After we left Charminar and caught our breath a little we drove past the large lake by Hyderabad and saw the stone Buddha there. I originally thought we were going to actually stop there, but we just drove around beside the lake. Everywhere there were ads and banner for Maneka Ghandi, the daughter-in-law of Indira Ghandi who was in town for her a rally for her party.
Driving around Marcel asked if we could stop off at a McDonald's so we went into the more modern part of the city to go find one. McDonald's had been on my list of places to visit as part of my global Quarter Pounder with Cheese quest. This quest was inspired by Pulp Fiction and it involves me trying the host country's Quarter Pounder with Cheese or nearest local equivalent. I then rank the countries according to awesomeness of taste and keep tabs on both best Quarter Pounder AND best local variant. The number one ranking for QP's is currently The Netherlands, while the best local variant is currently the Royale Deluxe in Italy.
India with beef-less diet was obviously going to present an interesting challenge/opportunity.
The layout of the McDonald's itself and the look of everything is EXACTLY the same as every other country. The real difference, of course, was in the menu.
Everything looked similar but at the same time totally unfamiliar:
Chatpata McAloo Tikki?
McAloo Tikki?
Chicken McGrill?
Salad Sandwich!?!
Only the McChicken was the same (that's what Scott got ultimately)
Knowing that I needed to pick the closest match to the QP I ultimately went with the Chicken McGrill which had a nice spicy curry in it. Not bad, but not great. I did love the Spiderman toy that came with my Happy Meal though. ;)
After Donald's we decided to peak into the mall it was attached to. It was a little disorienting to be in such a western-feeling place. Is it wrong that I felt at home in a mall? :| Hey look other white people!
After the mall we were all good to go home, we were pretty wiped and ready to take a nap, as it had been a long day. As we were driving to what I thought was home I noticed a sign and saw the 'fort' and realized to my horror that we were not going home at all. We were going to Golkonda Fort and would then climb all its 389 steep and treacherous steps to the top of the highest hill in Hyderabad. :O
To be concluded...
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