is crowded with many of the patrons dressed up finely in anticipation of the Diwali holiday.
We then head to the Begum Bazaar market area, with hoards of people shopping for Diwali decorations, mostly very gaudy stuff.     It begins to drizzle, we take temporary shelter, then tread precariously through very narrow streets filled with motor bikes, tuk-tuks, cars and pedestrians, happy to escape in one piece. The narrow streets were generally too harrowing to photograph, except for the one with the cute baby on the motor bike above, but here’s a photo of a wide avenue to give you a hint.
We make it back to our hotel in time to catch the daily tour by the historian of the hotel, a tall, basically undecipherable fellow with a rather pompous manner. I last about seven minutes of the hour tour before slipping down a staircase and heading back to the room. Carol lasts considerably longer, but does not finish the tour.
Back at the room, we rest up and decide to give the Italian restaurant another try. Again, a very good dinner, this time without the annoying music. By the way, before going out this morning, I ran into the guy who had greeted us when our carriage pulled up to the palace last night. When I told him about our music/noise experience of last night, he’d already heard about it from the staff, a sign of a very good hotel.
Today was a very good day, due in large part to Jonty, clearly our new #1 guide of this trip. She has a very easy manner, a good sense of humor, the ability to express things clearly and her English is completely understandable. What more could anyone want?
October 24
We bid goodbye to our humble villa, seen here from the outside. I’d written that it was the size of our condo, but I checked at the front desk, and, in fact, our condo is larger, but only by a little bit.
Today is another full day of travel. These days are unavoidable when you’re trying to cover a lot of territory. and they are not a total waste, as you get to see life unfold in the villages, women in colorful saris, walking to work in the fields, with baskets and lunch carried on their heads, share the road with cows, dogs, pigs, oxcarts, tuk-tuks, buses, trucks, motor bikes, and cars. Businesses and trash along the roadside. We pass areas with large pools of water from the heavy rains in recent weeks. Nomads live in makeshift tents by the roadside and herd their goats along the road.
Passing through towns, I’m reminded that, in India, driving is a sport—passing blind, narrowly missing cows and pedestrians and regarding the concept of the correct side of the road as a quaint notion that applies, if at all, to others.
Towards the end of our four-plus hour drive to Kubli I take some random photos out of boredom, and so that you’ll have something to look at. You’re welcome (as my grandson, Maxi, would add).
Here’s a hotel we decided not to book.
Residences by the side of the road. 
And a few assorted roadside scenes.   
In the car we have ample time to discuss life with our guide, Ravi, including arranged marriages, attitudes toward homosexuality and the like. In sum, things remain pretty-much traditional in the towns, but have gone to hell in the cities. This is my summary, not his words, but I think it accurately reflects what we heard, and probably does not differ all that much from what you’d hear in many small towns in the U.S.
We have about an hour and a half at the Kubli airport. Looking around, I tell Carol that I feel as if we’re on Devon Street, with all the saris, and people eating samosas. I ask her whether she’d rather go to India or Devon Street. She’s still pondering her answer, but, for me, the answer is clear. Despite the difficulties in getting here and the travails of navigating through our itinerary, I really like India.
Our flight from Kubli to Chennai is an hour. There we transfer to our flight to Hyderabad, where we will spend the next few days.
The Chennai airport is new and modern. One sign of that is that there is a Krispy Kreme donut store, not only on the main gate level, but also at the lower level, on which our gate is located.  Another sign of that modernity is that it is a “silent airport” with no announcement of gates. Sounds like a great idea right, combatting noise pollution?
The problem is that at the gate, there is no sign as to what flight is leaving from there. There are no gate attendants nor, as far as we can determine, any airport personnel of whom one can ask questions. So, one needs to find the flight listings, which rotate slowly, alternately in English and Hindi, by time of departure, periodically to confirm that one is at the correct gate. After our appointed boarding time, we learn, from the slowly rotating screen, that our flight has been delayed. Then, later, we learn that our gate has been changed from Gate 15, on the lower level, to Gate 5, on the upper level, so we head up there, passing the upstairs Krispy Kreme.
We find seats near Gate 5, and Carol takes off in an unsuccessful search for an airport official and to see whether the Krishna Jewelry store has any great sales (it does not). She returns with no new information, but says she’ll go check the slowly rotating sign. There she discovers that our gate has been changed from Gate 5 to Gate 12, back on the lower level, but not past either Krispy Kreme. Reaching Gate 12, we see a huge, sorta line, which we enter at what seems like it could be the end and eventually reach the front and board the crowded bus to our flight, now an hour and a half late.
In short, if anybody actually designed this system, it is the stupidest frigging system ever designed by man.
We’re met at the Hyderabad airport and driven to our hotel. Here, I have to remind you of the spectacular hotel villa we occupied at Hampi and tell you that compared to our new hotel, the Hampi hotel was a slum, sort of a Days Inn. Of course, I exaggerate, but…..
We are staying at the fabulous Hotel Falaknuma Palace. The “mirror of the sky” was the royal guest house of the Nizam of Hyderabad, considered for many years to be the richest man in the world. This sixty room palace once the sole preserve of royalty, among them King George V and the last Russian Tsar, Nicolas II now plays host to visitors from across the world. Architecturally the palace is a blend of Italian and Tudor architecture. It is home to priceless art and artifacts, ornate inlaid furniture from Kashmir, rich handcrafted tapestries and brocades from France, and intricate frescos with English and Indian influence.
Whereas we were driven to our room in a nifty Ambassador in Hampi, our mode of transportation here was different, as you can see in the two photos below, the second taken in front of “our” palace. 
The photo below is looking out from in front of the palace.
Here’s a photo of the courtyard off of which our suite is located, followed by several photos of our room.   I’m sure there will be much more to say about our palace tomorrow, in the light of day. But I’ll close with evidence that “nothing’s perfect.” We decided to opt for dinner at the Italian, rather than the Indian, restaurant. As we approached the restaurant, I heard loud sounds of what appeared to be a woman in serious distress. These noises continued and could be heard, loudly, in the Italian restaurant. Upon inquiry, the sound was of a woman singing traditional South Indian music.
Being the timid type, I had both our waiter and the maitre d’ over at our table. Both understood clearly and apologized, but said it was part of a program. I said that was fine for people who signed on for the program, but not fine to impose on others who might expect a quiet dinner. To make a long story short, they shortened the program to last only another ten or fifteen minutes and, on our way out, the restaurant manager said that he would schedule music on other nights so as not to occur while we were dining.
Dinner, by the way, was terrific.
We retired right afterwards, exhausted from our twelve hours of travel, but happy to be tucked in at our little palace suite.
October 23
We spend today exploring Hampi starting at the ruins of what was the urban core and including the remains of the royal palaces and temples. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the fabled city of Hampi sprawls across a spectacular barren boulder strewn landscape. This city served as the capital for three generations of Hindu rulers for more than 200 years, and reached its zenith between 1510 AD and 1542 AD.
Our guide is Viru Pakshi, an art graduate of Gulbarga university, who has been guiding since 1991 and one of the best guide in Hampi region. He has had an opportunity to work with Mr. John Fritz and George Michell an anthropologist and archaeologist respectively, which has given him vast knowledge of history and architecture of Hampi.
When we met him, I told him that we needed Hampi for Dummies, not a sophisticated and detailed account. We could understand him fine and generally he did okay (Carol gives him lower marks than I do). We’d both agree, though, that of the four guides we’ve had so far, he’s #4.
This is an absolutely extraordinary site, encompassing 56 square kilometers, or almost 40 square miles. The monuments are in remarkable condition and the restoration that’s been done is first class and does not detract from the original. I’d put this in a category comparable to Angkor Watt, Bagan, and Egypt. Carol probably would not rank it that high, but even if she’s right, being a notch below those spots is pretty amazing. So, if it’s not there already, put Hampi on your bucket list.
We had excellent weather, though the sun got quite hot at times. I used my walking sticks which were quite useful, but I think carry the danger of becoming more reliant on them than one need be. Some of the most dangerous walking is on flat land, where you don’t notice a stone of a different height and trip over it. While walking sticks would be useful in that situation, chances are I wouldn’t be using them then. So, I’d say this is still a work in progress, but probably a good idea.
We returned to the hotel for lunch, then had a couple hours during which I swam n our private villa pool. Tough work, but somebody’s gotta do it.
The afternoon was mixed, because it rained for about the second half of it. While that adds to the adventure, it does not add to the comfort. We did have an umbrella, though, and the rain was not too hard, so we survived it.
Best I can do is just include a lot of photos, of the site and environs. I won’t try to identify them for you, but they’ll give you some idea of the overall impression.                       
Tonight we had a lovely candle-lit dinner at the hotel’s fancy restaurant alone on a patio. Nice.
October 21
Awoke very early for drive back to Bangalore.
Shanta, our driver, made a brief detour through an island city, Srirangapatana, who fought and ultimately were destroyed by the Brits. The Sultan Tupi, who we heard about in Bangalore died here at a place marked by a stone. Ox carts share the road with cars and motor bikes.
We stop for a quick coffee, then drive on to a fascinating cocoon market, where cocoons are auctioned off daily. Unfortunately, we were too early for the day’s auction, but the place teemed with activity, inside and out, with examples below, which include a fellow at an adjacent tire shop and a guy brushing his teeth. This unusual spot will be one of the more memorable on the trip.        
We head for the Bangalore airport, arriving in plenty of time for our noon flight. Roadsides are littered with trash. I know we have different cultures and sensibilities, but to me the trash reflects a basic disrespect for life. Of course, I suppose it also reflects an economic choice.
We interrupt this blog for a special message. Recall that Vidya, one of our guides in Bangalore, is a major food blogger. For anyone interested, here are her blog and YouTube links:
http://vidyascooking.blogspot.in/
https://www.youtube.com/user/viduoo9
We return now to our regular programming. Flight to Hubli was a quick 45 minutes. We are met by a driver and guide, who have lunches packed for us, which we eat before setting out on what we’d thought would be an hour’s drive. Because of our late flight change to a new city (Hubli), we have a four hour drive, which tuns out to be four and a half. Oh, well.
Hampi better be terrific because, after spending the day there tomorrow, we have another full day commute the next day to reach our destination. There are only two things that could get in the way of it being terrific–excessive rain or a guide we can’t understand. Hoping for neither.
The drive is long, but not uninteresting. We pass through more rural areas. Heavy rain has flooded areas and not helped the roads, some of which are far worse than we’d encountered thus far on this trip, others fine and still others in a state of being repaired. We pass cows, goats, bulls, dogs, oxen and pigs. People tending the animals and people living their lives by the side of the road. Frustrating, because there are a hundred photos I’d like to have taken, but I don’t want to prolong our already long trip. Some time I’ll spend a day in a foreign country taking photos of nothing in particular, or maybe not. Here are a couple, taken in the rain through the car window . 
We arrive at the Evolve Back Hotel, formerly known as the Kamalapura Palace and, for those of you who think that where you stay doesn’t matter, because it’s just a place to sleep, I have two words for you–you’re wrong. 
I’m not going to be able to capture this place in a few photos, but here’s a slice of the lobby, with evening candles being lit
and here’s the Ambassador in which we were driven to our villa
and I’m not going to post the video I made walking around the villa, which is about the size of our condo (because the video takes two minutes to cover the villa), but perhaps this photo of our shower stall, with two overhead shower heads, gives you some idea. At 7:30, we went back to the hotel to witness a procession led by a flutist, then went upstairs to hear a storyteller tell a basically incomprehensible myth about Hampi (as we were the only two, we couldn’t very well leave) and then went for a very good meal in one of the hotel restaurants. Tired, we were then driven the short distance to our villa in a golf cart (yes, we’re shameless), and, once we found the bedroom, retired.
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