Wednesday 13th February - When in Hyderabad

The best thing about having cake for supper on the train is that there is leftover cake for breakfast the next day. This goes down well with early morning chai, and after a good night's sleep we are ready for the fray. Sometime late yesterday afternoon we crossed from Odisha into Andra Pradesh and continued travelling across the state until around dawn today when we crossed into Telangana state, which was separated from AP in 2014, in order to provide more opportunities for politicians, chief justices, senior policemen and other deserving causes. The train has kept pretty good time overnight and we are still only ten minutes behind.

It is a misty, in some places foggy, morning as we trundle along the single line across the Deccan Plateau. The landscape is not as flat as the name implies and is dotted with hills and rocky outcrops. As we hit the outskirts of Hyderabad the sun breaks through and it immediately starts to feel very warm. At Secunderabad Station R spots the PrePaid Auto counter and we avail of its services. Our hotel has been chosen off booking.com because it gets decent reviews, the price is right and it seems to be located centrally for where we might want to visit. The auto ride is longer than we expect, following a main road which is having an elevated Metro line built down the middle. The auto driver knows the area we want to be in but not the specific location of the hotel. D attempts to assist using the map app which does not prove totally helpful. We mollify the auto man with a reasonable tip.

The Fabhotel ManSingh looks like its photos but is situated in a narrow street in the wholesale markets area. We are quite early, 10.00 a.m. but most places will try to give you a room if people have already checked out. Here we get a straight "Check in twelve o'clock". R goes to the lobby washroom and returns pulling a face. Have we made a mistake?  They will let us leave our bags behind reception and we go out in search of tea. We are definitely not in a tourist area and walk quite a long way without seeing anything remotely promising. Our route brings us to a busy main road with the shade on the far side. Getting across is pretty hairy as the notorious Hyderabad traffic is now up and running. Eventually we see a spot that looks promising. It is called Karachi Bakery and has a cafe attached. We have to recross the main road to get there and when we do it is not open yet.

We decide to look around the main store anyway. This is a small supermarket packed with biscuits, cakes and snacks. People are buying huge quantities of these which are packed in carrier bags bigger than suitcases. We buy a couple of small bags of snacks and stand in the queue. There is pushing, jostling and queue jumping going on. Eventually D has sharp words with a young man who tries to cut in front. He speaks decent English and a frank exchange of views ensues. We opt for an alternative route back to the hotel, which is a narrower road with just as much traffic but no pavements. We find a small cafe that doesn't look too bad and have lemon tea which cheered us up somewhat.

At the hotel they are a little more accommodating and let us check in at 11.50. Our room is perfectly satisfactory but we don't have time to linger as we have a luncheon appointment.  Very quick showers and outfit changes mean that D's online friend S does not have to wait too long in reception. S now lives and works in the US but has family living outside Hyderabad. We have arranged to meet and go for lunch, hopefully one that features a Hyderabad Biryani. S works in the hotel business and expresses surprise that anybody would build a hotel in this location. He has a car and driver so we are soon heading north through the traffic in search of a good biryani. A couple of possible venues are rejected before we arrive at the Golkonda Hotel and are ushered into the splendour of the Jewel of Nizam restaurant.

We ask S to order food as we would not know where to start when it comes to Hyderabadi specialities. Service is top notch but there is no rush and we get chance to talk about a wide range of topics. To start our meal we have stone ground mutton and chicken leg stuffed with delicious spicy minced meat. The star of the show is mutton biryani, cooked in the Hyderabad style, where the meat and rice are slow cooked together, and which definitely does not contain potatoes. The meat is tender and falls off the bone while the flavours of the individual spices combine in a wondrous melange. To finish things off we have another local dish, Qubani-ka-Meetha, a type of apricot compote with vanilla ice cream. As we leave the restaurant we are presented with gifts, costume pearls for R and a small bottle of a fragrance for D. Are D's feet that bad?

After lunch we take a drive around some of the suburbs to the north west of the city centre, where real estate prices match Mumbai or Delhi and there are some very smart houses indeed. We stop at a supermarket where S finds us a packet of the very best Biryani mix to take home. He also gives us an enormous box of very tasty Karachi fruit biscuits. He has been the very best of hosts, entertaining and generous, almost to a fault. He tells D "No visitor to Hyderabad should have to pay". That should be a good one to throw into the conversation at check out. We make our farewells and return to the world of Radinja where there is laundry to sort.

D finds a place quite close by on the map app which rejoices in the name of Snow White Electric Dry. The chap suggests Monday which is no good for us. He comes forward to 4 p.m. Friday which is not ideal, but will do at a pinch. This express service attracts a premium price but needs must. A night on the train followed by a large lunch have left us a bit lethargic so we opt for a night in, drinking tea and eating fruit biscuits.