I was on vacation for past 2 weeks Aug 30 - Sep 07. I had been to Pune and Hyderabad to meet my college friends (Balaji in Pune and Maha in Hyd) and sight seeing around the place. Thiru, my college friend also joined me for the trip to Pune. It was one of best vacation I ever had.

We went from Chennai to Pune by flight and from there we took bus to Pune. We had a strange experience traveling Airport to Dadar Asiad bus station in Taxi despite the fact, we were warned about the Taxi drivers in Mumbai. We took the taxi as suggested by the Airport security. The taxi driver also started the meter. So we assumed, we need not negotiate since it is just 8pm. We reached Dadar Asiad. The meter read 1050. We gave him Rs.105/- and he started abusing us in Hindi and asked for Rs.1050/-. It is obvious that he's making fool at us and as you would imagine none of us know Hindi (shame on us).

Finally, Thiru caught one of another educated Taxi driver near by. He saw the meter and suggested us to give Rs.150/-, so we did and vacated the place. Since, it was two of us we kept cool and handled him pretty well.

From there we took a hi-tech bus to pune. The fare per head is Rs.155/-. The trip was pretty good. It took around 3.5hrs to reach Cinchwad, the outskirt in Pune.

Day one, we went to Mulshi Dam. We went by bike. It is one of beautiful place on earth. It is around 70kms away from Pune. We went to one of waterfall at the top of the hill. It was beautiful. We spent around few hrs over there, before returning back to our apartment.

Day two, we had Poha for breakfast. It is an unique marati food, pretty good indeed. This day we went to Sinhagad Fort, the fort belonged to Chhatrapati Shivaj. It is again a good place. But only after we went there, we realized that the fort no more exists. It was completely collapsed, but the view points from the hill are good. We watched Heyy Babby hindi movie. It's OK kind of movie for me, since I can barely understand Hindi from the context. As Balaji pointed out, it was like watching Hollywood movies during our school days. At the end of show, we can understand the story.

Day three, we went to Lonavala hill station. It is located between Mumbai and Pune, 50kms away from Pune. The travel, view points are good indeed. We also saw Amby Valley resort where many VVIPs including Sachine, Amithab, Aishwarya Rai own an house. It's a great place to see and live!

From there, Thiru returned to Chennai. I continued my trip to Hyderabad to spend few more days. It is again a wonderful place to be in for sight seeing. I stayed at Maha, my class mate's place. She is married and settled in Hyderabad with her Husband Bala.

Day one, Bala, Maha and I went to Salar Jung Museum. It was clean and very well organized. I heard, the highlight of the museum is that all the collections are by a single man. We also went to Charminaar. We also went to Golgonda fort, one of historic place in Hyderabad. We also attended the night show in which they explain the history behind the fort. FWIW, they conduct two shows every day. The show 1 is in English. The show 2 is in Hindi and Telugu. We attended show 1.

Day two, I went to one of other friend Balaji who lives there. I spend couple of hours with his kid Sai. The Telugu when spoke by a 2yr old kid sounds great. Thats why they call it as Sundara Telugu in Tamil. During evening, we went to Birla Mandir temple, One of seven wonders of Hyderabad. Only then I know that such a beautiful temple exists on planet. The complete temple is constructed using Marbles for Lord Venkateswara. It was very clean and beautiful. We went to Prasad's cine complex, had dinner and watched last 10 overs of Ind-Eng Natwest series, Match 6. Dhoni and Utappa batted well for a win and keep the series alive. We went to Chakde-India Hindi movie. It's one of best Hindi movie I have ever seen.

Day three, Bala took me out to Hi-tech city. He showed me all software companies in and around Hi-tech city. He also explained how the ex-CM Chandrababu Naidu made it possible.

The stay at Maha's home is something special. This is the first time, I stay at one of girl friend's home. She took great care for me when I was there for all 3days. I really enjoyed her hospitality and not to mention the food she served for me! It was completely amazing.

Overall, I had a fun tour. Looking forward for more such vacations with my dear ones.

The Pune photos and Hyderabad photos are available in flickr for those interested.