Hyderabad Monument Quest

I'm trying really, really hard to find someone who will get me into the Falaknuma Palace (it's closed for rennovation by a big hotel chain). Apparently, people staying at the hotel could get in for a while, but now when I asked them, they said that the only way to see it was from a hill half a kilometer away from the place itself, but I am not taking no for an answer. Since this hotel company has a couple of places in Hyderabad, I am going to try another one and see if they can help me out. I've taken to going to extremely expensive hotels and buying one drink on Fridays after work, so I can spend some time in air conditioned comfort reading (at the one I went to Friday, they bought my a tray of olives and lychees, which I hadn't had before, so that was cool, too).

However, today I did score with the Purani Haveli, which is another Nizam-era palace. When I got there, I realized I had seen it before on a tour of Muslim Hyderabad when I first arrived. At that point, I knew almost nothing about Hyderabad history, and absolutely nothing about Islam, so the tour was totally wasted on me, which was too bad, because the tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable, and I feel embarassed now that on the 5th or 6th dargah one of us asked "so what was the battle of Karabala?" He just recommended we read one of his books. So...the palace was really, really big, and most of it has been turned into a couple of schools, but one part has recently been turned into a small museum. The best part about it is that there lots of pretty silver replicas of buildings in the city, which was really cool, because they're places I'm really fond of (fond is a fussy word, but it's accurate.) And there were lots of requisite ivory hookahs and ugly french plates and things. But it was really just how stately and serene the building was that made it interesting. The museum staff were nice guys, and outside, no one seemed to mind that I was walking around their school taking pictures. If you're coming to Hyderabad, admission is Rs. 60, and pictures are Rs. 50 each, which is unfortuante. Just ask for Purani Haveli, and auto drivers seem to know where it is, and once you get close, there are big signs up for the museum. My pictures up soon.