Visit to Hyderabad

Posted by Nbhat

To start with we had many places to go and many options to utilize. We collected as much information about the show timings and distance between the places and thought decide after a talk with cab driver. Must on the list was light and sound show at Golkonda Fort, laser show at Lumbini park and Salar Jung museum. After discussion with driver, decided to visit Qutub Shahi tombs, then Fort and watch the show at the end before returning to the city. Guide took us on a tour of tombs with some history of rulers of Golkonda. All the tombs have Indo-serasanic architecture and most of them are in good shape though walls are filled with writings.

From Hyderabad

Next was Golkand Fort. The Guide took us on a tour with interesting tidbits- "Tab ke zamane main nachne wale banjar hills pe rehe the the. Ab aja ke banjare, actors politicians wanha raha the hain". If it was not for the guide, we would have missed explanation of water supply system, defense systems and the "Kanwale Diwar"(Where whispers can get louder due to echo). Next was melodramtic light and sound show which takes you through the history Golkonda Fort from time of Yadavas who built mud fort and then Sulathans who fortfied today's structure till it was taken over by Aurangazeb. If you are visiting Golkanda fort this is a must.

On day 2 we visited Salar Jung Museum in the after noon and spent almost 3 hours. Though there is huge collection of art and antiques, the way it was being displayed was dissapointing. Antiques were cramped into places with little or no explaination or context. Now I know how disappointing to go through an photo album without captions. There was museum guide published in 1992 but only Hindi print was available. Though we bought it, was not that useful due to our snail paced reading of Hindi.

We ended city tour with Birl Planetarium and laser show at Lumbini Park

From Hyderabad

What to see

Golkanda Fort - Takes almost 1h 15min for a guided tour and guides are available for Rs 350. Its better to take guide than do your own tresure hunt using the limited sign boards. There is light and sound show explaining history of the rulers at 7:00 to 7:55 PM and during winter it starts at 6:00 PM. Tickets cost Rs 50 or Rs 100. Per guide only extras with Rs 100 ticket are a small bottle of water and packaged fruit juice. To get best seats be there at least 30 mins before the show and best seats watch are 2 left most columns in the 1st section as soon as you enter. There are 3 sections of which middle one is priced higher.

Qutub Shahi Tombs- 2 km ahead of the fort entrance, complex houses tombs of Sulthan, Queen and their commanders. There is also a archealogical museum inside the complex. It takes half an hour for a guided tour and asking price was 350 and after little bargain we brought it down to 200. May be higher price would mean a longer to with more historical information.

Salar Jung museum - Around 38 galleries filled with art and antiques collected by 3 Salar Jungs(Prime minister of Nizam). Requires at least Half day to cover everything. There is free of cost guided tour every one hour. There is a museum shop as soon as you enter where you can buy litreture related to art on display. We could not get the guide book in english as it was out of print and out of stock. There is also a cafeteria inside the museum. Star attractions are marble statue of vieled Rebecca, Double statue and old clock where man comes out ring the bell. Its open 10 AM to 5 PM. Photography not allowed here.

Chariminar - Supposed to be the star attraction of Hyderabad we skipped it and had a look from far away.

Lumbini Park and Hussain Sagar - Hussain Sagar has the Budda Statue and there are boat rides available to the statue from Lumbini Park. Laser show about Hyderabad is a must see.

Birla Mandir, Planetarium, Science Center - Science center also has also on display skeletons of Kotasaurus, as I initially thought it was not found in Kota, Rajasthan but in Yemanapalli, Andrapradesh as indicated by the name K. yamanpalliensis. Science center has lot of activities to understand basic physics