Tourist Attractions:

Saturday Aug 18th we ventured out to some tourist places here and it was pretty impressive. The Salar Jung museum has a decent collection and the clock is always the key attraction. Its kind of unfair that Indian citizens are charged 10 Rs and non Indians are charged 150 Rs. Also all the local galleries downstairs are a bit run down. As soon as you enter the western galleries it is a world of difference.

Next stop was Birla temple. Once you maneuver through the tiny streets and traffic hazards the temple itself is magnificient. The location is just too good and you get a 360 degrees view of Hyderabad where you can see the huge concrete jungle that it has become.

Then we went to Lumbini park where kids had their first taste of slides/swings/sand and all the park things. They were excited. It was pretty good but for the amount of kids there. I guess with 1 billion and counting this cannot be avoided.

A trip to the Buddha statue on a boat was tempting and ended up being a good experience. It’s a quick 10 minute ride and the island is nice. The statue, as I am told, is carved out of a monolith rock.

Laser show was next on Agenda and I think it was highlight of the day. It is a mixture of musical fountains @ Bellagio and Disney worlds “Fantasamic” kind of a show with Laser projections on water fountain. The production value of the show was pretty good with a quick lesson in of Hyderabads history. Overall a great experience enhanced by a cup of Desi Chai during the show.

We ended up the venture at EAT street. This was another amazing place. It is an outdoor food court on the banks of Hussein Sagar lake. Food varied from Pizza, Burgers to Chats, Panipuri, Chole Bhature etc. The Malpuas for dessert were mind boggling. Both Kids and Parents enjoyed as everyone got to have their kind of food.

All in all a great experience and most of the places deserve a second..third visit which is inevitable given the list of people who promised will come over to see us.