Around the world in 14 days: day tour of Hyderabad

During my recent trip to Hyderabad for SpringOne, I had one day free for sightseeing. Using the google, I discovered what turned out to be an incredibly good tour guide company: DetoursIndia.com, which specializes in personalized, distinctive tours around Hyderabad. After talking to them I discovered that my free Friday, was the one day of the week when many of the tourist places are closed. However, Kavitha and Jonty at DetoursIndia.com worked hard to put together an interesting itinerary.

The day started with Kavitha picking me up at my hotel. We drove across town to the Moula Ali Dargah, which is very important Shia Muslim shrine that’s over 400 years old. Along the way, Kavitha, who is extremely knowledgable and a super fun and interesting person to hang out with, gave me a quick history lesson about Hyderabad and the surrounding area. The shrine, which is includes a mosque, is built on top of hill and has very impressive views of the city.

After getting our exercise walking up and down the many steps to the shrine, we then drove to the nearby memorial tomb of Mah Laqa Bai, who was an 18th century Urdu poet, and a powerful woman in the court of the second and third Nizams of Hyderabad. The tomb consists of some beautiful buildings and gardens. It is a very peaceful place with some interesting history.

The next stop on the tour was a cooking demonstration/class and lunch at Kavitha’s parent’s house! This was very cool. Her parents were super interesting. Kavitha’s mother cooked some delicious food and provided me with some great tips on preparing chapati and paratha.