Harry potter

Being a Harry potter fan, I visited Harry potter vision of magic in Singapore (December 2024) and Warner bros studio - The making of Harry potter in London (October 2025). If you are a harry potter fan, both the places are worth visiting. In vision of magic Singapore, tourist are given an interactive wand. It takes around 1 - 1 1/2 hours to finish the tour. In London, it’s all about how the movie was made with original sets, original costumes, makeup masks everything in display.  It takes around 3- 4 hours to finish the tour. Both the places require advance booking about 1 month in advance as the tickets are sold out pretty quickly. 

Sharing some of the pictures of my visit.

Singapore

Prophecy

Prophecies

We did enter the Chambers of Secret

Tom Riddle Diary

These pictures were of Vision of Magic, Singapore. It was fun doing some magic with interactive wand. 

Moving forward to “The making of Harry potter, London".

London

The Great hall

Halloween Decoration

Death eaters

Death Eaters special Halloween performance

Triwizard Cup

Dumbledore office

Chambers of Secret

Knight bus

Riddle Grave

Forbidden forest with dementors and buckbeak. It was exciting going inside the forest.

Aragog

Butterbeer was delicious

Privet Drive and letters from Hogwarts

Hogwarts Greenhouse

Pulling out mandrakes in Hogwarts green house was fun.

Gringotts Wizard Bank

Model of Hogwarts

Dragon at the entrance 

Pench National Park

Pench National Park or Pench Tiger Reserve is located in the border of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. We went there before Diwali. We took a flight from Ahmedabad to Nagpur. From Nagpur, we took a cab. It is 2 hours' drive. The Pench tiger reserve is the original setting of Rudyard Kipling’s most famous book- The Jungle Book.  

Jungle safari 

In Pench, we stayed at Kohka Wilderness Camp. All our safari bookings were done by the resort. 

Kohka Wilderness camp

We reached the resort in the afternoon; we took night safari on day 1. We went to the Khawasa Gate(Madhya Pradesh)- it is a buffer zone. We saw many deer. The sky was so clear, and we could see so many stars.

Stars

Khawasa Gate

Deer

Next day, we had an early morning safari to Turia Gate(Madhya Pradesh). It was 6 o'clock in the morning. As soon we entered the gate, we saw a fox. It was running on the road ahead. We saw many deer and bison. We also saw a tiger, but it was very far. The tiger was hunting, and so the deer and the monkeys were making alarm calls. We stopped at around 8:40 a.m. to have breakfast. There is a place inside the reserve where people can have breakfast. It is an open space, there is a canteen and a shop. We did some shopping at the shop which had Jungle book characters sculptures - Mowgli, baloo (bear), Wolf family of Mowgli etc. After breakfast, we hardly saw any animals. We were a bit disappointed that we could not see the tiger from nearby and had little hope from our next safari as it was in the afternoon.

View 

Deer

Bison

Turia Gate

Mowgli shop

Fox

The afternoon safari turned out to be the most interesting and fun. We went to Khursapur Gate (Maharashtra).  We saw a tiger walking and we followed him for quite some time, it was a sublime moment. We also saw foxes, Neel gai and deer.

Fox

Deer

Tiger

Neel gai

Tiger

We also explored the Kohka village which was very neat and clean. In fact, all the area to reach Khawasa gate and Turia gate were very well kept with no garbage here and there. At Khursapur gate, we were given glass water bottles to control the use of plastic bottles.

Kohka Village

When we went to explore the Pench River, we saw many birds like kingfisher, bee-eater bird, hoopoe etc. The sunset at the Pench River was worth watching. If you love to explore wildlife sanctuary, then this place is worth exploring.

Hoopoe

Kingfisher

Bee Eater Bird

Sunset at the Pench river

Shimla

Shimla was the Summer Capital of India during the British Rule. It is a beautiful hill station in the southern western region of the Himalayas. We went there for the summer holidays. We travelled to Chandigarh by flight and took a toy train from Kalka to Shimla. The toy train ride takes around 5 hours but due to the forest fire in Kasauli our train got delayed by an hour. 

Shimla

Forest fire in Kasauli

In Shimla, we stayed at Oberoi Cecil. The hotel has a history of its own. The hotel was established in 1884 by the British and later purchased by one of its employee Mr. M. S Oberoi (founder of the Oberoi hotels).

Oberoi Cecil 

The interior design of the hotel is very good. They have an indoor swimming pool, and it was fun swimming there. My daughter enjoyed playing Table Tennis and Carrom which was in the activity area of the hotel.

Interior of Oberoi Cecil

Indoor Swimming Pool 

We explored the nearby places on Day 1. On Day 2, we went to explore the Viceregal Lodge which was around 20 minutes' walk from our hotel. Walking in the roads of Shimla was fun as there were footpaths on our way to the lodge. The lodge is inside the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. It was the resident of the British Viceroy of India. Later, after Independence, it was Rashtrapati Bhawan. The president later decided to give it to the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. Photography inside the Viceregal Lodge is not allowed. A guide is there to give information about the museum.

Viceregal Lodge

In the evening, we went to the mall road. 

Town Hall @mall road

Night view of Shimla

Christ Church @ mall road

Next day, we went to the nature walking trail in the Glen Forest. The hotel arranged a guide for us who helped us in hiking the forest trail. It was a 3 kms trail and super fun. 

Glen Forest 

In the evening, we went to see the traditional Himachali dance in one of the hotel restaurants which is located just opposite the hotel. 

Traditional Himachali Dance

Next day, we booked a cab in which we went to see the Jakhu temple, Sankat Mochan mandir, Annadale ground, and finally we did some shopping at Lakkar bazaar. 

Jakhu Temple

Sankat Mochan mandir

View of Shimla from the Sankat Mochan Temple

Annadale 

Annadale ground

Though many people stay in Shimla for a day and then go to Manali but our trip was just about relaxing and enjoying the Himalayas - the mountain views and climate. After exploring Shimla, our next destination was Theog (which is around 2 hours' drive from Shimla).  

On our way to Theog, we explored Kufri and went to see the Rashtrapati Bhawan in Mashobra. This Rashtrapati Bhawan is the summer home of the President of India. It is now open for public visit. Photography inside is not allowed. We also visited Oberoi group's hotel - the Wildflower Hall on the same day for lunch. This heritage property also has a Strawberry trail near it. One can take an easy walk for about an hour and enjoy the views. As we visited in the month of May, we could see only strawberry flowers, but the whole experience was one to remember. 

Rashtrapati Bhawan @ Mashobra

View of Wildflower Hall, Oberoi 

Strawberry Trail 

Wildflower Hall, Oberoi 

In Theog, we stayed at Taj. The hotel is located in an isolated place where you almost feel like being on the top of the Himalayas. The views of the Himalayas from our room were awesome. And the weather was cold. One can spend some time walking in their gardens and on the road, outside the property. Actually, I didn't feel like leaving that place.

Theog

Theog

Taj Theog

Himalayas

Overall, the trip was one of the best in my life!