(I'm back home, so can finally update my blog and upload photos without hassle - yippee!!!)
On January 29, our new friends from Australia joined us in an excursion to Tollywood - the Telugu version of Bollywood. We filled the ICRISAT van - the Gill, Colin, Ellie, Indie, and Guthrie family; the Vicki, Warwick, and Anthea family; and the Ali, Oliver, and Lori family - a fun group!
After about a one and a half hour drive, we arrived at the Ramoji Studio - the largest film studio in the world. (It encompasses about 3 thousand acres). At that point, we split into our own groups, with Ali, Oliver, and I going our separate way, since we knew there was no point in taking Oliver on thrill rides, much less standing in long lines.
Ramoji was part studio, lots, and entertainment park. We had fun walking through the various theme parks: the 50's era, a Moghul palace, and the Wild West, to name a few.
We watched, rather painfully, the Wild West show. I say "painfully" because it was painfully loud, and the acting was atrocious. It was more like a very weird staging of The Crips vs. The Drunk Cowboys...awful, just plain awful.
That being said, the rest of the place was very enjoyable. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and we weren't being hounded for photos, so life was good, very good.
It was funny to see the statues from Rambo and The Terminator, and we made a game out of coming up with hilarious poses (humor us - at least we thought they were hilarious).
Most people there were quite sedate with their poses, but not us - we were out to have fun and relax. We even got an entire family to pose at the Laurel and Hardy sculpture! They were so much fun - laughing and giggling - doing something they were obviously not accustomed to doing. (I was finding that not being able to wear shorts and my normal summer attire was rather inhibiting, so it felt good to be uninhibited in this sense).
Toward the middle of the afternoon, we found a nice spot with delightfully crawlable grass for Oliver, as well as other children to meet. A family from western India welcomed us into the shade, where we enjoyed conversation and a beautiful setting.
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| Traffic in Hyderabad |
After about a one and a half hour drive, we arrived at the Ramoji Studio - the largest film studio in the world. (It encompasses about 3 thousand acres). At that point, we split into our own groups, with Ali, Oliver, and I going our separate way, since we knew there was no point in taking Oliver on thrill rides, much less standing in long lines.
Ramoji was part studio, lots, and entertainment park. We had fun walking through the various theme parks: the 50's era, a Moghul palace, and the Wild West, to name a few.
We watched, rather painfully, the Wild West show. I say "painfully" because it was painfully loud, and the acting was atrocious. It was more like a very weird staging of The Crips vs. The Drunk Cowboys...awful, just plain awful.
It was funny to see the statues from Rambo and The Terminator, and we made a game out of coming up with hilarious poses (humor us - at least we thought they were hilarious).
Most people there were quite sedate with their poses, but not us - we were out to have fun and relax. We even got an entire family to pose at the Laurel and Hardy sculpture! They were so much fun - laughing and giggling - doing something they were obviously not accustomed to doing. (I was finding that not being able to wear shorts and my normal summer attire was rather inhibiting, so it felt good to be uninhibited in this sense).
Toward the middle of the afternoon, we found a nice spot with delightfully crawlable grass for Oliver, as well as other children to meet. A family from western India welcomed us into the shade, where we enjoyed conversation and a beautiful setting.
What a great blog! Good to have you back.
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