Hyderabad Tour - Hotel Sitara and Ramoji Film City

Girish and I @ GGB, SF
We, my husband Girish and I, started this tour on the 16th of June 2012 after a lot of hiccups. We discussed a few spots in India which turned out to be very expensive. Finally, we settled for the princely state of Hyderabad. A friend said, "I am surprised that you did not chose a hill station." I found myself saying that I am not extremely fond of hill stations. I am more lured by the pomp and glory of the cities!

Normally, travel agencies give you packaged tours which include accommodation, sight seeing and perhaps a few entry tickets as well. Our plan was sudden and our travel agent failed to give us good deals that matched our budget. So we had to try a few options before giving in for Hotel Sitara at Ramoji Film City (RFC). RFC is situated a good 30 kms away from the city. We chose to stay there as there was an extended summer carnival going on in RFC.
Hotel Sitara in the Lighting Show


RFC is not a one day affair. You have a plenty of spots to visit inside this 1500 acres or so of Filmy Duniya! There are a lot of gardens with funny names (and humorous descriptions as the guide would give it), a lot of buildings (like the godless temple, doctorless hospital, the two in one city and village railway stations), rides, some fun for children and shows as well.

Hotel Sitara is a Luxury Hotel (still undecided whether it is a 4 star or 5 star one) with a beautiful lobby, icy cold restaurant named Galaxy compensated by the warmth of the exceptionally hospitable staff and great rooms! The hotel reminded me so much of Flamingo in Las Vegas! We are not insanely rich to afford their almost 7k per day tariffs. We would not even have stepped in if not for their package!
The Lobby of Hotel Sitara. Does it look Victorian?
On the 17th morning, when the Rain Gods chose to play badminton, we enjoyed their free guided tour. The Guide,a witty guy who was forced to speak three different languages by his clients, had a funny English. He took us to the Ajanta Ellora Caves, the Ramayana Setting, through the English lanes, and around the gardens, across the jail which was also perhaps the Agra Fort and Taj Mahal.
Ramayana: We took the first seats in the bus and jumped off to get these pictures before the others could get down. Smart, eh!
To remember the guide, you can walk from the Agra to England in our Ramoji Film City.

The English Lanes.

I enjoyed the tour thoroughly and amazed at the gardens and POP buildings! I also wondered at the aunt or grandmother in our bus who kept applying Maybelline compact to her baby girl’s face. The one hour tour was a splendid one and we promised ourselves to walk all the way down next morning to have a closer a look at the gardens ( especially the Ooh La La song garden). Hardly did we know that the Rain Gods were planning downpour all the while.

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