Trip to Hyderabad

Followed by our trip to Mumbai, we headed for the ‘pearl city’ Hyderabad. Lots of things have been said about this historical city but we wanted to explore it by ourselves. We boarded Hussain sagar express from Mumbai CST station to Hyderabad Deccan. It was about 14 hours travel by train, which was pretty comfortable.

Climate and Food

Hyderabad welcomed us with scorching temperature with mercury reaching 43 degrees on our day of arrival. Typically Hyderabad is a very hot place. Unlike other cities like Chennai and Mumbai, the summer here was very dry. Even the nights were very hot as there is no sea breeze available.

Similar to Mumbai we booked our accommodation in our guest house. It was located in Koti, which was very near to Hyderabad railway station. Unlike Mumbai, there are plenty of autos available in Hyderabad with well regulated meter system. We boarded one of them and reached our guest house. Took a shower in cold water to keep us comfortable in such a hot climate. Koti is a very busy place, well connected with other parts of the city. We got a chance to eat ‘Andra style’ meal for the first time which was very tasty (with ghee, dhal powder, gonkura chutney etc…) but very spicy though. Most of the hotels were serving non vegetarian food as well. We could also see small joints serving famous Hyderabadi Biriyani which is really mouth watering. We comfortably got settled down in our guest house and went for sleep on the day we reached Hyderabad. We had three days plan for Hyderabad.

Birla Mandir and nearby areas

We started our trip by visiting Birla Mandir, situated in the hill top of Kalapahad. It is a wonderful temple dedicated to Lord Venkateshwara. With completely designed with marbles, this temple blends the north and south Indian architecture. From the hill top, the complete view of this beautiful city can be observed. We especially enjoyed looking into the Hussain Sagar Lake and the areas around. There is a famous Buddha statue in the centre of the Hussain Sagar Lake, which was looking really good. Added to that, the whole area is well developed with broad roads with lot of lightings. It was a wonderful view, similar to the queen’s necklace in Mumbai. This whole area is surrounded with lot of public gardens. Among them, the NTR garden is pretty big and famous. It is a memorial of the charismatic chief minister Mr. N.T.Rama Rao, covering 36 acres. Unfortunately we were not able to cover the whole garden due to shortage of time. Given a chance, one can spend a whole day roaming in these wonderful, well-maintained gardens.

Charminar

Most of us remember Hyderabad by its famous monument, Charminar. We headed right there after Birla Mandir. It was constructed in 1591 by Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah. Inside the minar, there are about 150 steep steps. Upon climbing it successfully, one can get another panoramic view of the city. We couldn’t reach the top, as we were already tired. We had the view of Mecca Masjid, which is one of the biggest mosques in India. It can accommodate 10,000 worshippers at the same time. There are lot of bazaars surrounded by Charminar, which are famous for Hyderabadi bangles, pearls and traditional wears. The prices are very reasonable and negotiable too. We didn’t buy any pearl set because some of the native people warned us about fake ornaments.

Apart from Charminar and nearby shopping areas, there are some more attractive areas like Golkonda fort, Salar-jung museum, Nehru Zoological Park, Ravindra barathi assembly hall inside the city. There are many package trip providers available within the city. The basic price starts from Rs. 150, which covers the areas mentioned above. We couldn’t take up the package trip, as we already have one whole day plan for Ramoji Film City.

Ramoji film city

From Koti we boarded another bus towards Ramoji Film City. It was a good 25 kms journey from the city to the world’s largest film studio complex. It holds a Guinness world record for the same. Where should I start about this giant city? Should I tell about its plan? Should I talk about its vision? Should I tell about excitement, thrill one gets in discovering this city? Words just can’t explain this man madder wonder, which truly lives up to its name ‘Movie Magic’. Sprawled over 2000 acres, this city serves multi purpose like: comprehensive movie studio, tourist attraction, complete production facilities, multiple restaurants etc. One day is just not enough to cover this world.

The whole set of entertainment is organized into multiple themes like Fundustan (Dream world), Eureka (History). Borasura (mystery and magic), Filmi Duniya (Movie magic) apart from sprawling gardens, restaurants, Rajasthan mahals. In the ‘Movie magic’ they simulate and show exactly how a particular scene in a picture is directed, edited and finally made as a shot in the movie. It was truly an amazing experience for all of us to get a practical idea about movie making. Check out laurel and hardy photo below from the film city. If you are planning to visit Hyderabad, never miss Ramoji film city.

Shopping areas

There were lots of shopping areas around Koti. In fact Koti itself is a great place to shop. It has one of the great places for book lovers to shop. We checked out Sultan Bazaar, Badi Chowdi, and Pather Gati and shopped some house hold items.

We missed out other places like Snow world, Nehru Zoological Park due to lack of time. Overall we had great time at Hyderabad.

Hyderabad