Tuesday, July 31, 2001: Heading back to Bagdal…our first full day of riding! Hyderabad – near ICRISAT (approx. 30 kms)

Penny here!

Today was our first full day of riding!! After many directions we were finally on the road toward Bidar, and then Bagdal, in Karnataka State. Bagdal is the village that my parents worked in during their Peace Corps service from 1968-70, so they have connections with people there. One family is especially good friends of ours and we have visited them on each trip to India. This time it would be different though because it was just two of the kids, no Mom and Dad to translate and be the main focus of our stay. I was excited though because I had special connections with the family from our last visit to India three years ago, my second trip to India.

At that time it was all a new adventure for me, but I did have one memory of Bagdal from when we were there in 1989, my first trip to India. It was when I had my doll, Amosandra, and I was playing with her in the yard area where we where staying. The village boys somehow got ahold of her and then it became a game of keep away from me. I was quite outnumbered, but one little girl (the daughter of my parents’ friends) rescued her from the boys and returned her to my arms. Well, from that moment we bonded. When we returned in 1999, I asked who that girl was. One of the daughters about my age got the biggest smile on her face as she indicated it was her. Her name is Farhad. We all laughed and from that moment on, Farhad took me under her wing and we became friends all over again. We didn’t speak the same language, and we happened to live on opposite sides of the world, but we were kindred spirits. (Those Anne of Green Gables lovers will understand what I mean.) So, with the excitement of meeting Farhad again in my mind, we pedaled off.

The road that we were on seemed to be the never-ending road out of Hyderabad and I was beginning to wonder if we would have to stay another night in the city. We then came upon a town that had a nice A/C restaurant and even Internet right next door, a nice bonus!! It’s amazing how cheap food is here, compared with the US. We both ate a very nice meal for less than two dollars, and that was splurging. At the restaurant our waiter was very polite and was trying his English out on us. Afterwards he talked a little more with us and gave us a book in Telegu, his mother tongue. He even wrote our names in Telegu, and that was really neat. We asked him about a place to stay near by, and he told us ICRISAT (the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) was a place many foreigners stayed at. Tad remembered the place from 12 years ago when our family had visited friends there. Tad also had a classmate whose father had worked there, and he thought it would be really cool if there was still that contact at ICRISAT. After Tad’s description of ICRISAT as "an Oasis where you can even drink the water out of the drinking fountain," I was more than up for it.

As we pulled in to ICRISAT I could see past the gate into gorgeous fields and some buildings amongst the palms. We were told they had guestrooms, but they were way out of our budget, so a very helpful watchman and our waiter, Mr. Reddy from lunch, helped us with directions to a cheaper hotel back in town. It was very cool of Mr. Reddy to help us into our hotel! Everything turned out fine.

Penny

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