"Adventure is not outside man; it is within."
-David Grayson
Spouse, A and I, having revived ourselves on an enormous breakfast buffet, made enquiries about the next flight to Calcutta, a subject which remained shrouded in mystery.
We were advised by the hotel staff to take an excursion into the nearest town, see the sights and return by a certain time, at which point a proper plan of action ought to be in position.
I was mesmerised by my first experience in an Indian taxi, feeling as I did that the vehicle might fall asunder in an instant, and at once terrified and elated by the chaos and the apparent danger that darted toward me in the form of cows, rickshaws and bicycles.
At Charminar, Hyderabad's most significant monument, we ventured up the narrow stone staircase. Unable to reject the pleas and offers of a tour guide we soon found ourselves listening to the notes of history that rattled easily off his tongue. He was a friendly enough fellow, and his exuberant hand gestures indicated his pride and deep knowledge of Hyderabad.
Overlooking Hyderabad from a lofty structure built in 1591, rather dizzy from the tremendous height, I felt the first faint glow of appreciation for the diversion that blew us off our course and enabled us for a brief time to be in the very fine company of A.
On returning to our hotel by noon we were aggrieved to find that no word had yet been officially announced regarding our flight save for the rumbling rumour that it was not likely to take place that day.
We were advised to rouse up an appetite for lunch and dinner and tomorrow's breakfast: we might be enjoying them in Hyderabad.
3 comments:
I experienced some of the same feelings after taking a Carribbean cruise into the teeth of hurricane Wilma. None of our scheduled ports of call were capable of accepting us. We wandered around looking for some secondary replacements. I read seven novels in seven days. That was also a "Last" with the Royal Carribbean Cruise line. I'm loving the account of your misadventures. Pappy
Oh my goodness, I just caught up wtih all of these. What a frustrating experience--but I like that you went into town, got a tour guide and saw what there was to see. How did spouse's family take it--were they notified at the airport and given any sort of explanation?
Texican, you know what I'm talking about then- we were feeling completely taken advantage of because we didn't know what was really going on and were not in a position to demand answers. But we'll get on it now, I'm going to write a letter. See what that does. But I'll be glad I did it.
Beth, we definitely made the most of the time, and it was another experience to add to my memories. I can't complain about that!
Spouse's family found out after a while, and went home, although it was awful to think of them all waiting at 1 am...
And when we did get to Calcutta and left the airport, I heard a riot going on: families were very upset and wanted to know what had happened. But by then we were just glad to arrive and decided to work on that later, from the US. Thanks for asking about Spouse's family.
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