I was warmly welcomed by a knight's armor in the hotel lobby. After I had checked in and had eyed up the grim looking face of Henry VIII looking from a painting on the wall and observing the room, I headed off to Golconda fort, another medieval shelter from conquerors. At the entrance, there is a point where due to a diamond shaped roof, clapping hands creates an echo which can be heard all over the fort. The special thing about this is that if you stand only two steps aside from the person clapping hands, you can not hear the echo! Amazing. Well, all the other crumbled rocks look pretty much the same everywhere.
After visiting the tombs of the Qutb Shahi Kings (another place of historic value, but I couldn't be bothered anymore), I went back to the hotel to enjoy an afternoon by the pool. Unfortunately, the pool is closed between 11am and 4pm. I even made my way to the manager to tell him my opinion about this and how crappy I find the hotel's guest service, but that didn't help at all.
I then headed off to Charminar, or Four Towers, which I climbed. I had quite a good view from there on Mecca Masjid, the 6th largest mosque in India. I also visited the Charkaman, or Four Arches. Well, all nice... But the temperatures must have been hitting the 40s today and I fucking wanted to splash out by the pool! Which I did afterwards.
Because the best Western hotel Amrutha Castle has such a crappy service, I will check out tomorrow morning and head further to Bidar instead of staying for two or three nights in Hyderabad.
Oh yeah, Hyderabad is Indias hi-tech centre and obviously quite rich. It's extremely green and for Indian standards really clean. It has the least 3rd world feel of all places I've been to so far! Come here for a visit, but do never stay in Amrutha Castle!