An excellent night

I finally managed to overcome sleepiness to get out on the town a bit last night. One of the guys from the office took me to the Birla Mandir Hindu temple. I actually thought I was visiting a fairly old place of worship, but I see now that it was built all of 25 years ago. Regardless, it has all of the breathtaking architectural elements that most of us expect to forgo in modern religious architecture. It is placed high atop a hill in Hyderabad - possibly the highest hill. I certainly could see no higher lights anywhere in town. It is constructed entirely from white marble which has been intricately carved with beautiful patterns which could never show in a photograph, I think. But that's almost a moot point, as no cameras of any kind are allowed on the temple grounds. Not even a cellphone. And they search everyone - except for westerners, it turns out, but I'd already ditched all my devices by the time I discovered that. Shoes are also not allowed. All the medical literature says you really don't want to walk around barefoot in India because of parasites you can pick up through the sole of your foot, but I took my chances. I also left my socks on.

I think the first thing I noticed after stopping off the path and onto the temple grounds was the warmth of the day still radiating from the marble under my feet. It was surprisingly soothing. It was a warm evening, a woman was singing Hindu religious music over a PA, there was no real crowd, and the views of the temple and out over the city were gorgeous. I may not believe in a god, but it was an undeniably peaceful place and experience. I got a brief tour of the temple from Pawan, but didn't get much by way of explanation of what I was seeing. After spending a half hour wandering the temple ground, we took off back down the hill to find some food.

Pawan took me to his favourite Pub, called 10 Downing Street and located in a shopping mall. They were just prepping the stage for a live band for the night and we were the first customers of the evening, but we were followed in by a fairy large crowd over the course of the next 30 minutes. It was very much an english pub, but with an almost exclusively indian crowd, which certainly created some moments of amusement for me. The band was an 80s cover band who really nailed their tunes, musically, but left a bit to be desired on the lyrical front - Imagine the Police's "De Doo Doo Doo De Da Da Da" being sung with a full on Ahpoo accent and you'll get just a brief taste of what I'm talking about. Then throw in the guy dressed like a standard night club douchebag - tight black t-shirt, white belt, the works - and then discover that on the front, its a Megadeath t-shirt. Fun times!

The food was tasty, and my first non-curry in over a week, and most welcome for that. I hit the sauce a bit, in the hope that it would cause me to sleep through the night. I'd only had 3 hours of sleep the night before, after all. But I've been up since 3am, so so much for that theory.

I'm going exploring by bicycle today, so I've got to try to get a nap.