Location is the best part about this place. You are right in the centre of everything. All the attractions and shopping was within walking distance or easily accessible by public transport. The place itself is average and maintenance was below average and can use a renovation. We had opted for a lake view room, however all the lake we could see was from one window only that too through the space between two buildings between the Dewitt Place and Lakeshore drive. While booking also our experience was not very good as the Hotel site did not offer booking for three nights we wanted, hence I booked it at booking.com for USD495, after a few days, while looking for one night booking for the return trip, I found that the same room was available for USD 405 at booking.com only, hence I cancelled the previous booking and booked afresh at lesser rate.

The day after we reached Hyderabad we had almost the whole day on our hands, so we decided to go to Ramoji film city. Though it is advisable to reach early in the morning but we first went to register at the conference. It took us close to two hours to reach Ramoji. Soumya fell asleep on the way. Once there we took a special package of Rs.1200/- per adult and Rs.1000/- for child which included lunch at the buffet restaurant, free bottle of water, coldrink, free caps and some Snacks. We were allowed to take our private car farther inside. From there we were taken in buses. Each bus load of around ten guests had a guide allotted to them. Our guide Vijay took our mobile no. As we reached there at nearly 12noon. We went for the "Spirit of Ramoji" first. That was a stage show with some indian classical dancing. We caught it midway.

From Hyderabad 2011

Then we went for the "Stunt show" which was good with all the shooting and all. The wild west was made well.

From Hyderabad 2011

We then went for lunch, it was a great crush, especially with so many delegates from the conference. The lunch was at the restaurant "Superstar". Lunch was just OK. Met three of my postgraduate colleagues/friends here at Ramoji, more than I met in the conference.
Soumya did bungy trampoline jumping just outside the restaurant.

"Filmy duniya ka jadoo" was a ride on the lines of "it's a small world" of Disneyland. But it was good copy.
We went for "Movie magic" which was an excellent show, where they showed how behind the scenes, people are working hard to make the movies which we see. The selection of the famous scene of 'Sholay' in which Basanti is being chased by dacoits on her tonga, is interesting. We went for the earthquake experience which was also good. The falling elevator. Here they had made a mini Hollywood.

From Hyderabad 2011

From Hyderabad 2011

From Hyderabad 2011

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We were in Hyderabad in Jan 2011 for the annual OBGYN conference. It was a welcome escape from the chilly weather in Lucknow. FOGSI is always a veritable academic feast. We stayed at The Westin Mindspace.

A lovely hotel in the high tech city. It has a huge central atrium into which all the rooms open.

Taj has three properties in Hyderabad, Krishna, Deccan and Banjara, of these Taj Krishna was the best. Taj Deccan was pretty run down. We initially checked into that hotel, then later decided to shift to Westin as it was closer to the venue of the conference.

The interiors of The Westin were uber modern, but the service was not that good. Once we had to ring four times to get our plates from room service cleared and in the end, we put the plates out before going to sleep. The staff is friendly. Breakfast was good everyday, though it was served separately for the conference delegates, than from their regular breakfast, on the last day we had the regular breakfast that was better than the one served for the conference but it was catering more to the international guests. The view from the room outside the window was nothing much.

But the twin queen beds were good for our family. If one is going to attend a conference in the convention centre then this is a very good hotel to put up in.
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We could have spent the whole day loitering around here. It was so picturesque.

The next day in Pattaya we had booked a tour to the Coral Island. While coming back from the Tiffany show we had booked this tour for 450 Baht per person. The taxi came to pick us up from the hotel at 10:30am.

We were taken to the beach and from there we went in a small boat and later on jumped into a larger boat on our way to the Coral Island. Enroute there was a stop for parasailing 500Baht per person and Ocean floor walking 2500 Baht per person and CD separately. We negotiated for the rate and got it for 6000 Baht for Ocean floor walking for the four of us with the CD included. 

Para Sailing
The ocean floor walking was a new experience. In this they put a helmet on our head which had  compressed air flowing into it through a tube which remains connected to the boat. Its a long tube and the helmet is very heavy and helps to keep us at the  ocean floor. They guide us to the place on the ocean floor where we can see the coral and fish. One by one we reached the ocean floor and spent an appreciable amount of time on the ocean floor. It was something new and novel and kept the adrenaline rushing. Once on the ocean floor which was hardly at  any depth after about five minutes the confidence returned and I became comfortable. Looked around there was some coral. They gave us bread to feed the fishes.

Ocean floor walking
We did some jet skiing as well. That was 1000Baht for 1 hour. It was fun. The sun was relentless and it was quite warm. We had lunch there, it was average stuff. Just relaxed on the beach and had a foot massage. Whilst on the return journey the boats which we used were glass bottomed though it was not possible to see anything very clearly through it. The water was crystal clear at the Coral Island and we had a fun day there.

returning back to Pattaya from the Coral Island. See the beach along the beach road, with all hotels lined up on the other side beyond the beach.

We planned to attend the ASPIRE (Asia Pacific initiative on Reproduction) this year in Bangkok. At the last moment i.e. just three days before the conference the venue had to be changed to Pattaya because of the agitation caused by the red shirts.

PATTAYA BEACH ROAD AT SUNSET

Our initial plan of spending two days at Pattaya and then three days at Bangkok was canceled to all 5 days in Pattaya.

We reached Pattaya from the Suvarnabhoomi Airport on the 7th of April.  For the visa on arrival we had to pay a fees of 1000 Baht ( Rs. 1.4 = Baht 1) and needed one passport size photograph. Visa on arrival was a smooth process took hardly 20mins including immigration. Then we searched for the Aspire help desk at the airport. We found it easily and there was a shuttle taking us to Pattaya in half an hour.

 We bought a sim card from the airport for 99 Baht which was valid for 40 days only and had a talk value of 39 Baht. Later in the city we got another sim card from a Family Mart store for just 49 Bahts having a talk value of 15 Baht and one year validity. Later on we could top up these cards by buying top up value cards. To call India we had to add 009 before country code and phone number otherwise the talk value would disappear in one phone call to India. But adding 009 to the phone number led to a lag in the conversation while talking to India. Adding 009 before the country code made the sim card much more economical when calling India.

It took us around one and half hours to reach Pattaya the road was excellent, but once on reaching there, the driver could not locate our hotel Siam Bay-view. He took us around 2 to 3 times before finding it. Once inside the hotel we were served a welcome drink and wet cool perfumed napkins, which felt great in the heat. In the hotel we got the bay facing rooms. The view was great. The bathrooms were exceptionally small and so was the balcony.

 After resting we ventured out. Pattaya has a beach road along the beach and across the road are all the hotels. parallel to the beach road are road 2 and road 3 and then Sukhumvit road (the Highway). Beach road is a one way road from north to south, or towards the Walking street at one side. Many small roads connect these main parallel roads. Road 2 is one way to the other side.

The sovereign states of Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are loosely known as the Low Countries meaning thereby the countries lying for the most part below sea level. When I first visited Amsterdam I was struck by the  three storey high, cycle parking filled with hundreds of cycles and roads with separate tracks for cyclists. Then slowly I came to know that this and other low countries are some of the countries which are most worried about the environment and most aware of the effects of global warming, because a fraction of the rise in sea level, spells doom for them. These countries have learnt to fight with the sea and conquer it or may be they have befriended it and have learnt to live with it. They have successfully reclaimed land from the sea for ages  and have learnt to keep the sea at bay with the help of dykes.
The route which we had mapped out, was from London by Eurostar to Paris and from their by Thalys train to Brussels and again by train to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam the initial plan was to take an overnight crossing across the sea and reach Hull in England. Due to lack of time we later decided to fly to Edinburgh from Amsterdam. This was our costliest flight in this trip. We had to pay extra for the checked in baggage also.
This time on my agenda in Amsterdam was Anne Frank house, a canal cruise, eating pancakes and doing whatever else we could manage because we were really short on time.