I saw a fort this weekend. I also saw a museum, a palace, an Islamic monument, and the second largest mosque in Asia. I burned my feet on the stones in front of said mosque (cause you're not allowed to wear shoes), and climbed up and down the ruinous terrain contained by the fort's boundaries.

I got Mehindi done on my hand at this amazing craft bazaar park space, and found (well, visited--someone else found it) an awesome restaurant/coffee & tea shop/hookah bar called mocha. There is a porch with cushions on the ground, and pillows for lounging while you smoke hookah. Pictures from all of these events are on facebook spanning two different albums.

It's been a fantastically busy weekend, so far. The University here organized a city tour for us on Saturday, with a bus and everything, and took us to the museum, the palace, the monument, and the fort, plus out to eat, all in about eight hours. This may have been a poor decision, but it was definitely worthwhile.

The fort is the coolest place I have ever been. It's called Golconda Fort, and it was built in the 14th century. It has seen empires come and go--good kings and bad kings, successful plots to murder the king, tragic love stories, love stories with happy endings, DIAMOND MINES (it used to have the largest diamond in the ancient world, the Kohinoor Diamond, until the Brits plundered it and put it in the crown jewels.

Neat stories about the diamond can be read online in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-I-Noor_diamond. Golconda Fort was also the beginning of the city of Hyderabad. There were generations of people that made their homes within the walls of the fort, but it eventually got to a point where there wasn't enough water so the king built them a new city outside the walls, and called it something, but then came along Muhammad Quli and named it Hyder, after his wife and the love of his life. It used to be called the city of Hyder and now is called Hyderabad! (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad,_India)

Sunday, June 17 involved a trip to the bookstore and then mocha, which I mentioned earlier. I got a Salman Rushdie novel, another novel about India which looks really fascinating, and a book on India's politics that I bought on sort of a gamble--it didn't say anything on the back cover, but I couldn't look at the jacket because it was wrapped in plastic. We'll see how that goes, I suppose. Books were not a necessary purchase. I have a half dozen books with me already, one of which is a trilogy by itself. However, I am abandoning all other pursuits and reading Indian books in India. That is, after I finish The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the reading of which I find unbearable, but which I am determined to finish. Everyone loves this book so much. I am about half-way done, but I will press on until I find the good part.

Oh and I was able to obtain a small amount of Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate at the bookstore, which was a welcome reprieve from an otherwise chocolate-less existence. I also purchased a Mars bar, which I am saving for a special occasion/emergency. It's a little smashed/melted by now, but still good.

In other news, I've planned a trip to Chennai for the upcoming weekend, with five other people. It's about an hour flight to Chennai, which is further south and on the coast. When I say the coast, I mean it's on the Bay of Bengal.

How cool is that?!

We'll stay at this cheap hotel for the first two nights (Thursday and Friday), and then at least three of us are making reservations at a five star resort for Saturday and Sunday. The resort is closer to this village called Mahabalipuram where there are lots of temples from the 7th century and caves where St. Thomas apparently hid out for a while (I don't really remember the part of the Bible where Thomas had any reason to hide, or the part where he went to India, but whatever), and a crocodile zoo place. This village (really the whole stretch of coast) got hit really hard by the recent tsunami. Chennai is also the home town of our economic professor Gajanan, and his wife and children are there now. We will get to go to his house and he will show us the area from a local perspective, helping us find the best places to shop and such.

So I've started to get the hang of this India thing. Part of the trick was to travel in cars instead of in rikshaws. I'm sure I'll pick up more tricks as I stay here longer and start to experience parts of India outside of what I've already seen. The feedback I've gotten from this blog so far has been positive, but I think it was because my misadventures in India are really entertaining since they're not happening to you. I hope it continues to be enjoyable even if it shifts more toward good experiences and less toward disasters. Take heart, though. I forgot to pack my bathing suit, and am heading for the beach this weekend with a borrowed black one piece disaster. I'm going to try to find something else, but I haven't had much luck so far even finding loose tops that fit me in this country.

Source of picture is Prokop's facebook site!

Kelly Prokop is enjoying enchanting experiences immersing in India!

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"Experiencing the Enchantment of Immersion in India: Part IV"

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Kelly Prokop
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