Warangal - A study (Part -2)

No visit to Warangal is complete without a visit to Pakhal (sp?), around 40km away. This is a wildlife sanctuary, comprising a large and beautiful lake surrounded by forest. Our chauffeur to Pakhal could have put champion rally driver Sebastian Loeb to shame, if he could only restrain himself from opening his door while driving at 80km/h, TO SPIT! The hair-raising drive ended with our chauffeur nearly killing a very confused man, who had decided to take shelter in the middle of the road, and then abusing him verbally. (Personally, I think that chap would’ve preferred being run over).

So, the road practically ends at the top of a hill bordering the lake. It’s a pretty wild and desolate place, except when there are laoveyrs, of course. And then there are the ruins…these appear relatively new. What are these ruins, we ask. "Naxalites. They blew up this guesthouse a while ago." Our chauffeur also casually mentions that it would be unwise to walk too far away, as wild animals are bound to be around, as could be Naxals. Really, why didn’t anyone think we needed to know this BEFORE we got to this place? Nevertheless, the hour or so spent at Pakhal was, despite it being hot, very enjoyable. (That’s excluding the time that the monkeys screamed obscenities at us, of course).

I have kept the matter of the menu for last. I have promised not to name the restaurant, as my travel companion would that Warangal retain a modicum of self respect with regard to the printing of menus for restaurants, which otherwise offer incredibly good food.

• Cocktail Anitha (Lucky girl)
• Chef’s special – cashewnuts (Why? What does he do to these cashewnuts? Questions best left unanswered)
• Contenses soup (All I can say is, WHAT???)
• Beazing salad (It is just possible that this could mean Beijing, but then, when was the last time you had a Beijing Salad?)
• Veg/chk dumbling (chicken with low IQ?)
• Spl loose prawns
• Bread butter jaam
• Curd vada – summer only (Clearly they have a vada chef coming in during the summer months…they really didn’t have it in October)
• Fish fry bones (Fancy paying money for this! Makes one wonder if this menu caters to cats, actually)
• Chilly chicken bones
• Yoga fish (The fittest fish in the ocean – very supple)
• Chicken mushroom large wet (I can only assume that this means it’s a gravy)
• American Chaupsy
• Butterscrotch ice cream (I will refrain from getting into details here)
• Hot chocolate Sunday (Bad luck if you get here on any other day)
• Caramel Custurd (Again, the less said the better)
• Water Milan – seasonal (The rains are clearly not sufficient)