Hyderabad (pt 5)

It's the last day and it's report collection day. The laboratory engineer emailed and he said we need to come earlier because there were some pages that we missed to initial and some corrections to be made. I hope it goes smoothly as we are leaving tonight (ahhhh... I miss my babies). And it's Friday ... mens will go for Friday prayer at noon.

Before going back Hassan is bringing us to one more interesting place in Hyderabad - the Ramoji Film City.  It's about 30km away from town and 10km from CPRI laboratory. This place is a dream world created for the celluloid on a sprawling 2000 acres (1666 acres told by the park tour guide) with every imaginable set and location.

Entrance fee is Rs700 for adult and Rs600 for child. No difference between locals and foreigners.
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Guess what.. I WILL NOT GO TO RAMOJI FILM CITY AGAIN.. EVER!

Ha ha.. well. That's just my opinion because I don't fancy hindi movies and all. This place is about movie sets. They created large parks and imitation buldings like airports,  libraries, hospitals, europe sidewalks, and japanese garden. Entertainment companies will come and hire the sets so that they don't have to go to those places.

Other famous places in Hyderabad are the Tank Bund (Buddha) at Husain Sagar lake, NTR park, Lumbini park, snow world, Birla Mandir Temple and the Hyderabad zoo featuring Himalayan white tiger.

Later after finalising the report we will go for dinner and off to airport. Yay!

Hyderabad (Pt 4)

1. Salar Jung Museum

Well.. museums are museums.. showing all those things from the past. But I'm not really a museum person. He he
Guess what I've discovered? The museum shop!!!.. they sell real fresh water pearls.. and the price is 3 or 4 times lesser than the pearl shop that we went last night near charminar. So I bought a set of pearl necklace with earrings with price 3 times lower than my bracelet... grrr***

They also have a huge range of sarees. Cottons and silk. The price is again soo cheap compared to the wholesale saree shop that we went 2 days ago. And guess what.. I bought 5!  :p

Other things they have with very good price are keychains... pashminas.. Nizam diamond replicas and metal items like dagger etc.

2. Chowmahalla Palace

A really nice palace I must say. Details later :)

3. Golconda Fort
(Built in 1518, completed in1580)

Gol=sheep
Conda=hill

Guide fee:
1h30m full tour - Rs750
1h gnd tour - Rs600

14th century gate
Designed by persian king,  Qutub Shahib

Highest point of the fort.. 500ft asl, which was the kings meeting room.

We did not somehow stay for the light show which commenced at 6.30pm to 7.30pm daily

** Buy silk scarf (again)

Only "scarf shop" have the silk scarf that we like. We tried other shop but couldn't get the same quality/type and the price was rather expensive.

Today the Khans (shop owner) showed us their highest range of fabric.. Ashtous and Pashtous.. made from the best wool in the world from Kashmir. It took 9 month to 1 year to complete 1 scarf. And the price are from Rs20,000!

Btw, 3 terms I learned today in fabric making - handloom, handmade and machine.

** Collect suit at tailor

Wow!!! I love the suit. The pants and the blouse that I've ordered. Long blouse cost me only RM35 to RM45 max.. depending on the material. Because I love it so much I've ordered 2 more blouses and they can do it in 1 day. I paid in full and they will deliver it to the hotel by tomorrow. Yeay!!

According to the guide, we can also visit Falaknuma Palace. Previously a palace, now converted into 7 star hotel. Very nice place he said...

I saw also " Shankaran vizag" on a billboard. Will google more on this.

Well that ends for today.. later

Hyderabad (Pt 3)

Today Hassan brought us to a spice shop to buy sount (india aftermints). There are 2 types of sount - sount top & sount mix. Sount mix is a mixture of spices (**jintan putih etc.) And sount top is sweet sugary white aftermints. Eat together after every meal and you'll get the most refreshing feeling.

The spice shop

Must try this!

Sount mix

We then went to kurta shop where I've bought 2 pairs of men kurta and 1 boy kurta. All at the price of Rs4,000.

Kurta shop and other mens clothing

Next stop was the pearl shop. They have amazing collection of Hyderabad pearls from freshwater to salt water pearl. Their salt water pearl comes in different rare colors like yellow, pinknand black. Their AA grade salt water pearl bracelet cost around Rs60,000 (RM2,700) whilst their AAA grade pearl with gold cost around Rs40,000 (RM1,800)... all comes with free earrings.

Rare collection of seawater pearls

Well, no doubt the pearl bracelet was amazing but I wasn't prepared to buy expensive pearl... so I just grab myself a 2-line white freshwater pearls.

Before we end the night, Hassan again brought us to 4-seasons restaurant because of the kashmiri naan. we really love it besides other dishes that was also amazing. I highly recommend this restaurant to everyone visiting Hyderabad.

From top clockwise : grilled chicken, Kashmiri naan, mutton josh

I'm extremely full and sleepy now. See u readers again...soon

Hyderabad culture

Hyderabad is located in the Andhra Pradesh region where 75% are  Muslims. Nornally the Sunni and Syiah will live in the same area and the Hindus on the other side of the city. But these 3 never fight. Good ;)

Syiah and sunni have separate masjids normally located side by side. I notice they love to use tiger in their signage.. something like tigers were guiding the masjids, hokding swords.  These must be the syiahs. I don't know. I'll ask the locals.

Peoples are everywhere. And they have got sonething to do. Never sitting down doing nothing. They sell almost anything .. by the roadside.i even bought a huge tent for only Rs500 (RM25). that's awesome! 

And owh.. mens always seen to urinate on the wall.. by the roadside.. ewww

Homeless are everywhere. And there are also super rich people living in the city. Amazing culture. Awesome experience.

The best combination.. Rotti, Dhal and ginger prawn....!!!

Hyderabad (Pt 2)

It's day 2... we start work very early today with ambition that we will complete most of the test as per schedule. But it didn't hapoen as planned.. there were some problem with the test sets and we completed the day with only 2 tests (out of 3) done.

The driver took us to the tailor downtown. . And guess what. . I spent Rs7,600 (close to RM400) to get 3 trousers.. 2 suits.. and 2 blouses. Amazing!



Fitting at tailors for our suits

I bought also 1 very fine saree.. a really nice one ; ) also 2 ladies kurta. Awesome...

We then had middle east dinner at the 4 seasons restaurant. Awesome foods!! I would highly recommend Kashmiri Naan. It's sooooo good. The mutton soup is also marvelous. And the lamb kabsah.. everything! And it cost so little.



My fine saree.. Yay!



My Rs 2,500 saree(around RM125)

Choosing the nicest saree. price range is huge...



Awesome meals at 4 seasons
From top clockwise : ?? naan, utton kabsah, chicken kurma, mint chilli blended

Owh ..forgot to mention.. yesterday we ate at Paradise.. awesome curry and briyani

That ends day 2. I'm super tired.

Bye2

Our driver Hasan was so kind to bring us to his house. He wanted to introduce his family to us
From Left : Sufyan, Hasan's wife, Me, Hasan's daughter in law, Salman, Hasan, Ian Lee

My most favourite - indian aftermints (soft)

Hyderabad (Pt 1)

It's day 1.. don't have much time to look around but we were lucky enough to have a very nice driver who was willing to drive us around the city and show us few main attractions of Hyderabad.

First he showed us the Buddha in the middle of Husin Sagar Lake. Then he brought us to a craft shop, where I bought a silk scarf... a very fine one. Cost me Rs1,000 (around RM50+)

We then went to the Nizam Museum to see stuff from the King Nizam's empire... full of silver and gold I must say.

Then we went to the charminar and Mecca Masjid. The entrance for charminar is Rs5 for local and Rs100 for foreigners.  Crazy!

View of Charminar (left with 4 minarets) from Makkah Masjid

So what is Charminar? It is as much signature of Hyderabad as the Eiffel Tower of Paris and was built by the founder of Hyderabad Md. Quli Qutub Shah in 1591. The four graceful minarets stand at the heart of the city in the midst of the busy market.

Charminar and muslim ladies of Hyderabad

And why Macca Masjid? The moqsue is situated adjacent to Charminar.  A few bricks from Mecca which are embedded in the walls of this impressive mosque gave its name. Originally started by Sultan Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, it was completed by the conqueror Aurangazeb.

He then wanted to bring us to the bangle and jewellery shop but we were too tired and all we need was just to go back to the hotel and rest.

So good nite for today.

Ta ta

Hyderabad, India

Assalamualaikum. . Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. ..

I'm travelling again. Suprise huh!
I really thought that Saudi will be my last overseas trip for 2013. Rezeki.. Alhamdulillah

I was a bit scared. Sceptical about India... people say so many things about India. About the food.. the water.. the air etc.

I did not have much time to prepare (medicine, thermal flask, mask etc.) or even pack my bag. Only started packing at 4.30pm and the cab arrived at 6.15pm. He he

So that night we left for Hyderabad at about 10.20pm and supposed to arrive in 4 hours.

May Allah bless our journey.

Insyaallah

Happy Birthday

Yay. .. it's our birthday today.
Thank u Allah for giving us another year to live
Alhamdulillah

We went out to Bubba Gump @ Sunway Pyramid to have some dinner celebration. Apparently my darling husband had requested for a suprise bithdy treat for the birthday girls. And the staff came and requested us to stand on the chair and give some speech to each other. They sang for us an they suprised us with a warn chocolate cake with awesone vanilla ice cream. It was great...

We then had our "ritual tradition" of gift-changing "ceremony"... and came to the suprise.. we both bought each other BODY SHOPs... ha ha.. TWINS! !

So that ended our awesome birthday dinner.

Syukur alhamdulillah