Tour to Hyderabad And Srisailam - Phase III

DAY V

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The day was reserved for Ramoji Film City (RFC) - something exclusively in Hyderabad - not to be missed. RFC is about 30-35 kms from the city. That is to say, it is away from the main town. The best way to go there is to book tickets with a Travel Agent. the ticket for entry is rs. 300 and the tour operator would charge you Rs. 150. So it would be an expense of INR 450 per head. But the cost is worth it. you would see things which you won't see anywhere in India (as far as my limited knowledge goes).

There were "buildings" (only the front nothing behinf it) which could be shown to be 'London' or 'Los Angeles' in movies, Hospital shown in Munnabhai MBBS, Airport, Railway Station, a Market, Central Jail, a Highway etc. which were used for various movies.

Besides the sets there were other things as well. Like the flight simulator where you were enclosed along with other people in an air conditioned chamber and you would feel as if you were in a spacecraft.

Also, there was the Wild West show which was a fight and bombing show - another thing which I found unique and interesting.

There was also a 'world tour' where we were made to sit in a "monorail" (as in bhoot bangla in appu ghat in Delhi but this one could accommodate 8 or more people). It was also wonderful.

Other shows included 'The spirit of Ramoji' which was more of a circus. We didn't like it too much because you could see that stuff in any circus - It was not something to be shown in Ramoji.

We were also shown how movies were made - how editing, mixing etc. took place in the film industry - This too was very unique and interesting.

All in all we had fun at the Ramoji Film City. It needs one full day and is worth the visit.

RFC truly justifies its tagline - It is "An experience of a lifetime".

While coming back from RFC, we asked the bus driver to drop us at Abids which is a market in Hyderabad. There are a few malls here and also the "Brand Factory" store is situated here. After spending some time in Abids and havind our 'dinner' at McDonalds we went back to our hotel.

DAY VI

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We got delayed on this day due to some personal reasons. We started for Paradise at around 1 PM and had our Lunch there - aaloo biryani.

From there we went to Jagdamba Pearls to buy some pearls and after quite sometime headed to the Citi Center mall. As I was not feeling well, I asked my parents to visit the mall and the @home store opposite to that whereas I returned to the hotel.

We had our train in the night. And afetr coming we had to pack and get ready for the journey back to home.

All in all I would say that Hyderabad is one of the places I wouldn't mind getting a job in. It is a wonderful place. Yes, it has certain issues, but tell me which big city does not have?

Hoping to see Hyderabad again but with many new places, malls and fly-overs.

Tour to Hyderabad And Srisailam - Phase II

DAY III - SRISAILAM
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We set out for Srisalam in the morning at around 7 AM. We had hired a Qualis for the purpose. By car it took around 4.5 to 5 hours to reach Srisailam from Hyderabad. I had seen a blog earlier about staying at Srisailam. Searching for an good as well as an economical accommodation was not an easy taks. The AP Tourism hotel was charging about INR 1000 per night in Srisailam. In the blog, I had read about Ganga Sadan & Gowri Sadan - that they were neat and clean, as well as economical. AC room was for about INR 700-800 and non-AC for INR 500. The info on the blog was really helpful.

WHAT TO SEE IN SRISAILAM

Srisailam is mainly famous for one of the 12 Jyotirlingams of Hindus that is situated there. There is also a cave temple which we did not visit as people with me were not very enthusiastic about going there.

You have a DAM there on the River Krishna which is also called as Pathal Ganga. Fortunately for us, 5 of the gates of the dam were open on the day we reached Srisailam. The gates had been opened only 1/2 days back. The next day when we were returning to Hyderabad only 3 of the gates were open. The view of the water falling and then rising due to the curve made at the base of the dam was splendid. The gates would generally open in the rainy season as the river would be flooded with water.

For wild life enthusiasts, there is a Tiger Reserve in Srisailam. In fact, the whole belt from Nagarjunasagar to Srisailam - that area is a tiger reserve - under the Forest Department. Since none of us were interested in wildlife, we skipped it. Although we fed a lot of monkeys on the way to Srisailam and back.

There is a ropeway to go down to the river. There you can enjoy boating.

You can see beautiful sceneries form the ropeway area.

ACCOMMODATION

If you do not have a contraint on the budget, you may go for Hotel being maintained by AP tourism which can be booked in advance. You may also go for Ganga sadan and Gowri Sadan Hotels but these cannot be booked earlier. So if it an off season, you may take a chance but if you are visiting on a weekend or special religious occasion, you may book AP Tourism hotels in advance.

WHAT WE DID

Actually it was my plan that we go to Srisailam for 2 days as people I had talked to had said that it was a nice place. So after we reached the town, we booked rooms in Ganga Sadan and had lunch in the restaurant there. Thereafter we set out for the ropeway. There was nothing much to do there. Once you got down to the river, the only source of "entertainment" was boating - which we did in a steamer for about 15 minutes. And then after coming back to the top, we went back to the hotel.

I felt that I was the only person who was enjoying the scenic beauty of the place. I captured the beauty of the place in our camera.

In the evening, we went to the temple. There was a long queue for the darshan despite the fact that it was a week-day. We took tickets for special darshan and thus saved some time. Probably the long queue made us realize that the temple was quite famous. Otherwise we were taking it for granted.

The temple precinct was quite large.We must have spent 30-45 minutes in the temple after coming out of which we went back to the hotel, had dinner and slept soundly to get rid of the tiredness (We had traveled 5 hours in the morning!!!).

You may also go to Srisailam by AP Tourism tour bus. I think that would be more economical as well as convenient for those who just want to have darshan and additionally ropeway/boating.

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DAY IV
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Since we did not find Srisailam very interesting, we set out for Hyderabad the next mornning. After coming to Hyderabad, we visited the CHARMINAR and the bazar near it which is famous for bangles etc.

We also visited the HITEC CITY area (where offices of many IT and other companies are located), saw the "Cyber Tower" building, visited "SHILPARAMAM" - the handicrafts 'village' (in hitec city area!).

From there, we went to LUMBINI MALL in Banjara Hills mainly for "Brand Factory" - 120 brands - discount - 365 days etc. (For more details search the net ;-)).

Thus ended Day 4 in Hyderabad...

Tour to Hyderabad And Srisailam - Phase I

I was in Hyderabad for the past two months doing my training in an Info tech company as a part of the MBA program. My family was to come to Hyderabad for visiting the place and also Srisailam which is one of the 12 Jyotirlingams (Temples of Lord Shiva). I met them at the hotel - Hotel Ashoka.

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Hotel Ashoka was economical. The double bed room(AC) was for around 1100INR and suite for around 1300INR. The tariff was reasonable in a city like Hyderabad. The hospitality of the staff was also commendable. What was lacking was the service - too slow and sometimes even nil.

But the location of the hotel was a definite advantage. Being at Lakdi-ka-pul, most of the sites were aprox. at a distance of 5 kms. or so. except Golkonda fort which was about 10-12 kms.

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For those who are planning to visit hyderabad, I would recommend them to book a hotel in the "Lakdi-ka-pul" area OR "Tank Bund" area.

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THE TOUR

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DAY I

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On the first day, we had hired a Toyota Qualis for city sight seeing. But I would recommend people to visit places in autos as they would prove to be a lot cheaper than the Qualis.(The Qualis took 1600INR for 8 hours and 80 kms) The only thing you would need to take care of would be that you visit all nearby places at one go. Also if there is a alrge group of say 10 people, they would have to travel separately. In my view, that should not be an issue as travel time would be too less.

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The first place we went to was the SALARJUNG MUSEUM. You would do well to leave your camera outside the museum either in your car or deposit it at the counter in the museum compound. The entry ticket was nominal around 10 or 15 INR per person. The museum is very large and would comfortably require 2 hours (may be more) if you are interested in those sort of things. The main attraction there is the CLOCK. It is better to go at 11 A.M. or 12 noon as the clock will strike 11/12 times. Otherwise say at 1 O clock, you would just observe the main attraction for a while as the clock will strike only once. The museum is a good place for those who are really interested in history and other forms of arts. But for most visitors, it is just an addition to the list of sights. At the museum, you would find snack stalls. There are watercoolers and toilets inside the Museum which are well maintained.

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After the museum, we headed to the NIZAM JUBILEE PAVILION. Unlike the Salarjung Museum which is maintained by the govt., this museum, popularly known as PURANI HAVELI, is under private management(as told to us by the person there). This "private" thing explains the high entry ticket rates. INR 70 per person.

But I would say that entry to this museum is worth the money. I found it better than Salarjung. It has all gifts that the Nizam received from others on completion of 25 years of rule. Most items are either in Gold or Silver. Precious stones and Pearl items can also be found. Here you would also see a hand-driven lift which was made for the Nizam.

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Next in line was the CHOWMOHOLLA PALACE(INR 25 was the entry fee per person as far as I remember). Here you would see items like dress of begums and other items that were used by the Nizams. (These places were not covered by the AP Tourism sight seeing tour which I had taken earlier). Also you would see the court(darbar) of the Nizams and other exhibits.

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HUSSAIN SAGAR LAKE was the next thing we went to. We went for boating in the plan which alighted us at the Buddha statue. We stayed at the Buddha ststue for abou half an hour and then came back to LUMBINI PARK

(Entry INR 5 per person). Just adjacent to the Lumbini Park is the Laser Show. The Laser show is a must watch. it is something not to be seen commonly. the entry ticket to the Laser show was INR 30 - VALUE FOR MONEY - is the least I can say.

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After the Laser show, we headed towards the Hotel. We had dinner at "Sukha Sagara" (Pure Veg. Restaurant) which we would have called "Sukh Sagar" in the north. We got good (if not very good) north indian food there.

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Everybody (except me) was too tired as they had traveled the previous day in train. So had a good night's sleep.

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DAY II

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We started day by visiting the BIRLA TEMPLE. It was near to the Hotel and we reached there by walking. Cameras and mobile phone with cameras are not allowed inside the temple and need to be deposited at the counter before you start climbing stairs for the darshan of the main deity - the same as at Tirupati. From the temple you would get a magnificent view of the city of Hyderabad. But since you dont have the cameras, you cant capture that.

A stone's throw away are the BIRLA SCIENCE MUSEUM AND PLANETARIUM. I did not visit it with my family due to lack of time. But I had been there earlier. I would suggest people to go there only if they have extra time or if they are science fanatics. Otherwise one may easily skip these 2 destinations.

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From the Birla Temple we hired autos for Golconda Fort. Each auto charged us Rs. 200 for a 2 hour stay at Golconda and going and coming back to Birla Temple. I think it was a good deal. Golconda fort would easily take around 2 hours to visit fully. When I had gone with the AP Tourism package, I had not even seen half of the fort. So although it was a second trip for me, I saw many new things there - even a temple in the fort.

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Climbing and returning the fort would drain all the energy. Although there are water taps at some places, I would recommend people to carry some drinks with them while ascending the fort. After we came back to the base point, the guide which we had hired told us that we had climbed about 320 steps and unclimed the same number. This in addition to the distance we walked between the steps. I would say, I found this place most interesting in Hyderabad. You would get good locations for photographs. In my case, it was a dilemma.

Either I had to listen to what the guide was saying or pose for photographs. I chose the latter as they would last much longer than the memory of what the guide was telling. I also had to plead to one of the family members to stop listening to the guide for a moment and take a snapshot of mine. I would say I succeeded to some extent.

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After a two hour trek on the fort, we came back to our autos and asked them to take us back to near Birla Temple where we had our Lunch at around 4 P.M.

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Then we hired autos for NTR GARDENS. It is a nice place to spend time in the evening - to eat drink and be merry. We also had the water slide there which was nice. NTR GARDENS, IMAX MALL and EAT STREET are near to each other. From NTR we went to IMAX by walking and from there to Eat Street by autos. The autos took INR 20.

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Eat Street is a place by the side of the Hussain Sagar Lake with a lot of eat joints. On wekends, it seems as if the whole of Hyderabad is there. I would suggest that people visit this place at night/in evening as the view is very nice with lights getting reflected in the lake. Also you can have your dinner here - all sorts of dishes are available - Chola Bhatura, Bhel Puri, Kulfi Faluda, Chinese, Pizzas, Burgers and a lot more - Something for Everybody.

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From Eat Street we went straight to the hotel and started packing for our journey to Srisailam the next morning.