19 May - 20 May 2011 Hyderabad






South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad
Hotel Nandini +914024746163
Clean double room for INR 400.- or US$ 9.10 per night. Friendly and helpful staff.
Beer: 650-ml bottles of ice-cold Kingfisher Premium Lager (5 % alc./vol.) for INR 70.- or US$ 1.40 per large bottle and Kingfisher Strong (8 % alc./vol.), “India’s Largest Selling Beer”, for INR 80.- or US$ 1.65 per large bottle, from any of the many helpful Muslim wine shops in this Islamic stronghold.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Hotel Nandini in Hyderabad, which we would recommend, and for directions:










Matt: Hopping onto city bus no. 80S (fare: INR 7.- per person) and visiting the famous Golconda Fort (admission for non-Indians: INR 100.- per person) which used to be the capital of the Qutb Shahi Kingdom in the 16th century CE and the centre of a flourishing diamond trade, since India, in pre-Kimberley times, had the only known diamond mines in the world: besides the Koh-I-Noor, many other famed diamonds are believed to have been excavated from the mines of Golconda, such as the Darya-ye Noor, the Noor-Ul-Ain, the Hope Diamond, the Regent Diamond and the Wittelsbach Diamond.

"Diamonds are forever,
They are all I need to please me,
They can stimulate and tease me...
I don't need love,
For what good will love do me?
Diamonds never lie to me,
For when love's gone,
They'll lustre on..."



Matt: Sojourning within the Gandhi Clan, since Hyderabad's and Delhi's airports are named after mother and son, and flying uneventfully with Air India (“Your Palace in the Sky”; this motto is no joke but the flag carrier's official company slogan and as such an interesting example for the Indian government's megalomaniac hallucinations) in a just clean enough Boeing 777-300 ER wide body, equipped with very elaborate and detailed instructions about what-to-do and, even more appealing to one's imagination, what-not-to-do inside the aircraft's lavatories (probably customised for Air India’s more agricultural passengers), from Hyderabad’s flashy Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to Delhi’s busy Indira Gandhi International Airport for INR 3,365.- or US$ 76.- per person, one-way and all inclusive, and rendezvousing thereafter with Konni who has arrived just in time from Toronto via Brussels.


Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2011 Map Konni & Matt


Recommended gear - click below for your Amazon order from Germany:

For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here