Mahabalipuram - Shore Temple

It's end of October and we start thinking of what do we do in Christmas break. After having just finished a 3-week action packed vacation to the US, none of us had any inclination to do a mega planning for another vacation. We wanted to do a short-relaxing trip which would not require much planning. First thought was to go to Goa, we had heard very good reviews of a place called "La Mangroove". Unfortunately the place was completely booked for mid December to mid January. Most places we could think of for short trip where sold out. We realized we were late for the December bookings - which is a peak holiday season.

After looking at various options, we decided on Mahabalipuram. We were excited, as this was the trip with our family friends Meera-Venki. There was absolutely no availability in any of the beach resorts. We shortlisted Four Point Sheraton. Venki went ahead and completed the booking. This was the quickest booking we had ever done. We didn't want to loose any time as most places were being taken very quickly.

Shore Temple

Mahabalipuram is about 6-7Hr drive from Bangalore. Our plan was to start early so that we reach by lunch time. 6:00AM - 23rd Dec, we start our trip. 2 cars and 2 families. The kids are still sleepy and not in a mood for any chit-chat or songs. We take the e-City flyover to reach Hosur. The traffic around Attibele is bad. Bumper-to-Bumper cars. Everyone is traveling. It tool nearly 30 min to cross the Hosur checkpost. After crossing this, the traffic was better. By the time we reached Krishnagiri we were starving. We stopped at A2B for some breakfast. The parking lot of A2B was overflowing, there was no place to sit in the restaurant - holiday crowd was all over. We didn't have any mood nor energy to find another place for breakfast. So we decided to wait for a table.

After a good breakfast, we had all relaxed and ready to hit the road. Plan was to stop over at Kanchipuram temple if we reach their before noon. Kamakshi temple in Kanchipuram is typically closed between 1PM-3:30PM. Unfortunately we had never managed to reach Kanchipuram during the time period where the temple is open. This time we reached Kanchipuram around noon and very hoping to make it to the temple. As we took the deviation at Kanchipuram to reach the temple, we immediately realized we had made a wrong decision. The entire road leading to the temple was bumper to bumper. There was some festival because of which there was huge crowd. We were stuck. We had no option but to take the road to the temple. There was no place to turn around. Some how at snail pace we reached close to the temple. Now the issue was where do we park the car. Somehow we managed to find some parking spot. After a small walk, we reach the temple courtyard and we see a huge queue to enter the main temple. We had no energy or enthusiasm to go to the Garbha Gudi or the place where the deity is worshiped. We were happy exploring the courtyard and its architecture. We quickly walked around the courtyard and ready to leave. Now we had another battle - to get our cars out of parking and hit the highway.

It took some time to get out of this crowded area and hit highway. Once we reached highway, next big question was were do we have lunch. We could not find any decent place to stopover of lunch until almost 2:30PM. All of us were very hungry and cranky. Finally we stopped for lunch at a place called Shri Ganesh Bhavan. All of us ordered South-Indian meals which is fastest and safest to order when traveling in South.

Evening at the beach

By the time we reached Mahabalipuram it was around 4:30PM. Four Point Sherton is a typical hotel. One doesn't have to worry about the quality of stay and food. We completed the check-in formalities and headed to our rooms. The rooms we had booked were family suite. They were very spacious with a bedroom, hall and a balcony. We had booked 2 suites - one for each family. Luckily we were able to get the rooms facing each other.

Evening we headed to the beach. The beach wasn't very crowded. The waves were high as it was closer to full moon. We had great fun playing on the beach and taking pics. Once the sun was set, we headed back to the hotel. Since we were already drenched playing on the beach we decided to continue having more fun in water. We headed straight to the pool. It was super fun playing in the pool. We were exhausted and hungry. We had a good dinner and crashed.

Next day, everybody was up early as we had decided to go to the beach to view the sunrise. Everybody just sat on the beach quietly enjoying the sunrise and calmness of the beach. It was a beautiful way to start the day. Once the sun was up, we headed back to the hotel.

Sunrise

Today, we planned to visit the shore temple and other monuments around. Plan to was to start early and finish touring all the monuments by lunch time, so that we avoid the afternoon heat. Also, wear comfortable footwear as you will need to walk a lot. For some monuments, you can choose to hire a cycle rikshaw. It is recommended to park the car in the parking lot and walk/hire rikshaw to all the monuments. We had a heavy breakfast and left for 'Shore Temple'. This is a UNESCO world heritage site and has monuments dating to 700 AD. The temple complex is on the shores of the ocean. The monuments at Mahabalipuram are divided as Architectural, Rathas and Cave temples. All these group of monuments are very close to each other and can be easily covered in 4-5 hours. It is recommended to hire a guide to help one understand the history. The guides typically charge Rs. 500-1000 to cover all these monuments. Last week of December being a holiday season, there was a lot of crowd. The parking lots were overflowing and the tourists were more than we expected.

Shore Temple

We first visited the main shore temple complex. This is very picturesque. It took us about an hour to visit the main complex. From here we walked to group of Ratha temples. Each of these is named after the 5 pandavas and each one is different from the other. We spent an hour here. From here we walked through various to boulders and cave temples to see ' Krishna's Butterball". This is a huge boulder which is standing on a sharp incline. After some photo shoots here, we visited the last set of cave temples. By now we were tired. Even in the December, the afternoon sun here can be quite draining. Wonder how bad does it get in summer...

Rathas

By the time we finished visiting all the important monuments, it was around 2:30PM. We were tired, thirsty, hunger and done for the day. We stopped at a small food court which had small joints serving different types of food and a decent sitting area. Each picked their choice of food. After lunch we headed straight to our hotel.

After relaxing for sometime, it was beach time. There aren't many beaches here. We revisited the beach next to the Shore temple. Today we didn't spend a lot of time here. Just sat and watched the waves as the sun set behind us. Kids wanted to get into the pool. We returned to the hotel and headed straight to the pool. We had fun playing games in the pool. After games in the swimming pool, we played some card games and pictionary. It was super fun. We had a long fun filled day. Ended the day with a great dinner.

Next day it was time to bid goodbye to Mahabalipuram. Meera's family decided to visit their relatives in Chennai. We headed back to Bangalore after breakfast.  It was long drive back. Little did we know what adventure was awaiting us.

I was at the wheel. After crossing Salem, we started experiencing some weird thing with the car. The clutch seemed a little off. I wasn't able to control the speed. We were about 5-10Kms away from Hosur, when I could not continue driving. Had to pull the car to halt. It was the day of Christmas and all the mechanics shops seemed to be shut. We were able to trace a TATA motors service center about 1/2 Km from where our car had broken down. Pankaj and Shree walked to the service center and got a mechanic. On inspection he said, the clutch plate is damaged and cannot be driven. The only option was to tow the car. He arranged for a tow truck and we soon we were being towed. Me, Shree and Shrishti sat in our car and Pankaj sat in the tow truck. It took us couple of hours to reach home. It was an experience which none of us will ever forget. Our Christmas break ended with a big bang!!!

Agra - Lot More Than Just Taj Mahal

Agra - The moment someone utters the word Agra, the first thing that comes to one's mind is Taj Mahal. Agra has almost become synonym to Taj Mahal. But Agra is much more than just the Taj Mahal. Agra fort, Fathepur Sikri, Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah (baby Taj), Mehtab Bag etc are all in Agra and are beautiful and have lots of history behind them. Of course, Taj Mahal is the jewel in the crown, but these place are equally beautiful and have rich architecture.

Taj Mahal - Truly a Masterpiece

Typically people cover Delhi, Agra and Jaipur in one trip. We planned an exclusive 3 day trip to Agra. We have been planning for Agra trip from a very long time. Every time we ended up scrapping the plan because of over analysis. Either it would be because summers are hot or winters are very cold or kids exams, holiday/vacation season etc. This Christmas holidays, we took a risk and decided lets do it no matter what. We were prepared for the fact that the famous Delhi winter fog will jeopardise the whole trip.

Plan was to take a early morning flight to Delhi on Mon 26th, hire a self driven rental car from Zoomcar at Delhi Airport, take the Yamuna Express Highway to Agra and return back to Bangalore on 28th night. So it was going to be a 3 day  trip - exclusively for Agra. After doing some research, we decided to book a 8am flight to reduce the risk of flight delay due to fog. Instead of hiring a cab, planned to try the self-driven cars from Zoomcar. So everything was booked well in advance - our return flight tickets, Zoomcar from Delhi airport for 3 days and hotel booking at Hotel Taj resorts (http://www.hoteltajresorts.com).

Hotel Taj Resort is at an ideal location (20 min walk) from eastern gate of Taj Mahal. It is at a very convenient location from the ticket booking counter and to the east gate of Taj Mahal. The hotel is pretty good in all aspects. Has two good restaurants (one roof top and one inside the hotel), good views of Taj Mahal from the roof-top restaurant, swimming pool (we did not use it as it was very cold) and a shop in the basement - which has some beautiful stuff for sale and at reasonable price. Don't miss checking this out before buying anything in Agra.

We went with a twin-rooms (rooms that are attached). This is ideal for families with grown up kids. The rooms were very good, with good bathrooms, hot water, A/C, TV and very spacious.

On 26th morning, we boarded the flight to Delhi. Thankfully the flight was on time. We reached Delhi by 11:30am. It took some time for the Zoomcar to handover our car at the terminal. We completed the formalities, set the GPS and we were all set to drive to Agra. Soon we realized the car that we rented was not that great. It was an old Honda City and the windshield had lot of scratches. We knew, it would be painful driving in the dark with this kind of windshield - especially if it's on a highway.

After navigating through the multiple flyovers, we hit the Noida expressway. Delhi has very good road network. All roads are divided and most of the traffic is 4-wheel (which is very different from the Bangalore traffic - which is lot more 2 wheel). However driving through Delhi traffic was a challenge. There are so many roads, and GPS sometimes does not clearly specify which road to take - on the flyover or below or service road :( We were at ease once we entered the Yamuna Expressway to Agra. Now it was lunch time and we were hungry. Surprisingly there aren't many sign boards on the highway which guide you on how much more time/distance for the next exit for refreshments. We exited the first exit we hit, as we did not know when and where the next one would be. The place was good. The complex had Gas Filling Station, restaurants, wash rooms, parking etc. We had some Rajma & Chawal and some chats. North Indian dishes tastes best in North India :)

After some food and relaxation, it was time to head back on the highway. We planned to stop at Mathura and visit the Krishna Janma Bhoomi temple and then visit Vrindavan and then head to Agra. Little did we know, what it is like to visit Mathura and Vrindavan... Many of our friends from North India had warned us. We thought we were prepared, but I think we under-estimated the touts and cheating. We just didn't realize how we fell for it :(

As we exited the high and entered Mathura, every few minutes we had people stopping us. They were claiming as poojaris, guides and promising different things. The GPS is also very unreliable here. We tried our best to stick to GPS, but unfortunately the directions were unclear or incorrect. So at one circle we decided to stop and enquire and that’s the blunder we made. A guy here, tells us he can show the Janam Bhoomi temple and other temples too for 100Rs. He made some stories on one-ways etc and we fell for it. Since the GPS was not giving us correct direction, we took the risk of agreeing to this guide. Now he calls a 10year kid and asks him to take us around. When questioned, he says the kid is local and knows everything. Now we tell this kid to take us to Janma Bhoomi temple and he takes us in some other direction. After driving about 30min, we stop as we suspect something fishy. We reconfirm which temple is he taking us to and he says Janma Bhoomi. We say, but the sign boards are in the other direction. He says first I will take you to another temple and then to Janma Bhoomi temple. We loose our cool. We drop the kid back at the point where we took him as guide and go on our own following the boards.


I don't understand why most temple towns are crowded, dirty, very noisy and very very corrupt. People are pushing each other, their is garbage everywhere, people are shouting. The whole feel good factor of visiting a place of worship is defeated. Unfortunately there is nothing nice about the place :(

Atlast we reach the temple complex. Its mad rush here. Everybody on the road is trying to guide to a parking place which actually is somewhere far. After ignoring a few, we find a policeman and ask him where we could pay and park. He directs us to a place. We park our car and enter the complex. New drama enfolds here. You cannot carry any Phones, Cameras etc. inside the temple. You need to deposit it at the entrance. This was not mentioned on their offical website. Thats it - we loose our patience. Its not that we are religious. We wanted to visit the temple more for been there done it and for mythological significance. Decide to not go to the temple. We purchase some Mathura pedas (very tasty) and enjoyed the sweet.

Prem Mandir - Vrindavan

By now we have are already delayed by couple of hours from our scheduled plan. We decide to quickly visit Vrindavan - especially the "Prem Mandir" which everybody is talking about. We are at Prem Mandir by 6PM - just as the lights come on. I will call this a "Mythological Theme Park". Everything is done keeping the tourists in mind and gives a tough competition to the famous ISKON Temple.


TIP - I would not recommend anybody to visit Mathura and Vrindavan. There is absolutely nothing that one can like about these two place other than of-course the yummy Mathura Pedha :)


Agra is about 1 1/2 hour drive from Vrindavan. We had hard luck with GPS in Vrindavan. We lost lot of time because of incorrect directions. At one point the GPS directed us to take what was supposed to be a highway - but unfortunately it was a mud road, pitch dark not a soul in site. The road was so bad, had we encountered any problem, we would have not got any help. Very scary too. This particular patch seemed like never ending. It was a big relief when we came and joined a proper highway. We just hate driving at night :(

It was close to 9PM, when we reached our hotel "Hotel Taj Resorts" at Agra. We were hungry, sleepy, tired and irritated. Checked in our room. Luckily the hotel was better than we expected and rooms were pretty good too. This, kind of eased our mood. We freshened up and went straight to their restaurant for dinner. Gladly the food was yum. Our order was served quickly and was very tasty. Its funny how all problems/tiredness seem to dissolve the moment you have something good to eat. We had a lovely dinner and crashed to sleep.


After a good night sleep, we planned for a full day outing. Plan was to visit the Fatepur Sikri in the morning, then do the Agra fort in the afternoon and be at Mehtab Bagh around sunset to view the colors of Taj Mahal at dusk. Hotel Taj Resorts had a good spread on their buffet breakfast. We had our breakfast and drove to Fatepur Sikri.

Darga - Fathepur Sikri

Fatehpur Sikri is about 60 KMs (around 1 1/2 hour drive) from Agra. A must visit place when visiting Agra. Private vehicles are not allowed on the top. One need to park at a parking area, and take a shuttle to the spot. There are lot of touts here who claim they are guides and tourists get fooled. We were one of them. As soon as we parked our car, lot of guys came to us claiming as guide. One of them offered a deal which we thought was very good - little did we realize that we were fooled :(. Here is the deal he offered and we fell for it - deal included to-and-fro auto charges and guide to Fatehpur Sikri. we bargained and reduced the price and happily sat in the auto only to realize later that we were actually taken for a ride :( - more on this trap in the later paragraph and Tips section.

Darga is about a kilometer from the parking place, can be easily walked. There are also CNG operated buses/shuttles which go up to the point or even an auto to avoid the up hill climb and you can decide to walk back one way. Plan to reach Fatehpur Sikri before 9AM, if you want to avoid the crowd and see the place peacefully. Also it requires a minimum of 2 hours to cover the entire place. So starting early is good idea, as it gets very hot in the afternoon.

Fathepur Sikri

We boarded the auto and our first stop was Durga. The guide gave some gyan on the place and then started persuading us to buy the Chaddar. We kept refusing and he kept pushing us to buy. We did not give in. It is important to keep saying a firm NO if you don't want to fall for this. We checked the tombs and Durga. The durga is made of white marble and stands out among the red-stoned walls. It is beautiful. I only wished people did not push tourists to buy stuff. Most of time goes is getting rid/away from these guys then actually appreciating the beauty of the place. After showing us the Durga, Buland Darwaza and Jama Masjid the guide told us the tour is completed. We were shocked. From whatever research we had done, we knew there were lot more places to see in Fathepur Sikri. When we questioned the guide, he said he is not authorized to guide us for those monuments. Only the government approved guides are allowed. That is when it hit us that we were deceived.

Since there were lot more monuments to be seen, we purchased the tickets and also took a Government approved guide at the ASI tourist center which was at the entrance of the monument. We had not seen this earlier as our guide had got us through another route so that he will not be questioned. The new guide showed us all the monuments and also gave a good peek into the history. The monuments are beautiful and are also well kept. The area is very clean and well maintained. For tourists who want to explore the place at their own pace, there are audio guides available too - at the tourist centre. Jodha's palace, Khass Mahal, Shahi-Bazar, Mina-Bazar, the Panch-Mahal, Khwabgah, Diwan-i-Khass, Anup-Talao and Diwan-i-Am are some of the important and beautiful monuments at Fatehpur Sikri. All monuments are built in red sand stone with some of them decorated with designs made from different colored marbles - primarily white and black.

We spent around 3 hours at Fatehpur Sikri. As we were leaving, we saw bus load of tourists arriving. The parking place, where we had parked our car was now full with vehicles. We had difficulty getting our car out. From here we headed to Agra fort. On our way to the fort, we stopped for a quick lunch.

TIP - At Fathepur Sikri don't take the guide at the car parking place. Hire a government approved guide at the ASI Tourist Centre at the top. Try to reach the monuments by 8am to avoid the crowd and sun.

Visiting Agra fort is another half day event. We reached the fort around 2:30 PM. There was already enough crowd. The parking area close to the fort was full. We had to park a little further. Nevertheless, this is a must visit place in Agra. It is beautiful and majestic. As soon as we enter the main gate of the fort after crossing the moat, there is the ticket counter. There are separate counters for Indian Nationals and Foreign Nationals. There is a separate line for ladies. We purchased our tickets here. After the security check (which is meaningless for the amount of crowd), we climbed the ramp which takes to the main area of the fort. It is useful to hire a guide as they will explain the history and significance of each monument. Make sure you check the ID card and hire only the official guides. Also bargain - whatever price is quoted, start bargaining from half that price. We hired a guide after some bargaining.

Jahangir Palace - Agra Fort

As we started our tour, we were spellbound with the red sand stone structures and the structures with marbles. Each king of Mughal dynasty has added structures to this fort and one can see the change is style, stone used, intricacies etc. during the reign of different Mughal kings. First we see the Jahangir Palace, which is a huge palace made of red sand stone with arches. The guide gives us some details of the palace and also tells the history. From here we move to the monuments added by Shah Jhan. Here the structures change from red sand stone to marble. One can see the Diwani Khas, Sheesh Mahal, the royal gardens, the marble palace of Shah Jhan etc. From here one gets the view of river Yamuna and the Taj Mahal. History mentions that this was done intentionally so that Shah Jahan can view his beloved wife's tomb from his palace until his death. He had plans to build another Taj Mahal with black marble on the other side of river Yamuna. The foundation for this was laid. However this never got started. It was great to hear from the guide on the amount of money spent by these kings and the kind of wealth they possessed. One actually can imagine the richness and glamour of India then - which eventually got destroyed and is now left as a poor country with rich history.

View of Taj Mahal from Agra Fort

It takes about a minimum of 2 hours to explore the Agra fort. They also have a Light and Sound Shows in English and Hindi. These are scheduled in the evening after sunset. We were not keen on watching the show. We wanted to be at Mehtab Bagh at sunset time to see the changing shades of Taj Mahal.

Itimad-ud-Daulab - Baby Taj

Since we have few more hours for sunset time, from Agra fort we went to see "Itimad-ud-Daulab" - popularly known as Baby-Taj. This is in the shape of Jewel Box and started the era of white marble monuments in India. This was built by Noor Jahan for her father. This was tried as a prototype for the construction of Taj mahal. This monument is very small and is located on the banks of river Yamuna. It is very beautiful and the artistic work on the marble can be viewed very easily as it is not as large as Taj Mahal. Though river Yamuna is all dried up here and the surrounding views are not great or clean, one can easily imagine how beautiful this place would have been few centuries ago when the population of Agra was not so much. Definitely a must see place when visiting Agra.

Taj Mahal at Sunset from Mehtab Bagh

It was almost sunset time and we headed straight to Mehtab Bagh. After a short walk through the orchids, one gets a view of Taj Mahal. It is here, we got a shock and feel of how big Taj Mahal is. It is gigantic and piece of marvel. With the setting sun in the background the marble had hues of yellow, orange and red. It was mind blowing. We just sat here quietly watching Taj with sunset colors, birds returning to their nests and long queues around Taj. People in the queues looked like match sticks - that's when we realised how big Taj was. Mehtab Bagh is not very popular with tourist. There isn't any place to actually sit or a view point. We sat on some mud wall and immersed ourselves in the beauty of Taj Mahal.

After we were fully satisfied watching Taj at sunset, we returned to our hotel. Next day's plan was to start early to visit the Taj at sunrise. There are multiple benefits of visiting Taj at sunrise - the crowd is lesser, hence lesser time in queue. One can get to view the monument with peace without people pushing you. Pictures can be taken peacefully and of course the beautiful colors of sunrise on the white marble.

We started from our hotel at 6am. Shilpgram, the place where entry tickets are given was right across our hotel. There was a huge queue even at 6am in the morning. However they have separate line for ladies. You need to carry a government approved ID card for all visitors to get tickets and to enter Taj. We bought the tickets and took a cycle rikshaw from Shilpgram to east gate. Try to buy the disposable shoe covers here. This will be required to walk on the marble at Taj. Taj Mahal is about 1.5Kms from Shilpagram. Since it was very cold we avoided walking.

Taj Mahal at Sunrise

Security checks at Taj Mahal can be very intense. To avoid security check hassles, don't carry bags, eatables, water, electronic items. Check the website for dos and don'ts at Taj. There are separate lines for Men and Women at the entrance. So to avoid confusion, its better if each carries their ID cards.

Eastern gate is the best gate to enter. This gate has comparatively less crowd. Most tourist buses start arriving by 8:30AM at western gate. This is when the crowd increases and the queue to see the Taj Mahal gets longer. So to have a peaceful experience, be at Easter gate by 6:30AM. 

We were at the eastern gate by 6:30am. After the security check, we hired a guide. It is recommended to hire a guide. The sun was still to rise and the crowd was minimal. As we entered the gate, the sight of Taj Mahal was mind boggling. Never expected it to be so huge. It was a mammoth structure shining in the rays of sun. The view was spectacular. Seeing this monument we realised the amount of effort, material and money spent in those times. One also gets a glimpse of how life must have been 400-500 years back. The whole campus of Taj Mahal is picturesque and very well maintained. Because of lesser crowd, we had enough time to enjoy the beauty of Taj Mahal and click pictures. The carving/designs embedded with different colored marbles look very beautiful on the white marble.

At Taj Mahal - Early Morning

We put on the plastic covers on our shoes, before we stepped on the marble platform of Taj Mahal. We slowly explored all the parts. The whole visit from the gate can easily take 2-3 hours. The time can increase based on the queue. There is also a small museum inside the campus. Nothing great about the museum. But since you are there, it is recommended to visit it. There are few drawings of the architecture of Taj Mahal which helps one get an insight into the making of Taj Mahal.

It was 9am and slowly the crowd was increasing. By the time we finished seeing the museum, there was enough crowd and people had to queue up for taking pictures. We had our heart full of Taj and started walking back to our hotel. We were very hungry. Our hotel had a good spread for breakfast. We ate to our heart content and started back to Delhi.

We were all impressed by the this whole new experience of renting car from Airport and driving on the super cool Yamuna Express. Little did we know what was awaiting us. All through our drive on the highway we were very careful not to cross the speed limit and we had never crossed 80Kmph. But we were given a ticket for speeding when we stopped at a toll. When we questioned, the cops got really offended and one lesson we learnt - never argue /question with cops in north India. We paid the fine and then we hit a bigger problem. As we exited Yamuna Express into Noida highway, we were stopped by the UP police. They asked us to produce the road tax papers. We were totally clueless. Zoomcar had not updated us on purchase of road tax. We thought all the paper work was taken care by Zoomcar. We were getting delayed for the flight and there was no solution. We again had to pay fine. We realised that all this was a well planned scam to get hold of tourists. We gave a stinky feedback to Zoomcar. This is where India fails as a tourist destination. Being a citizen of India and just coming from a different region, we faced such problems, wonder how will a international traveller can travel hassle free in India. A very long way to go indeed...

At last we reached Delhi airport in time, only to realize our flight was delayed. Our flight back was delayed by 3hours. By the time we reached Bangalore we were dead tired.

Except for the drive back to Delhi and our experience with UP police, we had a great trip and memories carved in our brain on the richness and grandeur of Mughals.

Bidar - A Unique Place In North Karnataka

Bidar is a district which lies at the tip of North Karnataka. This district is bordered by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra - infact it is just 150 Kms from Hyderabad. The districts of North Karnataka do not get the attention from the government and because of this, it has impacted the overall growth of the places here. There are a lot of interesting places here and had the government spent some effort and promoted them, they would have flourished by now. Luckily social networking and word of mouth has helped to get atleast few tourists to these places. I am hoping that in the coming years, government will focus and take up other projects of North Karnataka - similar to what they have done for Hampi, Aaihole and Pattadakal.

We have been wanting to visit Bidar for a very long time. This was, I should say the only important historical tourist place which we had not covered in Karnataka. Unfortunately Bidar is around 700 Kms from Bangalore and because of this we always kept postponing the plan. Also Bidar falls in the dry belt of Karnataka, and it is best to visit between the months of Nov-Jan. Summer's are very hot and dusty. Luckily this December we had to visit Hyderabad as Pankaj was having his 25 years Alumni meet of 10th Grade school. We planned to combine this trip with a visit to Bidar (Bidar is about 3 hrs drive from Hyderabad).

Lack of infrastructure and funds from government have impacted the growth of this place. There aren't many good hotels here. I guess it is a chicken and egg problem - because there aren't good hotels, lesser tourists visit here and because the flow of tourist is less, there aren't many hotels :( Don't know which is more applicable.

Best place to stay would be at Black Buck Resorts - Vilaspur (http://junglelodges.com/blackbuck-resort/), a resort from Jungle Lodges and Resorts. The Resort is well maintained and in very good location - facing the lake and has all the comforts of any JLR and is just 18 KMs from Bidar town. We booked an Executive Cottage facing the lake. As recommended by many tourists - we booked Cottage #8 and it turned out to be the best :)

We started from Bangalore on 25th Dec morning. The plan was to drive to Hyderabad, stay overnight at a friend's place and then next morning leave to Bidar. B'lore - Hyderabad road is awesome. The highway is in very good condition and their isn't much traffic too. This could be because there aren't any tourist spots on the way. The only drawback I find is about the options to eat. There are absolutely no eat out places until Kurnool. We had experienced it during our last road trip to Hyderabad and hence planned well. We packed some food which can keep us full until we reach Kurnool. We stopped for a quick Andhra meal at Kurnool and then straight to Hyderabad.

We decided to join a few family friends to visit the Birla Mandir. It was holiday season and huge crowd awaited us. Since we were meeting the friends after a long time, the crowd nor the queue bothered us. Had it been just us, we would have just walked back seeing the long queue. After checking out Birla Mandir, we to Ohri's for dinner. Had a great time with Aditya and Priya's family. By the time we reached Aditya's house it was pretty late. Kids were tired and they just crashed.

Bidar Fort

Next day, we had a good breakfast and drove to Bidar. It took us about 3 hours to reach Bidar. Since there was some road work in progress, it took longer. Once the road work is completed, it should not take more than 2 - 2:30 Hrs. For December, it was pretty hot during day. It was also quite dry and dusty. We reached Bidar fort around 11 AM. The fort is huge and really well maintained by ASI. Unfortunately there were no guides. This was very disappointing. Such a important historical place and no body to explain the history. We managed to get some details from the boards, books and security guards at the fort. Places to definitely see in the fort are - The fort, Madrasa, Rangeen Mahal ( we had to request the guard to open it for us - definitely worth the effort. It is in very good condition - especially the wooden pillars and the wall painitings), Solaha Khamb Mosque). It will take about 1 1/2 - 2 hrs to cover the fort.

Solaha Khamb Mosque

Rangeen Mahal

By the time we finished checking out the fort, it was time for lunch. We had to head to JLRs Black Buck Resort. This is about 18Kms from the fort. The directions were not very clear and google maps did not help. After making multiple calls to JLR we reached the resort by 1:30PM. Like all JLRs, the location of the resort is perfect. It has been done around a lake and there is lot of greenery around. The cottages are around the lake. After going through lot of room tips on Trip Advisor and considering the recommendations, we had booked Cottage #8. And undoubtedly this is the best cottage - it has the best views of the lake and is also not very far from the dining area. We checked -in and went straight for lunch.We had a good lunch and relaxed.

Lake Front - JLR Vilaspur

At 4PM, we were taken for a Black Buck Safari. Unlike other jungle lodges & resorts, this does not have any safari's in the jungle as there are no forests here. The black bucks are found in the grassland around Bidar and they are in good numbers. We had a good sighting of multiple black buck herds. The drive to see these animals in itself was not very great - it is not like a usual safari. But nevertheless this is a great effort from JLR to make Bidar a tourist friendly destination.

Black Buck Herd

We were back at the resort by 6:30PM. By now it was very chill. We needed warm jackets. 7:30PM was camp fire and some hot soup and snacks were served at the camp fire. A wild life video was also played. Whoever wished could watch the same. After dinner, we did some star gazing. The resort has a huge telescope. We could not see the planets because of change in the orbits, but the moon looked great - especially the craters.

Next morning was nature walk for 2 hours. The weather was pleasant and the walk was refreshing. Don't forget to take the binoculars and camera on these walks. We spotted some rare birds of this region. The water in the lake was receding and the naturalist who accompanied us on the nature walk mentioned that in couple of months the lake will dry up. The best season for visiting this resort is in the months of Nov - Jan. Beauty of this resort is because of the lake. There aren't many tourists from Feb. After the nature walk, we went for a coracle ride. There is Kayaking too, but since the water levels were not great we could not do it. After a good coracle ride, we went for a sumptuous breakfast and then it was time to leave.

On the way back to Hyderabad, we visited the Gurudwara - this is supposed to be the 2nd largest in India and indeed it was huge and very well maintained. We reached Hyderabad around 4PM.

In the evening it was time for a grand get together - It was Pankaj's 10th grade Alumni meet. It was fun meeting all his school friends and their families. Lot of fun activities were organized and we ate a lot of stuff. Next day it was drive back to Bangalore. This was a short vacation with lot of variety. I felt really good as my long pending trip to Bidar was done and it was worth the visit.

London 

Never imagined, I would be visiting London. Like Paris, London has a lot of history and no better place to get to know this better than the Museums. London is a city of Museums. There are a lots of museums, very well maintained and up to date and best part is all most all are free and with easy access by Tube (underground rail system of London).

We planned our stay in a service apartment. London has certain strict policies on stay. Hotel/Service apartments are very strict on how many beds/bedrooms you can book based on the size of the family. Since we were 2 Adults and 2 kids, we had to minimum book at 2 bedroom service apartment. Also while booking, we ensured the place is within city limits and closer to a tube station. This saved a lot of time and money and we also had easy access to super markets, places to eat etc.

We had booked our service apartment with Chelsea Cloisters, few min walk from south Kensington - tube station. This was a professional/business service apartment. This was recommended by my cousin, who has stayed her for couple of months when she was travelling on business.

After spending 9 days in Paris, where there was a dread for English Language, felt great that we could communicate to people in English and could easily shop and place an order in the restaurant. We traveled from Paris to London by Euro Star. We had started from Paris in the morning and we were in our London Service apartment by lunch time. We checked-in and stepped out as we weren't tired at all. Had a good Italian food at a small joint close to Kensington station. How much ever we try to convince ourselves not to do currency conversion - it is just inevitable :( Eating out in London is pretty expensive.

After lunch, we walk to the Kensignton station, and purchased the tube pass for the family. It is best to buy the pass based on the duration of the stay. From here we walked to National History Museum (this is right behind the tube station).

Fri 11th May 2012

Museum of Natural History

Museum of Natural History

This museum is a huge stone building and very kids friendly. Entry is free. Atleast 4-5 hours is required to cover the important sections in the museum. Such places are filled with so much of information and in so many ways - even if you just glance through each section, you would have gathered much more knowledge than any book can provide.

Victoria and Albert Museum, is 0.2 miles from Natural History Museum

This is another huge museum and very close to Museum of Natural History. We did not spend much time here. We were a little tired. There was an exhibition of Royal Gowns at the museum. This showcased the richness of royal family. It was superb. From here we walked back to our service apartment and called it end of the day.

Sat 12th May 2012

British Library

This is a must visit. It is s huge library and very old. During our visit, there was an exhibition of ancient scripts - some of them very very old. This library is almost like a museum. We spent about an hour and then took tube to

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace

This is definitely worth visiting. It is a whole day trip and must visit. There are trains from Waterloo station and it would take about 30-45 min. Get down at Hampton Court Place station and it is a short walk to the place. Entrance to the palace is covered by London Pass. 

This palace is built of stone and is huge. The palace is surrounded by huge gardens which are very well maintained. Don't miss the maze in the garden - kids will love it.There are lot of activities, exhibitions running at any point. These will keep changing from time-to-time. You can get a broucher at the entrance and then plan your day. The palace also has a good cafe. It gets crowded at lunch time and could increase your wait time. It is better to plan the lunch slightly earlier if you don't want to waste time waiting for a table. If you have seen Bangalore Palace, you will realize how much influence the Tudor style has on it architecture. More details http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/

We spent the whole day at this palace. By the time we reached our room, it was late evening.

Sun 13th May 2012

We had planned for an entire day at Greenwich. There are lot of attractions here and an entire day can be spent. This to see are

• Greenwich park
• Astronomy Center (must see)
• Planetarium 
• Royal Observatory (must see. Even now, every day at 1pm, red time ball at Royal Observatory continues to drop) 
• Flamstead house and Meridian Courtyard
• Queen's house
• Maritime museum

Mon 14th May 2012

 St Paul’s Cathedral

A must see. The visit will take about 2 hours. There are about 250 steps to reach the dome and it is worth climbing these steps. Best is to reach the cathedral as early as possible, so that you can beat the queue if you wish to climb to the dome. The views are fantastic. Timings are form 8:30 AM to 4:30pm and it is closed on Sunday. The architecture of the cathedral is beautiful. The painting on the dome are magnificent.

Monument (0.6 miles from St. Pauls, can walk)

Next we walked to the monument, which is about 0.6 miles from St. Pauls cathedral. We explored it from outside. we skipped climbing 300+ steps to the top. This was covered by London pass

London Bridge Experience (0.4 miles from monument)

We saw ads to this everywhere and many travel portals also mentioned this as must see for kids. Trusting all this, we decided to visit this place. The kids however were very skeptical from the time we entered the place and waiting in the queue. It was very spooky. We kept telling kids, it will be ok. However as soon as we entered, the kids were very scared. The whole experience is not meant for kids and can leave them shattered for long time. We requested to staff to show us the first possible exit. The kids were really scared. I don't think this place should be visited by kids below 15 years and if you are a person who does not like spooky, haunted experience - please avoid this.

Tower of London 

Must see place. This place is about 2 miles from St. Paul’s Cathedral. This was covered by London Pass. This will take 3-4 hours to see the entire place. Tower of London is right across river Thames. The whole place is built of stone and can be easily spotted. Must see places here are The Crown Jewels - which has the exhibits of all the royal jewels including the Kohinoor diamond, the Tower Torture, White Tower and Medieval Palace. More details http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/ 

Tower Bridge

Opening of Bridge - Tower Bridge

from Tower of London, we walked to Tower Bridge. We waited to see the bridge open and worth the experience. Opening of Bridge to let the ships through may not be everyday. You will need to check the schedule and plan your visit. The schedules are on display in many resturants, supermarkets and also on the web. Visit to the Tower Bridge museum is also good. We got to see the working of hydrolic pumps and how the engines work.

Tue 15th May 2012

Shakespeare’s globe

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/exhibition

Good tour, if you are interested in the history. Guides will take you on a tour of the iconic Globe Theatre, bringing the space to life with colourful stories of the 1599 Globe, of the reconstruction process in the 1990s, and of how the ‘wooden O’ works today as an imaginative and experimental theatrical space.

Tours begin every 30 minutes, and are in English.

Kensington Palace

This Covered by London Pass. Everyday 10am to 6:00pm. It would take an hour to cover the palace.

http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/

Hyde Park/Kensington gardens

If you get time nice place to visit this park. 

Later in the evening we went to the city to check out if there were tickets available for the Lion King Musical. We bought 4 tickets (which costed us a bomb) and enjoyed the musical. This is something which should not be missed in London. It was mind blowing and icing on the cake was it was Lion King Musical - which is our all time favorite. The whole experience was amazing and the kids were awed as this was their first musical experience.

Wed 16th May 2012

Parliament Building

Queen’s Gallery @ Buckingham Palace

This is covered by London pass. 10am to 5:30pm. 10 to 11 finish this. Then go to change of guard @ 11:30

Change of Royal Guard @ 11:30am

This is more for been there - done it. There is lot of crowd to see the parade. It is worth a watch.

Royal Mews @ Buckingham Palace

This is covered by London pass. 10am to 5pm.

West Minister Abbey

A must see. It is beautiful and has lot of interesting stuff. It requires atleast 3-4 hours to see the whole place. This is covered  by  London pass.  9:30am to 7pm (last entry 6pm)

Big Ben and Parliament buildings

Tourists aren't allowed inside. It can be seen from outside. You can see it while walking towards West Minister Abbey.

London Eye/Thames River Cruise

We skipped the London Eye as we had got a good view of London from the top of St. Pauls Church. We  however took the cruise on Thames River. The cruise was relaxing as we had been on our foot for the whole day.

Free all day hop-on-hop-off ticket - The Red Rover Ticket
Normal ticket price: Adult: £13.50 Child: £6.50

From London Eye, the last boat is at 18:55.

Thu 17th May 2012

British Museum

This museum is free. Actually all museums in London are free. This is huge and would require atleast a day to do justice Free. 10am to 5:30pm.

Harry Potter Studio Tour

Harry Potter Studio

Must see for Harry Potter Fans.  http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/en/your-visit/getting-here

Remember you cannot buy tickets at the attraction. All tickets must be bought in advance. 

Plan to arrive at the Studio Tour 20 minutes before your tour time. If you have an email booking confirmation you will need to pick up your tickets from the kiosks outside of the attraction.

The tour is estimated to take approximately three hours, however, as the tour is mostly self guided, you are free to explore the attraction at your own pace.

Fri 18th May 2012

Science Museum

Must see if you are travelling with kids. Minimum of one full day is required to explore. Check out for the special events and plan accordingly.

Everyday 10am to 6:00pm

 .

Trafalgar Square and National Gallery

In the evening we visited the Trafalgar Square. Nothing much to see here, except it is landmark and right across this is the National Gallery. Most of these buildings are a monument in itself. We skipped going into the National Gallery as we were pretty tired. By now we were exhausted with lots of information across different museums. Europe has lot of history and best part is they have been successful in preserving it and making it interesting for tourists to visit and appreciate it.

Sat 19th May 2012

 Oxford

Oxford Campus

Visit to London is incomplete without a visit to one of the prestigious universities. According to me, a visit to either Oxford or Cambridge should be included in everybody's itenanry. Given enough time, we would have visited both. But since we had only one more day, we planned to visit Oxford.

There are trains available for Oxford (and this is the best mode to travel). It takes about an hour from downtown London.Travel Card does not work for the Oxford train. You can use it to get to the station in London to board the Oxford train. Minimum of one full day is required to cover the campus. Once we reached oxford, we choose to go with the hop-on-hop-off bus facility for the oxford tour. This option is best as the tour covers all the important landmarks and also the audio guide on the bus helps identify important monuments, buildings and events.

The visit here brings lot of inspiration - hopefully the kids will get inspired and strive to study in such universities.

Sun 20th May 2012

It was time to pack our bags and bid good bye. It was a wonderful trip and every moment cherished. We were also looking forward to getting back home to some indian spicy-tangy food - especially Rasam/Rice. We did carry a lot of MTR read to eat packets, gongura pickle, rice, noodles and soups. But nothing like a full meal at home. It felt good to be back after almost 20 days of trip.

Trip to Land of Nizams

For most travelers, Hyderabad does not seem like a place for vacation. One hardly hears people mentioning “We are going to Hyderabad for a vacation!”. We have been planning to visit Hyderabad for the last 3 years. For last 3 years we have booked and cancelled our train tickets for the December vacation because of the Telangana riots. We were not sure how it would be this December. But luckily we were able to make it this time.

Though we had booked our train tickets, we cancelled them and decided to drive. As excepted, when we mentioned to our friends that we would be spending a week in Hyderabad during the Christmas vacation, the common response we got were “Why Hyderabad?” “What are going to do there for 1 week?” “There is nothing much to do there!” etc… After returning from a week-long trip to Hyderabad, I can confidently say that it is worth a visit. There is lots of history. One gets to see the Aan, Shaan andBaan of the Nizams. There are lots of places to visit; one week is definitely a good time to spend in Hyderabad.

My husband has some very close friends in Hyderabad. We decided to stay in one of his closest friend’s house – “Joshi’s House”. It was great catching up with friends after a long time. Thanks to Madhu and Joshi for all the hospitality they provided. They have a huge house and all the kids had great fun playing.

 

Since we were driving, we had not planned when we would be returning to B’lore. We wanted to check out the Belum Caves on the way to Hyderabad. We thought of planning for the other places to visit once we reached Hyderabad.

Belum Caves

We started from B’lore around 6:30AM. We stopped for breakfast at Kamat Upahar around 80 KMs from B’lore (this will be around 30-40 KM from Chikkabalpur.NH7 connecting B’lore and Hyderabad is in excellent condition. One can easily drive at 100-120 KMPH. The only issue is - there are no restaurants/eating joints/rest rooms available on the highway. Please carry enough food (especially if you are travelling with kids).

Ananthpur is around 215 KMs from B’lore. We reached this place around 10:30AM. Here you need to take a deviation to go to Belum Caves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belum_Caves ). Ask for directions to Tadapatri Road. Belum caves is around 90 Kms from Ananthpur. The road to Belum Caves is not very good. It goes through small villages/towns. The terrain is also very different. It is dusty, dry and hot - not at all scenic.



Full Blown Sunflower Yield on NH7



Belum Caves - Buddha Statue at the entrance

We had our lunch at Tadapatri town. This is a small town. Do not expect any fancy restaurants here. Simple Andhra meal is what you will get here. This is the only place on the way to Belum caves, where you can break for lunch. We reached Belum caves around 2 PM. To see the caves it would take a minimum of 1 ½ hours. Free guides are available at the entrance. Though they mention the guides are available for free, the guides do expect a tip.

The caves are simply superb and definitely worth the visit. Had these caves been closer to the B’lore – Hyderabad highway, they would have been very popular. Because of the accessibility, the caves have not caught the tourists as one would expect. These are underground caves which stretch for 3 Kms.

These caves are 2^nd largest underground caves in the world. Lot of international cave explorers visit these caves. Only 1 ½ Km stretch is currently open for tourist. Some parts of the caves are still alive. APTDC has done a very decent job in maintaining the caves. It is lit enough to see the details of the cave formation and there is decent ventilation. Humidity in some parts of the cave is very high. You will sweat profoundly. Most of the guides speak Telugu or Hindi. Very few (only 1 or 2) can speak in English. Hence you need to be specific if you want a guide who can explain in English. Good facilities are available at the caves like restaurant, rest rooms, dormitories, drinking water etc. It is quite tiring to cover Belum caves and reach Hyderabad on the same day. It is recommended to take a break if you want to avoid night driving. Kurnool will be good option to break for the night (if you want to avoid night driving). Kurnool is about 3-4 hrs drive from Belum caves. The roads are again through the villages hence the speed will be reduced.

There are a few decent hotels in Kurnool. We stayed at Hotel Mourya International. This was pretty good hotel with good rooms and restaurants.

Next day we had our breakfast at Mourya restaurant and started for Hyderabad. Hyderabad is about 250Kms from Kurnool and will take around 3-4 hours.

Explore the Old City

Hyderabad’s old city can be covered in one day which will include visit to Salar Jung Museum, Chowmahal Palace, Charminar, Jamma Masjid, Chudi Bazaar. It is best to book a taxi for a day which will take you around to all these places. Avoid self-driving to these places. You will have to drive through small lanes, with pedestrians all over and it is hard to find parking space around Charminar.

Salar Jung Museum - http://www.salarjungmuseum.in/

We started our day with a visit to Salar Jung Museum. This is a must see and would require a minimum of 3-4 hours. The museum is open from 10AM – 5PM and is closed on Friday’s. It is best if you could start exploring the museum by 10AM and complete it by 2/3PM. The museum is very well maintained. All the facilities like restrooms, drinking water, food court, seating area etc are maintained well. Must see are the Musical Clock (expect very large crowd at 11AM and 12PM. For better viewing they have installed video camera to show the clock.), Rebacca with the Veil, arms and ammunition, ivory carving, European sculptures and paintings.

Chowmahalla Palace - http://www.chowmahalla.com/


We had lunch at the Salar Jung museum and started to Chowmahalla Palace.  This palace was built 200 years ago, and is open to visitor from last year or so. The whole palace complex is very beautiful. Gives the essence of what kind of life the Nizam lead. Visit to the palace would take around 1 ½ - 2 hours. Make sure you visit all the parts of the palace.

Chowmahalla Palace - Front View

Chowmahalla Palace - Darbar Hall

Chowmahalla Palace - Rear View

From Chowmahalla palace we drove to Charminar through Chudi Baazar. The lanes here are very crowded. Best option is to take a walk through the Chudi Baazar to Charminar. Charminar is a 600 year old monument which has four minars that are supported by arches. Visitors are now allowed to go to top of the Minar. There are about 150 winding steps to reach the top of the minar. The view of Hyderabad city from the top of Minar is great. Charminar is like any other monument which needs appreciation because of the sheer number of years it is been there and the architecture-technology used during those times. Right next to Charminar is the Jamma Masjid. This is huge mosque and looks fabulous at sunset.

Around Charminar is the famous Chudi Bazar, known for it colorfull chudi’s (bangles). This area is also famous of Pearls. There are a lot of shops displaying different types of pearls. I am not sure whether it is worth buying here. Tourists can easily be conned. Personal advice - do not venture into expensive shopping in this area.




Charminar - Top Inner V

 Taramati Baradari, Qutub Shahi Tombs, Golconda Fort

All these 3 places are around the Golconda fort and can be covered in 1 day. We started after breakfast to Taramati Baradari. This is on the way to Golconda fort if you are taking the outer ring road. This monument was supposed to have been used by the musicians and dancers to perform for the Nizam. The monument now has an open auditorium, gardens and a platform at an altitude where the artisans used to perform. The Nizams used to watch the performances from Golconda fort. I somehow could not buy this as the fort is quite far from this platform. Wondered how the Nizams saw the performance. One can easily spend an hour here.

Taramati - Enterance to the monument

Monument - Taramati

After Taramati, we visited the Qutub Shahi Tombs. As the name indicates, these are tombs of the Nizam’s and their family members, and are definitely worth visiting. The tombs are 2-3 kms beyond Golconda fort. It is better to finish all the tombs before visiting the fort. Some of the tombs are pretty huge and in good condition. The tombs can be covered in 1 – 1 1/2 hours. It is worthwhile to take a guide here, otherwise all tombs look alike and there aren’t any boards displaying the details of the tombs.

After the tombs we had a quick light lunch of sandwiches and fruits and were all set to climb the fort. Fort is best visited during Sep-Feb and in the morning (afternoon can be pretty hot). Since we had plans to watch the light and sound show in the evening, we planned our visit for the afternoon. Luckily on the day we visited, the weather was cloudy because of the depression in Bay of Bengal. Hence the climb was not very tiring. The whole fort can be covered in 2-3 hours. It is recommended to take a guide who can explain in detail, otherwise one can miss out on some key information. After seeing such forts, we are forced to think which India was better? The technology, architecture used during this era was simply amazing. We were spell bound to see with sound transmission technology used, the hot water pipeline, pumping water from lower level to higher levels of the fort and many more. My kids (11 and 8yrs) could easily climb the fort without complaining.  

Top View - Golconda Fort

Golconda Fort

We were back at the foot of the fort around 5PM. Took a tea/snack break while waiting for the light and sound show. The tickets to the show are available in the fort. The show was at 6:30PM. Details of this can be found at http://hyderabad.clickindia.com/tourism/golcondafort.html . The show is good but could have been easily limited to 30 min (instead of 1 hour). There is not much content for an hour show L Especially after watching the light and sound show at Udaipur’s Central Palace and show at Andaman’s  Kala Pani (the shows here are superb), somehow the show did not seem up to the mark L.  The show could not hold the attention of the audience after 20-30 min. Many people started leaving and moving around. This caused disturbance for other audience.

By end of light and sound show, we were tried and wanted to have dinner and crash. Our friend took us to this nice restaurant called “Chutney’s”. The food was good. We were quite hungry after all the walking and had a stomach full of Andhra food J

Ramoji Film City
A must see attraction in Hyderabad. It is about 1 ½ hrs drive from Hyderabad city. It is massive and one can easily spend an entire day here. Our visit was during the Christmas and there were few event organized even in the late evening (extended time) until dinner for this holiday season. There are various packages available; we took the VIP package with dinner. Unlike the Disney theme parks, Ramoji film city (http://www.ramojifilmcity.com/) has scattered spots. It is difficult to move around on your own. One disadvantage we felt was the unavailability of maps. We are so used to using the maps of the theme park and planning the events to see, we felt really handicapped and dependent on the guide. The park does not provide maps and also does not entertain moving around the film city on your own.

The VIP package includes the A/c shuttle to take you around the film city, lunch, high tea, direct entry to some of the shows (basically no standing in the queue) and a guide. The very concept of moving around in groups with a guide is not very great. Lot of time is wasted in ensuring all the members are present and locating the guideL


The visit around film city was an eye opener. There is set available for every theme and mood. You can easily relate the sets to any Bollywood movie. There is a set for mythological stories, a railway station, airport, bus stand, taxi stand and many more. It’s a different world – only that it is all made of plaster of pares. After the visit to the film city (the movie sets) and some shows, we were left on our own. It was 5:30PM by the time we were on our own. We took some rides, had some snacks and waited for the evening parade. The parade was very attractive though short (about 15 min). They wanted to bring in the same concept as in Disney Parks. At the end of the parade there were fireworks. This was pretty cool. Kids loved it.

Ramoji Film City

Ramoji Film City - Parade

Ramoji Film City - Sets of Mythological Serial

Ramoji Film City - Sets of Mysore Brindavan Gardens

After the fire work we went to the sets of Mysore Brindavan Garden, Jaipur Palace and few more. The sets of Brindavan Garden looked very beautiful when lit in the late evening with all the fountains and lights. It was difficult to judge whether the original garden in Mysore is better or the set in Ramoji Film City.

From here we walked through the well decorated park to the place where the dinner gala was being organized. After a long tiring day it felt great to sit and enjoy the DJ’s music, dance and dinner.

IMAX, Lumbini Gardens, Drive through Necklace road

After a long day at Ramoji Film City, we wanted to just laze around and have a relaxed day. We spent the morning just chit-chatting, playing at home. In the afternoon, we thought of catching a movie at IMAX. MI- Ghost Protocol was running at IMAX. We thought this was good movie to watch in IMAX. Indeed, it turned out to be a very good experience. Some of the effects in the movie were worth watching in IMAX.

After the movie we drove through the Necklace Road to Lumbini Gardens. Since we had seen the musical fountains at Lumbini gardens during our earlier visit to Hyderabad, we gave it a skip. However it is definitely must see place in Hyderabad.

Other places to visit are Nagarjuna Sagar dam and Warangal, which are day trips from Hyderabad. We decided to return to B’lore  and gave these places a skip.

With all the fond memories of our trip we were started driving back to B’lore. We were around 50 Kms from Ananthpur when it started pouring due to the depression in Bay of Bengal. Unfortunately our car wiper failed and it was very difficult to drive in the rain. We somehow managed to drive slowly until we reached Ananthpur. We were thrilled to have found a Hyundai sales and service center right on the highway. Our joy died in ½ hours time when the mechanic said he cannot fix the wiper. It was quite stressful to drive in the heavy rain. We had planned to reach B’lore by 4-5PM. But by the time we reached home it was 9PM. Until this trip we had not realized what a malfunctioning wiper can do.