Visit to Hyderabad

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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

Into the Mueseum City - Washington DC

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All along the week i was listening to "There are so many museums in Washington DC that you should visit". I choose this Sunday to explore those words. Took the Washington DC Metro and got down at the Smithsonian stop. Out I came and all over there were so many museums. Smithsonian is a group of museums with different themes many of them situated at the national mall. There museums on every aspect of American culture and history. Adding to that was the collection of Asian cultural and historical artifacts.

Braille Signs at the Freer Art Gallery

As usual the plan was something and I ended up doing something else. I was planning to visit air and space museum, the planetarium etc. But first I one visited was the Freer art gallery. It contains ancient artifacts related to the Asian culture. One can find artifacts from China, Japan, Thailand. India and Egypt. Each of sculptures or the artifacts have explanation on the history or how the art evolved and about the religion. Though India is the cradle of Buddhism and Jainism, not sure if there is any such museum which explains the facts in such details. For example different forms of Buddha were explained and there was booklet on identifying the forms of Buddha such as Bodhisattva, Avalokiteśvara. Other interesting sections are on Japanese paintings, evolution of Chinese tea pots, Egyptian figures and many more.

Masks on Display at African Art Museum

Next one to be visited was the African art museum. It has got a big collection of masks and tribal artifacts depicting the African culture. There were also sections on contemporary African art. From here I went to the Slacker Gallery which was closed for renovation except for the exhibit on ceramics. Ceramics from Thailand, China and Japan were on exhibition including films on making ceramics. S Dillon Ripley center is attached to these galleries and has entrance from these. There was a exhibition going on American history which included American Indian, French and British lives, wars and on .
It was time for some food. Apart from fruits and deserts only vegetarian stuff I could find was Greek Salad with lettuce, tomatoes, olive and cheese. With that I went to the cash counter. The girl over there asked me if I was an Indian, not sure what made her think that I was an Indian the skin color or the preference to veg stuff? I was greeted with a "Namasthe" and she made sure to check that she was doing it right. It seems she was holding the hands above her head and somebody corrected her. Later on I realized that first thing they do at the cash counter is greet the customer. May be these systems are in place to make people comfortable who are used to the Mom and Shops( which existed long back in America) and it continues.

"New Fungus Corp" at Hirshhorn Museum

After a heavy meal I visited, Hirshhorn Sculpture museum and the garden. One the day of visit R. Tillman's photo's were on exhibit too. Probably this was the first time I was visiting an art exhibition like this. You could find lot of interesting sculptures, designs and ideas, wall hanging, decorative items. Some of the stuff I like included a mushroom garden made of synthetics, then there was collection of flowers stuck to the wall. There was a dark room which replicated atmosphere of sunset by controlling the light entering the room. One had to go inside and then sit till the eye adjusts to the conditions and relax.
From here I went to Natural History museum. I was just in time for the 3D IMAX movie on "Lions of Kalahari". This was the first I was watching a IMAX movie on the Giant screens. When the lions jumped it looked as if they are jumping at you and there was scene where in a plane flies close to the ground above desert swaying all along which made me feel as if I was sitting in the plane. Once the movie was over I got 45 minutes to roam around. The natural history museum has got a large collection of stuffed animals, skeletons and fossils. At the center is the African Elephant standing on the modeled echo system in Africa. There is a huge gallery on Mammals, fossils from Mesozoic era including Dinosaurs and marine animals that have gone extinct. I could not finish the whole round, thinking of coming back again I left to the hotel at Rockville. By this time I had got accustomed to the metro rail and easily reached back.

Smithsonian Museums