I’ve been in Hyderabad for more than three years now but till date I haven’t seen all the tourist spots that the City had on offer! With that in mind - and also because of other mundane reasons which are beyond the scope of this blog - I set out for a day-long tour of Hyderabad along with friends. We scouted for the tour operator who plies about an Oriental-facade type bus around the City but unfortunately it was full. So we settled for the next best thing and booked up for the Hyderabad City Sightseeing Tour with APTDC (AP Tourism Development Corporation). That meant waking up on a Sunday morning at 6 AM and report at the starting point (which was the Yatri Nivas hotel) at 7:30 AM!!! Something which I hadn’t done in a looong time! But wake we did and were in our designated seats in the Bus sharp at 7:40 AM.

The first stop of the tour was the Birla Temple. It is a Temple dedicated to Lord Venkateswara and is built with all-white marble. It looks great when lit up at night but on a sunny Sunday morning, it shone in all its glory. Pity cameras aren’t allowed into the Temple! A roundabout flight of about 120 steps leads up to the main shrine which houses the Lord and has two smaller shrines on each side, housing the Lord’s consorts. The view from the Southern side is splendid and one can see the vast expanse of Hussain Sagar with Hyderabad and Secunderabad on either side. Next up on our trip was a drive around of the Old City area which included the Mozamjahi Market, Madina, Mecca Masjid and the most famous landmark of Hyderabad - the Charminar. Due to traffic reasons we weren’t allowed to stop the bus at the Charminar so we did a little drive around it whilst promising to ourselves that we will be back to it again on another day and even ascend upto  the second level.

to be continued…..

Pics of the trip are here