Tuesday, June 21
More work, a gypsy cab ride, and how both other halves live
Today we had our second and last company
visit in Hyderabad. Tomorrow morning we're off to Chennai for a
whirlwind visit, literally, as the monsoon is-a-coming and
thunderstorms are predicted for the remainder of our trip.
Once again we were picked up by car service and driven to the company, and we were able to get some more pictures of life in Hyderabad for those who have asked for more images. Well have we got a treat for you today. Read on...
Here is a common example of construction scaffolding - tree trunks or branches held together with rope. Even large modern buildings under construction use this kind of scaffold - I have only seen 3 very large buildings using steel, and that's probably because they were over 10 stories, but I have also seen 10 story buildings using wood, and let me tell you "plumb" is not exactly a commonly used word to describe scaffolding.
A few more amusing signs seen on the ubiquitous tut-tuts. Seat 4? Yeah right...
After work the company gave us a driver without an escort, so we think he was told to show us Hyderabad, even though we had seen some of it on Monday. That's okay, we saw some things we hadn't seen before but it took us a while to realize he was intentionally taking us on the scenic route. Our drive took us past some recently constructed homes for the rich and famous, such as business owners, sports and movie stars and any who can afford a very large gate:
For the less fortunate, there's the "build your own" method:
I wish these people a lot of luck. Not only is the 95+ degree heat rough, but the monsoon will certainly soak their tarp and twigs.
We also got to see much of the HITEC (Hyderabad Information Technology something something) and CyberCity complexes where many companies are setting up offshore operations. These operations have free door-to-door taxi service, 24-hour gym and cafeteria, generally excellent physical security, lots of job growth potential, and only an 11-14 hour workday. Plus you get paid! See the environment you too can be working in, soon... The first building is the first "HITEC" building built by the Indian government to bring work in from offshore.
This shot was taken 1 minute and around the corner from the buildings you saw above. You can click on it for a larger view, but it's a shanty town at the base of the hill from the Hitec city. Anyone want to submit some ironic thoughts for inclusion on tomorrow's update? Send away...
They've also been building large conference and convention centers, with obvious signs for ease of location:
I also did finally get a shot of the 40m high Buddha statue in the lake:
We also were driven to the large Hindu temple on the (or one of the) highest peak in the city. We couldn't take cameras in and we'd already been driving around for 2 hours so we didn't want to spend a lot of time. But outside the temple (where once again you have to take off your shoes) there are vendors-a-plenty selling metal Ganesha, running lights for your car, changing money...
But the high spot is a good location to take some panoramic shots of the city. It spreads some 20+ km across.
And despite what you might have seen in other areas, there are both flora and fauna here:
Please check out the Traffic page for additional video from today, including some live Buffalo video!
For dinner we went to Peshwari, a very nice authentic Northern Indian restaurant in the ITC Sheraton. They cook the food in tandoors and on kabobs right in front of you:
Once again we were picked up by car service and driven to the company, and we were able to get some more pictures of life in Hyderabad for those who have asked for more images. Well have we got a treat for you today. Read on...
Here is a common example of construction scaffolding - tree trunks or branches held together with rope. Even large modern buildings under construction use this kind of scaffold - I have only seen 3 very large buildings using steel, and that's probably because they were over 10 stories, but I have also seen 10 story buildings using wood, and let me tell you "plumb" is not exactly a commonly used word to describe scaffolding.
A few more amusing signs seen on the ubiquitous tut-tuts. Seat 4? Yeah right...
After work the company gave us a driver without an escort, so we think he was told to show us Hyderabad, even though we had seen some of it on Monday. That's okay, we saw some things we hadn't seen before but it took us a while to realize he was intentionally taking us on the scenic route. Our drive took us past some recently constructed homes for the rich and famous, such as business owners, sports and movie stars and any who can afford a very large gate:
For the less fortunate, there's the "build your own" method:
I wish these people a lot of luck. Not only is the 95+ degree heat rough, but the monsoon will certainly soak their tarp and twigs.
We also got to see much of the HITEC (Hyderabad Information Technology something something) and CyberCity complexes where many companies are setting up offshore operations. These operations have free door-to-door taxi service, 24-hour gym and cafeteria, generally excellent physical security, lots of job growth potential, and only an 11-14 hour workday. Plus you get paid! See the environment you too can be working in, soon... The first building is the first "HITEC" building built by the Indian government to bring work in from offshore.
This shot was taken 1 minute and around the corner from the buildings you saw above. You can click on it for a larger view, but it's a shanty town at the base of the hill from the Hitec city. Anyone want to submit some ironic thoughts for inclusion on tomorrow's update? Send away...
They've also been building large conference and convention centers, with obvious signs for ease of location:
I also did finally get a shot of the 40m high Buddha statue in the lake:
We also were driven to the large Hindu temple on the (or one of the) highest peak in the city. We couldn't take cameras in and we'd already been driving around for 2 hours so we didn't want to spend a lot of time. But outside the temple (where once again you have to take off your shoes) there are vendors-a-plenty selling metal Ganesha, running lights for your car, changing money...
But the high spot is a good location to take some panoramic shots of the city. It spreads some 20+ km across.
And despite what you might have seen in other areas, there are both flora and fauna here:
Please check out the Traffic page for additional video from today, including some live Buffalo video!
For dinner we went to Peshwari, a very nice authentic Northern Indian restaurant in the ITC Sheraton. They cook the food in tandoors and on kabobs right in front of you: