Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Hyderabad - Part 1

It all started in June when I decided to visit Hyderabad. But due to unavailability of dates and people involved, the date was set on July 22nd-July 25th. The reason being two of my close friends stay there. Well, one of them had recently moved while the other was staying in Hyderabad from past 3 years.
The date was decided & I booked the flights. Now, you might ask why flight? The reason being there was monsoon sale going on and the rates were available at cheaper price with cash back on completing the trip. I booked the tickets on Ixigo and was priced at 1500 (Indigo) and 2000 (Spicejet) with 200 and 650 cash back respectively.
The night prior to the travel date, I called up my friend and planned the itinerary. I told him the places I wanted to visit and he being the dearest friend of mine prepared an excel spreadsheet, showed me the 2 plans of which I decided to go with Plan A considering most of the places were closed on Friday. (But eventually the plan changed and we decided to go with Plan C.)
Plan A: -
Day 1, Friday: Ramoji Film City.
Day 2, Saturday : Old City - Golconda Fort, Chowmahalla Palace, Salar Jung Museum, Nehru Zoological Park, Charminar.
Day 3, Sunday: Birla Mandir, Lumbini Park, Hussain Sagar.
Day 4, Monday: Runway 9.
Plan B: - (One of our friend was working on Friday, hence the plan)
Day 1, Friday: Nehru Zoological Park, Charminar, Shopping Old City, Golconda Fort.
Day 2, Saturday: Ramoji Film City.
Day 3, Sunday: Chowmahalla Palace, Salar Jung Museum, Birla Mandir, Lumbini Park, Hussain Sagar.
Day 4, Monday: Runway 9.
Plan C: - Probably the best plan for a 3 day trip because less crowd on a Friday for Ramoji compared to weekends & old city can be covered in a day. This way you get to spend one evening at Lumbini for the Laser Show and one evening at Golconda for the Sound & Light Show. Though we didn't get to see both, supposedly they are good.
Day 1, Friday: Ramoji Film City.
Day 2, Saturday: Nehru Zoological Park, Charminar, Chowmahalla Palace, Salar Jung Museum, Lumbini Park, Hussain Sagar, Birla Mandir.
Day 3, Sunday: Golconda Fort.
Day 4, Monday: Runway 9.
July 21st, Thursday 7 PM -
From Bangalore, there were 2 of us travelling to Hyderabad. We decided to take the Uber Share after having sumptuous dinner at friends place. An angel got along the journey. I call her an angel because she knew the roads and saved an hour for us. We reached airport at 9:30 P.M. However, It’s better you take a separate cab rather than pooling if you are more than two. We saved around 250 bucks here.
We had a quick bite at KFC and proceeded towards the gate. It was an hour's journey and as soon as I took my seat I immediately dozed off. On reaching, I booked an Uber and our pick up was at Point D. Once you are out of the arrivals, there is an escalator headed downwards that leads you to the spot.
Day 1, July 22nd, Friday
Ramoji Film City:-

Ola was pre booked, the cab was scheduled to come at 7 A.M. and our friend prepared Omelette and Tea for us. We reached early & waited an hour to get the tickets. The entrance ticket costs 1000 bucks per head for adults and 900 for children and they give you a sticker that you have to stick onto your part of the body where it’s noticeable. There are red, blue and yellow stickers. The red ones are normal while the rest are tour or VIP stickers. You will also be given a map that will help you during the journey of Ramoji.
Our friend already told us that we would follow him as he had already been here 2-3 times and was keen on showing us everything. The gates open at 9 A.M. and we were taken to sit on a bus. This bus takes you to the Film City and the ride is about 10-15 minutes.
Top: The set for Colleges, Dil Se (Multicuisine restuarant), Wall Designs
Bottom: The Angel Fountain, Radha Krishna, The Jug Fountain

First, we took the Complimentary rides starting with Frisbee Coaster followed by Break Dance. Both the rides will definitely remind you of your childhood days. The third was the best of all. It’s called the ranger ride and goes 360 degrees, thrice clockwise and anticlockwise. You have to keep all your belongings inside to prevent them from falling. I was seated on the front and it was thrilling, I could only imagine the scenes from the movie Final Destination. The harness is tight and this is by far the most amazing ride I have ever been on. The Carousel ride was under construction. There are paid rides too. The only paid ride we took was the bumping car that was at the end of the day.

Frisbee Coaster, Break Dance, Ranger Ride, Carousel, Super Jet Rides
We almost made it in time for the opening ceremony of Film City. It’s called the Eureka, which is at 9:45 A.M. The sight is amazing. The doors open and you see people dancing to tunes of Jodha Akbar.


Once you enter, you are on your own. Unless you know the place it’s really difficult to go around. There was another complimentary ride called the Super Jet ride. You will be able to spot it as soon as you enter. It just goes up and down and this is the last complimentary ride we took.

Ramoji as you enter,
Next, we took the Red Vintage Bus Tour. Each bus has a guide who gives an overview of Ramoji. You will be asked to either continue with the same bus or change buses. The instructions are very well explained and simple. The bus will further take you to the Angel Fountain, Jug Fountain, the Gardens where the movie/song scenes are shot, couple of them being Dilwale, The Dirty Picture, Chennai Express and so on, the Bhagavatam, the Mahabharata set scene, the Railway Station, the Airport, the Colleges, Bomb explosions set scenes, beautiful Hawa Mahal, Leg Garden, Sun Fountain, Bonsai Gardens, Kripalu Caves, Butterfly Garden, the stunning Japanese Garden, Askari Garden, Sanctuary Garden, Bird Park, Family Garden, Rock Garden, Umbrella Garden, Mughal Garden and the Charisma Garden. We spent about 2-30 minutes depending on the place and covered all of them.

Pictures below: -


The Airport
The Jail

Bird Park

Mahabharata
Kripalu Caves








Bird Park
Bird Park













Japanese Garden













Sun Fountain
Railway Station
Hawa Mahal












The Red Vintage Bus Ride
The light khambas












Front view of the bus ride
On the way to Kripalu Caves













The set where bomb explosions take place
Outside the Butterfly Garden











Askari Garden
The view from Hawa Mahal
Butterfly Garden (With Flowers)
Bonsai Garden
























The Statue Of Liberty

















The shows: -
1. The first show we witnessed is the Spirit of Ramoji at the Alampana Theatre at 12:30 P.M. This theatre is situated at the Ramoji entrance to the left. It’s a 30-45 minutes display of various dances, with hula-hoops, caps, and magic. It’s good to see how the dancers dance 3-4 shows a day with so much enthusiasm.


2. The next show was the Lights Camera Action at 1:30 P.M. situated at right of the Movie Magic building. The show is based on Hollywood blacklight display. It’s a spectacular show where each concept is pictured on the concept of black light. The show is about 30-45 minutes.


3. We had a quick bite in one of the shops and proceeded towards the Space Yatra. This is a 20 minute ride to the space. It’s amazing how the idea is conceptualized. This is on the other end of lights camera action building.

The movie magic building seen from the other side
4. Next stop was to the Filmy Duniya. Here you are made to sit on a cart and you travel all around the world. Starting from the golden period to the modern period, it’s a ride you will never forget and that will stay with you for a very long time! This is situated right next to the space yatra.


After this we took pictures with Superman, Batman, Jim Carrey, Cars, Charlie Chaplin, Arnold, Angelina and couple others (All of these are in between the lights camera action and space yatra buildings) and headed towards Borasura.

5. Borasura – The Magician's Workshop.  We were the only ones trapped in this miraculous creation. It was scary yet adventurous. There are places you get lost but eventually you get out. This is situated next to the Carousel ride. If you see a big Blue face with his mouth open, that’s Borasura.


6. We ran towards the Action Theatre. This is located next to the Filmy Duniya. The magic of cinema is fascinating. This is a chance for you to be in it. I literally mean it. It’s a place where they show you how a movie is created and one among the audience gets an opportunity to be a part of the movie if you volunteer to do so. The entire show is about 45 minutes.

7. The last show we witnessed was the Fort Frontier Stunt Show. It’s at the Wild West theatre. This is situated at the Ramoji entrance to the right. The show was at 3:30 P.M. and is pretty amazing. You will witness a full packed action stunt show. Towards the end they give out Ramoji currency but for that you need to be seated on the front.

Wild West














The only show we did not go in the Dadajin Live TV show. It’s situated next to Borasura. It’s purely for kids. I am not sure how the show is but I am assuming the kids would enjoy it.
It started raining but we did not stop. We went towards the bumping car. It is priced at 30 bucks for 15 minutes. I enjoyed my car ride bumping into my friends and unknown people.

Note: We did not have proper lunch but there are couple of places where you can eat. You also have shopping centres and other facilities available such as wheel chairs, first aid, atm, baby feeding room and atm.
It was 5:30 P.M. We booked an Uber and started towards the city. My other friend came an hour late and I was more than happy. It had been more than a year we had not met. Dinner was from the famous Paradise Biryani. Honestly, it was just good, more like dum biryani. I have had better.
Panorama view of the Sun Fountain
Thus, Day 1 came to an end. Day 2 and 3 will be covered in the next part of my blog. Stay tuned. :-)


My favorite picture of the day. (Space Yatra, Filmy Duniya, Action Theatre, Movie Magic & Lights Camera Action)




4 comments:

  1. Awesome Stuff! Keep 'em coming

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  2. 8:00 to 5:30 you guys did so many things! Weren't you tired walking? When clicking pics, was it very crowded? Was there a huge queue for those complimentary rides? Can we go multiple times on the same ride? :-P

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    1. No, we werent tired. We were all the more excited! Since we visited on a Friday, it wasnn't crowded. Weekend, I have heard it gets crowded. No, there wasn't. You might have to wait 5 minutes or so and yes, you can go multiple times :-) I hope I answered all your questions.

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