Ping Recommends

Eateries

Serengeti, in Banjara Hills, is a great place for North Indian Food. The restaurant has a forest ambience – it is like being surrounded by trees and monkeys and dining tables, too! They have a great mixed platter starter. The Paneer and corn are really good. Ohri’s restaurants are known for their uniqueness, and this restaurant lives up to its name in terms of taste and price.

If you are looking for a vegetarian restaurant, Little Italy is a great option. With ample food and choice availability, the restaurant also has a very good ambiance and a spectacular view. Though the prices are little on the higher side, the Spinach ravioli is worth trying. End your dinner with the famed Chocolate Bomb! Little Italy has branches in Madhapur and Jubilee Hills.

Rajdhani in Banjara Hills is another vegetarian option with a good Gujarati and Rajasthani thali. They even have bajra no rotlo and puran puri! A thali costs Rs 280 and the service is almost like being at home.

Mainland China located opposite Shilparamam, Hitech City is a place worth trying. The food is awesome and the service is great. The ambience of the place is serene, with an authentic oriental feel. The menu itself starts with a history of China, and you also have an option of using chopsticks. However, the prices are a bit high, with a single plate of noodles costing Rs 455. There is also a buffet for lunch at around Rs 390.

Music

Rabbi Shergill, the Punjabi fusionist who very comfortably mashes Punjabi folk and Sufi music to contemporary, came back with his third album, Rabbi 3. Though most people cannot understand the kind of Punjabi Rabbi uses, everyone can relate to the melody of his tracks. This album is an outright departure from the regular Rabbi style. That’s an incentive for those who didn’t like him earlier to give his songs another try.

Gangnam Style, the K-pop single by South Korean artist PSY has earned the distinction of being the most viewed K-pop song on YouTube. The song has gone viral, mainly because of its catchy rhythm, humour and PSY’s groovy dance moves. Oppa Gangnam Style!

Geocaching

You see a person lurking around in strange places, almost as if trying to find a hidden treasure; except for the little fact that he keeps looking at his smartphone every once in a while. You’re baffled at this peculiar behavior, and are almost about to report it to the authorities, when you hear a scream, “I found it!” and you turn around to see the man clutching a small container.

Enter the hi-tech world of geocaching. This most advanced form of treasure hunt is a sport that’s gaining popularity worldwide. A modern-day twist on the classic scavenger hunt, geocaching has participants turning over rocks, climbing trees, crossing rivers and digging the Earth. The idea is to go looking for items that individuals and groups have set up, called ‘caches’, which are located all over the world. Geocachers seek out hidden treasures utilizing GPS coordinates posted on the Internet by those hiding the cache. Using a GPS unit, they then trek out into the backwoods or urban jungles to find the hiding spot of the cache.

The best part of this game, apart from being a part of a worldwide community, is that it makes you get away from your screens and begin to love the outside! You’ll surprise yourself by discovering beauty in places you would have normally never visited. This kind of experience, and the feeling when you hold the log book in your hand, knowing that someone from the other side of the world was also there at some point of time, thinking the exact same things, is truly amazing.

Recommended Websites: www.geocaching.com, www.navicache.com, www.GPSgames.org

Geocaches In Hyderabad: Hyderabad water tower – near Tulsi gardens, Ista Hotel, N 17° 26.072 E 078° 23.623