The main reason for our leg to Hyderabad was to look into my family heritage (Mum and Granddad) My mum spent part of her child hood here and my granddad (Qasim Razvi) was a very powerful man who was good friends with Osman Ali Khan(7th nizam). Well I had a romantic dream of this city, one that saw cleanliness, greenery and extreamly friendly people. This is how my mum had described her childhood. 

We arrived on a very late train into Securabad Railway station and this was huge. We got a auto rickshaw to take us to the Abids part of Hyderabad and help us look at a few hotels. We finally settled on the Hotel Suhil which was large, clean had a western toilet and was a bargain. The hotel was tucked away behind the main street so it was very quiet. We decided to relax today and planned to go to Golconda fort tomorrow. We ordered room service which was very spicy and not very good, hence the reason for the following. I was order to hunt some biscuits for the wife because her mouth was on fire. 2 rules remember where you are staying and remember the name. Quietly confident i ventured in hunt. 1/2 hour later I found some biscuits and made my way back. I got lost and started to get eggy. I asked a guy but he couldn't understand me, I finally returned.

Next day we went to golconda fort. We hired a autorickshaw and off we went. He waited for us and 2 guides kept pesturing us. We walked around and its lovely with gardens and a challenging hill climb. There were great view from the top of the surrounding city. Lots of indians wanted pictures with us and we believed we were gonna be famous. We met one indian couple from Calcutta who were here on a mini break. They walked around with us for a while and we even had the pleasure of meeting the ageing mum (2 hands together and "NAMESTE")

Next day we were very excited because we were going to Ramoji Film City. We were gonna see,smell and hear a mini bollywood studio. How wrong could you be!!!!!! A kids playground in a park offers more thrills. We arrive and get ushered through the most long winded ticketing system ever. Everyone once inside was ushered into various holding areas like sheep and made to see tacky shows which were the pits. We then hoped we could walk around the sets but no we had to sit on a Noddy bus which winded its way around and the guide spoke hindi all the way. It then dumped us and we had to sweat wobble all the way back to the start. We then sat around and saw random familys walk past lke they were really excited. Ellie had to make mad dashes to the toilet. We were both hungry so we ate in diner which was producing mock chips on a sub standard scale. I think the highlight was the midget show at the end. A midget dressed up in leathers being a numpty. You felt the day was well worth the entrance fee.

Next day Ellie was stuck to the toilet the whole day, luckily she was kept company by an extended family of cockroaches - they must have checked in the day after us. 

Next day Ellie felt better so we went to the Salaar Jung museum which was a bore. I was looking for some history on the Nizams but found the most interesting thing was packed hall of people getting amused by a clock chiming on the hour, these need to get out more. We left and saw a sign for the Nizam Museum and this was very interesting. It had pictures and items from the time.

Our bus was booked for 9.30 in the evening to take us onto Hampi. It was very comfortable and the journey although bumpy because of the air suspension was very quick.

Our impressions on Hyderabad were noisey, smelly, dirty and we found the majority of people hostile. I think this is something we wern't ready for but glad we went and saw my mums history. 

Next stop HAMPI...................................