Hyderabad trip - Day 1

It all began way back in August when Ramya, my sis-in-law, hatched a plan to visit Hyderabad, her favourite destination, during Diwali in October end - November first week with everyone. But during the course of time, everyone eventually had to back out of this trip and once again only myself and Soumya were on it. The tickets had been booked a month in advance for onward journey by bus on 30th Oct thru Diwakar travels (sleeper coach) and return journey by train on 3rd Nov as it was festive season and confirmed tickets would be hard to get. Our accommodation at Hyderabad was also booked by one of her dad's colleague - Singh, for 4 days starting 31st Oct. At the APTDC office in Bangalore, we had booked the Ramoji Film City tour for 1st Nov and Hyderabad local sightseeing tour for 2nd. So, everything was set well in advance. On 30th, my father-in-law dropped us to the bus stand where we boarded the coach at around 9 PM. It was an AC coach and we couldn't sleep for most part of the journey.

We reached Hyderabad early morning by 6:15 AM and got down at a place called Lakdi-ka-pul. We waited for few minutes when Singh Uncle came on his bike to drop us to the hotel he had booked. We took an auto to the hotel and the first thing I noticed was, meters don’t work here too. It took 20 mins to reach Nandini hotel (near Central Bus Stand), and on the way, the city looked more or less like Bangalore. The weather was cold, water had settled on the roads due to slight rains overnight. All thru the way, Soumya was recollecting all the areas she remembered.

At the hotel, Singh Uncle insisted we hire an auto to tour around Hyderabad, but as we had already booked the tours, we had to reject his idea. He also invited to his house, but we didn't say anything as our itinerary was packed. After he left, we slept for a while and refreshed. We had breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel at 10:30 and by 11 stepped out of it. Our first day's plan was to visit Koti, Patny Centre, meet her friend, NTR Gardens, and then return back. Ramya had insisted we take photos of all the areas we visited.

First we went to Koti, which looked more like Chickpet of Bangalore. A small street with loads of shop on either side, mostly selling women's fashion items. She purchased a pair of earrings and a wallet for her grandpa. Next, we took a bus from near CBS to Patny Centre. Patny Centre, 6 years back, was a famous shopping area it seems. Now, it looked like any normal area. We went to Charma's over there, and shopped for our Diwali dresses.

Later, we went to Kamat restaurant nearby and had our lunch by around 2:30 PM. I was hoping this restaurant would serve authentic Hyderabadi meals, but it was more Karnataka like. After lunch, she called her friend - Manjari Akka, who used to be her roommate while she was doing her engineering at Anantpur. Akka asked us to come to Secunderabad station which was very close by. We waited for nearly 45 mins at the station before Akka finally turned up. She took us to her home in a rick.

At her home, they both were recollecting all the good old times they spent. I couldn't understand much as most of the conversation was in Telugu. We spent about 2 hours at her place, hogged some more, before finally leaving for NTR Gardens by taking a rick.

We reached NTR Gardens at around 7 PM, and it had begun to drizzle. NTR Gardens is a small public park, adjacent to Hussain Sagar lake and is close to other places like Birla Mandir, Lumbini Gardens and Necklace Road. The entry ticket was Rs. 25 per head. This garden had few fountains, some amusement rides - Columbus & Tora-Tora and a famous artificial tree too.

We took a ride in Columbus and were pretty much excited screaming like hell. Later, we visited the entire park and came out of it. As we walked, we saw Prasads to the left, which was a popular mall in Hyderabad. We went to Prasads, which was a very crowded mall, and visited all floors. Over here, there was some mirror maze amusement and we went to it, and it was too good.

After seeing all stores, we came out of Prasads, asked for route to bus stand, and went back to the hotel. We had our dinner at the restaurant and went to sleep. For the next day, we had to be at the APTDC office by 8 AM!