I booked a ticket on Monday to spend the weekend with my friend and classmate Victoria in Hyderabad. I’d heard from all of my Chennai friends that Hyderabad was a lot of fun, and has a lot more going on than Chennai. Mostly, I was just eager for a bit of a break and to talk with my fellow Global Health students.

I arrived on Friday evening, and was immediately struck by how fancy and organized the airport was. Victoria texted me to take a bus into town which – coming from Chennai – seemed pretty intimidating. But it was all very organized, with nice buses to take you to designated spots in the city. I felt a little like the first time I went to Nairobi after living in Kampala for a while – everything in Nairobi was bigger, the selection of goods a little better, and a few degrees cooler.
After finding Victoria, we went to a local bar for some drinks and to play pool with her friends. It was so nice to just hang out a regular bar for a change. In Chennai, most bars are in hotels, which makes them expensive. It was nice to be in a place trying to be a dive bar for change!


Victoria lines up the shot


On Saturday, we went to the Golconda Fort, capital of the Qutb Shahi dynasty from the 12th and 13th centuries. A temple inside the fort still functions, and was showing evidence of a recent festival. From the top of the fort, you can see cranes building high rises in Hyderabad’s “High tech city”, including companies like Google and Microsoft. I thought the contrast of these medieval walls and modern architecture was striking.


The temple, post celebration



Fort walls, with skyscrapers going up in the distance



Lovers steal some privacy in the ruins



Groundstaff appropriated the architecture to serve as "lunch cubbies"



Afterwards, we met up with some of Victoria’s friends working at an organic cotton farming organization. The group was meeting up at the nearby Qutb Shahi tombs for a picnic. The tombs commemorate commanders, relatives of kings, and other courtpersons like dancers and doctors, in addition to the Qutb Shahi kings. Admittedly, tombs are a morbid place to picnic, but we have great conversation with a nice group of people. And when our drinks ran dry, and enterprising kid took drink orders and brought us sodas – for a markup, naturally.

Tombs - the perfect picnic spot


Stray really hoping that she'll get our leftovers


Then we headed to the upmarket grocery store to get something to bring to a barbeque that night. I was in awe of what you can get in Hyderabad in comparison to Chennai. The grocery store had a cheese counter, smoothie bar, fresh-made pastries, and even had a liquor store inside. We picked up some veggies, tofu and barbeque sauce, and made our way home to rest for a while. That evening, we headed over to someone’s rooftop for a barbeque and I got to sample Hyderabad’s famous biryani. It was delicious, and home cooked, which is of course the best way. Before I headed home on Sunday, Victoria and I did some shopping and I experience something else I’m missing in Chennai – an autowallah (driver) that was willing to use the meter!

Rooftop BBQ and biryani - yum!



Modern and traditional medicine, side by side (or upstairs/downstairs)



An actual rickshaw meter IN USE!