After beginning this year with a visit to the UAE, then Singapore, Malaysia & Thailand later in the year, I capped off my 2010 travels with a trip to Hyderabad. The main purpose of the visit was to attend a friend’s wedding, but we (my usual travel buddies Ramesh and Loiyumba) decided to go a bit early to do a bit of sight-seeing.
This wasn’t my first visit to the capital of Andhra Pradesh. I first came to Hyderabad in 2002 to visit my brother when he worked there briefly.
In some ways I was looking forward to this trip because it was after a span of nearly 9 years that I got to travel by train again. We boarded the Kacheguda Express from Bangalore Cantonment station in the evening.
Loi didn't wait too long to cuddle up in his sleeping bag and doze off
We arrived in Kacheguda station (not Hyderabad’s main railway station) at a chilly 5:45am. We had reserved a room for us three at Nand International, a nearby hotel, so we figured we could walk it there. But after walking for around a minute or two, we couldn’t spot the hotel and the auto drivers we passed by were telling us they could take us there for just Rs. 10. Figuring it was cold and we had luggage, we got in… and literally 5 seconds later, up the same Station road we were at, we were dropped at Nand International! Pissed at the fact all he had to tell us was to walk a few steps further to get here, we shouted at the auto driver — but relented from ruining our morning and just paid him Rs. 10 to get lost.
We checked in to our three person bedroom/family room.
Costs Rs. 870 ($19/€13) per night for this centrally air-conditioned room
Since we were still sleepy, we crashed for a few hours.
Got up around noon, had tea and pondered about where to have lunch. In a city famed for its food, we weren’t keen on hitting up the street food joints near Charminar straight away. So we decided to go to a place called Eat Street.
Cost nearly Rs. 60 to get here by auto from Kacheguda Station Road
Eat Street is just some food court by Hussain Sagar Lake, one of the largest man made lakes in India. We passed through scanners (apparently security is pretty tight in Hyderabad) and walked in to a not-so-busy food court.
We checked out the various stalls, some open open for business… some not. You get your usual choice of South Indian, biriyani (of course), chaats, western fast food, etc. But despite being in the city famous for its biriyani, I wasn’t going to eat it from just about anywhere.
So I had burger, fried chicken strips and fries instead. Lame, I know.
Ramesh and Loi both tried out the biriyani and they described the food as: “sucks” and “horrible”. So there.
Loiyumba took this photograph using his cameraHussain Sagar lake (Photograph by Loiyumba)There are boat rides in the evening to go to the Buddha statue (Photograph by Loiyumba)
Post-lunch, we already feeling a sense of ‘boredom’ and wondered what to do next.
We left Eat Street and aimlessly walked through the park around the lake
There was book fair going onIt was the annual Hyderabad Book Fair
Considering none of us have the habit of reading books much, we left fairly quickly
Crossed the road over to Prasads
The one good thing about Hyderabad is that they have an IMAX screen, and it can be found at Prasads on Tank Bund Road. The security was pretty tight before entering here as well (I take it’s because of the Telangana issue?). We checked out the mall a bit before going to collect our pre-booked tickets for Tron which was playing.
After checking out Prasads, we stepped out, took an autorickshaw and went to see Charminar, Hyderabad’s iconic structure.
There are many old bazaars leading up to Charminar... and traffic was very congested
We eventually asked the auto driver to stop and decided to walk it further up.
Plenty of pearl stores here, Hyderabad pearls are quite famous
The road goes all around CharminarI ate from here on the third day, really good South Indian food!
Charminar literally translates to “four towers”. Minar or minaret being the towers or pointy structures you find in just about every mosque and char which just means four.
Built by ruler Qutb Shah in 1591 ADThere was a queue going half way around CharminarOld coins for sale. Genuineness unconfirmed.We queued up, paid the Rs. 5 entry fee and entered
You climb narrow stairs up one of the minars
The walls were quite coldYou obviously get a better picture of the surrounding from up here
But walking through the halls, I couldn’t really help but not ignore something.
The wallsIt's quite apparent how badly the walls have been vandalized the past few years by callous visitorsAt least the ceilings were hard to reachIt's an appalling sight in many of our heritage monumentsDespite the efforts to curb the practice and a law making it a punishable offence...... even to this day, to some worthless citizens of this country, it's still a joke. As if these historical monuments are just another building to them.
Laad bazaar a.k.a 'bangles street' -- guess why it's called soThe open hall in between the four minarets
Five pigeons
Traffic is quite messy (and very busy) around CharminarMecca Masjid, where we were headed nextNizamia Unani Hospital, opposite Mecca Masjid
It was time to head back downDown another minar we went
Charminar done, we decided to sit in a cafe to have something to drink.
Ramesh played it safe with Pepsi, while myself and Loi had *extremely* sweet faloodaAs seen inside the cafe Looks like there is a parallel film industry within Hyderabad making low-budget unofficial sequels to mainstream film releases 🙂
Excessive sugar intake complete, we decided to quickly step inside Makkah Masjid.
The markets are quite bustling in these partsMecca Masjid is the biggest mosque in Hyderabad and one of the oldest in India
You have to leave your bag and shoes at the counter and walk barefoot once past the gates.
People had gathered to see hundreds of pigeons being fed grainsNot very exciting... but still
It's always such a photo moment when hundreds of them fly away at onceI decided to check out the mosqueThe main prayer hallWonder what those honeycomb-like bags holdWent around the mosque
Pigeons, pigeons... there are a lot of themNeedless to say, there's a lot of pigeon poop on the ground
We left the mosque and decided to call it a day.
Took a rickshaw back to our hotelThat's a heap of bread crumbs and rusk being sold in bulk. Not very hygienic in these conditions I would presume.
Once back in Nand International, I was quite cheesed off. Despite claiming to provide 24 hours hot water, when I opened the tap, I only got cold water. Went to the reception to complain and the man with a straight face told me it only comes on from 6am to 6pm. I then raised my voice and told him “well, that’s not what it says on your website!” and demanded I need hot water as it was quite cold (which it was outside). Only then did I get a bucket of hot water. So a big thumbs down for Nand International because of that.
Post rant, we concluded day one in Hyderabad with dinner at nearby three-star hotel restaurant where we had, yes, biriyani.
It was alright, but I would have much better biriyani in the next few days.
After two wonderful days in beautiful Langkawi, it was now time for the last leg of our journey. We reached Langkawi airport for our morning flight to Kuala Lumpur. After having our breakfast at Kenny Rogers Roasters (not a whole lot of options at the airport), we checked in and waited for our 11:45am flight.
Our flight was on time (Above photos taken on Nokia E72)
We all sat together but Ramesh chose the window seat. The following are his photographs.
That’s a wavebreaker
We landed at Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Terminal nearing 1pm and was out in 30 minutes. There were plenty of buses from KL LCCT to KL Sentral, which is the main transportation hub in Kuala Lumpur city.
We got a ManU fan for a driverThe bus ride costs RM8 (Rs. 117/$2.7)Soon after, it began to rain heavilyBut halfway through the journey, the rain stopped
Malaysia’s landmark in the distanceAfter nearly an hour, we arrived at KL Sentral
After reaching KL Sentral, we then hired a taxi to where were staying.
It cost us RM35 from KL Sentral to Berjaya Times Square
(Above photos taken on Nokia E72)
After a 15 minute journey, we reached Berjaya Times Square. There is a metro service from KL Sentral to Berjaya Times Square, but with our luggage, we decided to just take a cab.
We chose Irsia after much deliberation and researching on the location. We made our booking for a triple room.
Which by the way, looks like this
After freshening up and making our payments, we headed to Berjaya Times Square for lunch.
Berjaya Times Square is relatively old but still remains one of Malaysia’s biggest and popular shopping destinations. It’s pretty huge, with 7 floors of shopping — high ends brands in the lower floors and more affordable stuff in the higher up floors. There’s also a 5-star hotel, Berjaya Hotel — among other things.
(Photograph by Loiyumba)
We headed all the way up to the 10th floor to the food court. We chose our meals from a place selling ‘mock non-veg’ food.
Pick and choose
By that I mean, stuff that looks like chicken and fish but are actually vegetarian because they are essentially soya-filled made to look like non-veg items.
The view from up here
When I mentioned “among other things” earlier…
… there’s also an indoor theme park with a rollercoaster inside the building
I tried to the get the whole theme park section of the building in one frameWe stepped outAnd decided to check out the area we were in
We chose to stay at Irsia because it was close to a lot of places we wanted to go. One among them being Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur’s famous IT mall.
After crossing the road, it was a short walk to Low Yat
This isn’t the main entrance6 floors of gadgets
I couldn’t get to spend much time in Singapore’s IT malls to pick up the things I wanted, so I consoled myself assuming I could get them at Low Yat.
Sadly, the selection of camera tripods weren’t very exhaustive and I couldn’t really find everything I wanted. Also, more importantly, the prices we found for some items were far more than what we saw in Singapore. There isn’t an incentive for tourists either via a tax refund scheme like Singapore has with its GST refund and Thailand has with its VAT refund scheme.
I checked out pretty much every floor
After lingering around for nearly 30 minutes, we left.
We were soon on Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur’s popular shopping district.
A short walk from here is Jalan Alor, also nicknamed ‘Food Street’.
Not buzzing just quite yet
Quite a lot of malls in Bukit Bintang
KL’s monorail service (Photograph by Loiyumba)We were walking towards Malaysia’s world famous landmarkIt’s tall, but it isn’t KL TowerThat’s where we were headed — Petronas Twin TowersI had plans to go to Menara KL too
Menara KL (or KL Tower) is in fact taller than Petronas towers, but that’s because it’s perched atop a hillEven half of one tower is impressive to look at
Suria KLCC is the shopping mall (KLCC is the convention centre I believe)Plenty of bank headquarters in and around Petronas TowersStunning
We walked into Suria but there was a sign saying at certain sections of the mall, photography is prohibited. So we just kept our cameras in and walked through the mall and out the main entrance of Petronas Towers.
Petronas is the Malaysia’s national oil company — and one of Asia’s largest companies. Petronas Towers is the company’s headquarters, thought I’m not sure if all 88 floors are Petronas’ offices.
But what an office to work in!The lobby is quite niceThat’s the Skybridge observation deck. We planned to go check it out in the morning.
The reason why we we didn’t want to go up to the skybridge is because, one, we were already late as the skybridge closes at 5pm and two, there is a particular method to which you need to get the tickets to visit the observation deck — which I’ll get to in a later post.
I had to step back a bit to get the whole building in my wide angle
We attempted a portrait shot of all three of us in front of the Petronas Towes, but because we didn’t have a tripod with us, Ramesh fit the tripod on his camera and used his Kata bag to stand the camera.
Me donating some money to some Chinese school girlAfter a few attempts, we managed to get the shot
The Malaysian MotoGP was happening the following week, and they had some competing superbikes on display.
After nearly an hour just staring at this beautiful building, we finally left the base of Petronas Towers.
The Petronas Towers are a symbol of modern day Malaysia. Just like Burj-Al-Arab signifies Dubai, and now Burj Khalifa, the Petronas Towers are an architectural icon. Inaugurated in 1998, even to this day, the Petronas Towers design stands as ‘modern’ – and yet, truly Asian in its influence as it can be. No visit to Malaysia is complete without having seen what was once the tallest building(s) in the world.
Even though Taipei 101 took over the throne of “Tallest building in the world” in 2004 (until Burj Khalifa did the same in 2010), the Petronas Towers are still one of the best looking skyscrapers in the world in my opinion. It shows how important good architecture is in creating a true global landmark. You can play the game of attempting to build the tallest structure in the world, but unless it looks good, the investment is futile.
If you disagree, just go around and ask people if they are aware of ‘Taipei 101’.
TANGS is a department store
We walked back and through some of the malls in Bukit Bintang district.
Musicians performing in front of Pavilion MallPavilion Crystal Fountain, the Tallest Liuli Crystal Fountain in MalaysiaJapan’s UNIQLO is now in Kuala Lumpur’s Fahrenheit 88 mallThis Ferrari F430 was parked in front of Fahrenheit 88 mall
There are a few street performers at Bukit BintangThese guys were trying to perform street dancing but looked nervous when the crowd grew bigBukit Bintang monorail station
It was time for us to now figure out what to eatSo we headed to Jalan Alor a.k.a ‘Food Street’Quite a change of scene from earlier isn’t it?
These restaurants even sprinkle water in the air to cool off its guests
While myself and Loiyumba found enough options for dinner, as was the norm on this trip, Ramesh didn’t. So I ordered what I wanted to eat, so that we could head to some place Ramesh could get his dinner.
I ordered some duck dish, forgot what it was calledWas tempted to order some seafood tooA lot of the restaurants on Jalan Alor are Chinese
It maybe a bustling place by night, but if you feel like staying amidst all the food, here are some hotels on Jalan Alor:
Apple Inn (http://www.appleinn.com.my/)
Once I got my takeaway, we headed back to our rooms only to stop at the 24-hour Subway store on Bukit Bintang where Ramesh picked up his dinner. (There’s also a 24-hour KFC on the same road)
We also pick up a few drinks from a convenience store on the way and had our dinner outside our hotel, where Irsia had put up a few tables for its guests.
My dinnerWhen I say we stayed right behind Berjaya Times Square, I’m not kidding
Dinner over, we hit the bed early. Our plans were to go see the famous Batu Caves tomorrow, which we knew were on the outskirts of KL… which meant getting up a bit early.
So what was our first impression of KL? Not so good, to be honest. In fact, after a whirlwind 3 days in Singapore during a buzzing F1 weekend, it’s understandable we were a bit disappointed with Kuala Lumpur. But the fact is, things are a lot cheaper in KL, so it’s no surprise Malaysia’s capital city isn’t as glamourous as glitzy Singapore. Unfair comparison I’d say.
Oh well, we still had two more days in the city to change our minds about the place.
(All currency conversions below are approximations as of the date of posting)
My flight landed at 5am at Suvarnabhumi International Airport. My first impressions of the airport? Big.
Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok (taken on my Nokia E72)
But sometimes I wonder if it’s too big for its own good. I took a lot of travelators after disembarking and then took a right… to take some more moving walkways.
I finally reached the counter where Visa on Arrival applicants had to queue up. The 15-day Visa on Arrival scheme is only open to a few countries, India being one of them. I decided to opt for Visa on Arrival because before departing, I got to know that up until March 10, 2010, there are no fees. So, basically free. Since my travel was going to be on a budget (‘cos in Thailand, you can do it on a budget) , I figured it was one of the things I could save money on. And I wasn’t the only one. The entire line was 90% Indians with the remaining 10% from countries I couldn’t probably spell correctly off the top of my head.
The form I had downloaded and filled up in advance was of no use as the form given at the counter looked different. I took the new form, filled it up, attached two passport-sized photographs and waited in line.
Annoyingly, there was only one officer manning the counter that time and it was painfully slow. So slow that by the time I got my passport stamped, it was 2 hours that I had stood in line! Very tiring. I probably won’t do Visa on Arrival next time if this is how it is going to be. After that, I collected my luggage fairly easily (I mean, after 2 hours, it was bound to be on the conveyor belt!) and then finished up all the procedures to get out the airport.
Then began the second phase of ‘annoying’. Suvarnabhumi has a network of escalators and lifts that only connect even and odd floors. For example, if I needed to get to the 3rd floor from 4th, I had to take the escalator to the 2nd and then take a lift to the 3rd floor. It was quite confusing but I had to get to the Dtac counter at the airport. I took a local prepaid SIM from them and it was weird how easy it was to get one. I mean, they looked at my passport but other than that, I don’t even remember filling up a form or even giving them photos, an address proof etc. like how it is out here. I even activated GPRS and got my number. Cost me 199 baht (Rs. 277).
Once my number was activated, I then headed to the ground floor to take a metered taxi to Petchburi Road.
Most of the taxi drivers don’t speak English
I decided to head straight to Petchburi Road because it was where Pantip Plaza was located. But first, I needed to get a room. I asked the taxi driver to stop at First Hotel Bangkok on Petchburi Road. The ride cost me 320 baht (Rs. 440). I went to First Hotelbecause it was on the main road and it was one of the hotels I had selected based on internet research. The lady at the reception showed me the rate card which showed over 2000 baht for a single room but soon scratched it and said she can give it to me at special rate of 1600 baht (Rs. 2,200) but the check out time was 12pm. I took the brochure and told her that I’ll be back. I stepped out because even though 1600 baht seemed like a good deal, I wasn’t going to be in my room much as my plan was to freshen up and then step out to get my camera. I also intended on leaving for Krabi that night itself.
I walked up a bit and was approached by several taxi drivers who said they could find me good hotels but I decided to go on without their help. Then a Tuk Tuk driver who was posted near Pantip Plaza called me and asked me if I was looking cheap rooms. Now, during my research on Thailand, a common word of advice I came across was to avoid Tuk Tuk drivers. Mostly because they often charge tourists the same amount of money (if not more) the taxis charge. This guy offered to take me around for 30 baht. I thought, what the heck. Couldn’t be any worse than our autos right? But then he told me about his ‘plan’. He would take me the tourism office and there, he asked me to just sit and listen to what the guys had to offer based on my needs. He asked me to sit for at least 10mins so that he would get a “gas coupon”. I went to the tourism office (which turns out was just an authorized travel agent) and the guy there showed me a hotel which would cost 1600 baht. I then told him that was the same rate I could have stayed at First Hotel and I needed a place I could stay without that annoying 12pm check out rule. He then lowered it to 1400 baht (Rs. 1,900) and said it was no problem, I could check-in now itself.
So I paid for it and went to The Best Bangkok House. It was just off Petchburi Road and not very far from the overbridge to Pantip Plaza. The A/C room I got was clean and well equipped with a working TV (& remote), refrigerator, clean bathroom and a twin size bed. They have internet but only at the reception and you had to pay for it.
I took a nice warm bath and just as I stepped out thinking I’ll go shopping, the fact that I was up all night and how painful it was at Suvarnabhumi, the snooze-factor started to kick in. I was sooooo damn tired and just crashed on my bed.
I set the alarm for 12pm but only got up at 1:45pm. Realizing I didn’t have much of the day left, I headed straight for Pantip Plaza.
Pantip Plaza in Bangkok
Pantip is Bangkok’s (if not Thailand’s) most popular IT mall. And by that I mean, the hub for grey market goods and pirated CDs, DVDs, software etc. It’s like National Market in Bangalore, only this is a 5 storey building with escalators and air conditioning. I checked Pantip first because I also had ask around for some stuff my friends wanted. A lot of the shops stocked the Canon 7D and it was available for as low as 52,000 baht (Rs. 72,000). I also asked around for the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 wide angle lens but most didn’t stock the Canon mount.
MBK Center, Bangkok (actually taken on 21/12/2009)
MBK used to be one of the biggest malls in Asia when opened in 1985 but even though there are swankier malls in Bangkok, it remains hugely popular even to this day. The reason I went there was for a store called Fotofile. When researching for camera shops of repute in Thailand, Fotofile was a name that often came up among photographers. They also happen to manage the official Canon store in MBK.
I got my Canon 7D body from them for 55,800 baht (Rs. 78,000). I also picked up a nice camera bag for 1500 baht (Rs. 2,000).
Top left: Kosin, the sales guy I mostly dealt withOld Canon cameras on display at the showroom
Fotofile has like 2-3 stores in MBK alone and more in and around Bangkok. I went to the one on the ground floor as they stocked second hand lenses as well. They too didn’t have the Tokina lens so I ended up picking up the Canon 10-22mm f3.5 wide angle from them and since I didn’t feel like going back to Pantip, I picked up a 16GB CF card and a filter for the 10-22mm from the same store.
The good thing about buying from popular stores like Fotofile was that I could bargain (everything I picked up, I bought it at lower prices than what they initially quoted) and they are authorized to offer the 7% VAT Refund for tourists.
NOTE: The 7% VAT refund can only be claimed at the airport upon departure and you need to hand over a yellow form which is filled up at the store and given to the buyer. I saw some Indian tourists trying to show a bunch of receipts at the office in Suvarnabhumi and were denied. The minimum amount is 2000 baht I believe and it can even be a collective amount. For eg: if I bought from 4 different stores in MBK or Siam Center, I can get a7% VAT refund form from a counter at the mall for the 4 bills totalling 2000 baht or more.
Grey market stores may be cheaper but all they are really doing is excluding the taxes they are supposed to impose on the sale and thereby passing on that reduction as a “discount”. Most stores (the many small ones) in Pantip Plaza do not give 7% VAT Refund.
Coming back to Fotofile, I ended up picking up everything on my credit card, for which they said there will be a 2% surcharge. I decided to reserve the cash in case of emergencies.
After picking up my gear, I went to the food court at MBK to grab something to eat. The food court at MBK works on a coupon system. You pay 100 baht (it can be any denomination) and you are given coupons in sums of 5, 10, 20 and so on totalling 100. They had several counters catering to all sorts of variety but I opted for a sea food fried rice.
Sea food fried rice consisting of prawns and squid (85 baht)
After lunch and encashing the remaining coupons, I walked around the same floor and came across a lot of clothes shops. Not branded ones but just small ones selling T-shirts and other gear. I’ll write about all this in detail in a later post. I picked up a pair of shorts because I really didn’t feel like wearing pants in the Thailand heat for the rest of my journey.
I remember the travel agent telling me that the bus to Krabi would leave at 5:30pm but by the time I was done with shopping, it was already past 6pm. I was quite tired with all the running around and told myself that this was supposed to be a vacation and decided to take it easy and leave for Krabi the next morning. Plus, I only needed to check out of my room 9am the next day.
I freshened up and checked out my haul.
All the camera equipment I bought from Fotofile (Photo taken on the E72)
I kept the batteries for charging and stepped out for dinner which was mostly deep-fried sausages from a street vendor near Pantip Plaza where an open-air karaoke was taking place and some snacks from a 7-Eleven.
The room I stayed in. Also the first photo I took on my 7D with the wide angle lens
I re-packed and called it a night after that as I had to wake up early the next day.
We checked out the various stalls, some open open for business… some not. You get your usual choice of South Indian, biriyani (of course), chaats, western fast food, etc. But despite being in the city famous for its biriyani, I wasn’t going to eat it from just about anywhere.
But walking through the halls, I couldn’t really help but not ignore something.
Charminar done, we decided to sit in a cafe to have something to drink.
We left the mosque and decided to call it a day.
