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home	Hyderabad	Delhi
Jodphur	Jaisalmer	Jaipur

Hyderabad was our first stop - for the ICMRBS NMR conference. This meeting is held in a different part of the world every two years. The last couple have been Florence and Toronto - it was Asia's turn in 2004/5 . Unfortunately, the numbers were down on the usual attendances, partly i think because people were reluctant to travel to India (there was also a meeting on in Banff the following week...), but it was my first real international invitation to speak about our work, so there was no keeping me away!

We arrived in Hyderabad at about 11 pm without real incident and were delivered to our hotel. Although the Hotel Central Court was a 3-star affair, we thought it was very nice indeed (especially after hearing that some of the other conference hotels weren't perfect..). Had a bar and a *very* nice restaurant and our room was nice and clean etc.

Anyway, the next day we ventured out into the streets of Hyderabad, to see some of the sights. Because we weren't so confident about negotiating with auto-rickshaw (3-wheeled taxis - a cross between a moterbike and a taxi...) drivers, we decided to walk the 6 km or so to Charminar - the centrepiece of Hyderabad and also the location of the Laad Bazaar (Fionna was out for saris and other assorted gifts).

The first thing we noticed was that everyone walked on the side of the road, rather than on the pavement. Seemed odd, but we soon figured out that it was because the local men used the footpath as a dunny (for all requirements) - apparently this is a recent phenomenon and slightly curious... Although we got lost a bit, all went well really and we had our first experience of Indian hustle and bustle.

After a while, we got the courage up to get into an autorickshaw. Only minimal bartering is required (because the numbers are so small, we decided not to bother really - actually, this was our strategy for most things on the trip...) and they are a great way to get easily around the cities. Fionna thought they were as good as an amusement park ride - they were pretty good...

The conference was good, and we all met some new people (a major conference priority). Breakfast in the hotel was interesting - initially we were bemused by curry for breakfast, but actually it wasn't bad at all! We also ate at the hotel restaurant one day - incredibly posh service, crockery and so on, but only about AUD5 each - amazing... Fionna felt slightly conspicuous when her and I hit the hotel bar one night though - of the ~25 or so patrons, we were the only westerners and she was the only woman (we were also the only ones without facial hair).

The Golconda fort was our first fort experience in India, and it was very impressive. They did a "sound-and-ight-show" thing for us one evening - I thought it was a nice way to show the history of the place (see photo below).