Author: Srikanth Eswaran

Leaf bluetooth earphones review – does the Indian Startup fare well among global competition?

Quest for quality

enter image description here
Its after a long while I am back to bring you a review of a gadget – a pair of earphones this time. There are some differences this time. I am not a big fan of Indian gadgets due to quality issues persisting since many years. Everytime you buy something cheap or costly when it reaches your hand, one look at the packaging or the product and you feel cheated. You really feel why Indian companies take customers for granted and just produce something for the heck of it.

The feeling of great packaging, good quality materials and the general thought process of thinking in terms of design, usability and durability are mostly missing with Indian made gadgets barring a few of them. A few good ones I could think of are the Notion Ink Adam, Sony India basic wired headphones, etc. However many of these are not Indian firms and bring products from their global lineage time and again.

Craving for earphones

I have got a craving to order more and more wired and wireless earphones after I ordered a noise canceling Sony MDR1000-X which I will review a bit later. After my purchase of an Apple IPhone 7+ 128 GB, and the increased need to take Skype calls on the mobile I needed at least one good wired and one good wireless earphones. The headphones were big, they were bearing on the head in terms of weight and were not a viable option all the time. The earphones were lightweight, can be plugged in pretty easily and almost cut out most of the noise even without noise canceling feature.

I will review the Bullets V2 from 1+ a bit later, but for now among the wireless I had two options one on the low end (2-3k INR) and another on the higher end (Bose QC-20i, Qc-30 – at between 17-23K INR including exchange discounts on their websites). Neither were bad just that they were at different ends of the scales. While buying on Amazon, its very difficult to credibly understand how many reviews of the products were legitimate and whether the reviews are of good quality enough to understand what the product quality is. So after some basic searching and filtering out noise in the form of useless negative reviews, I chanced upon the Leaf Ear.

Thoughts on packaging

enter image description here
Companies usually hire good photographers to photoshop outstanding pictures of the product so I was a bit taken aback about the high resolution images on the website detailing the product. Keeping an expectation of 50-50 I went ahead and ordered the product. I usually also see a bit of YouTube reviews before ordering something and here it was no exception. The product finally arrived at my home and I was rather delighted to see if it met my expectations.

First impression is the best impression as they say and the packaging left me wanting for more. The box was white with all sides printed with information with a few photos of the product around it. Upon opening the box I found that there was a nice black pouch inside placed in a tight fit which had the earphones within it.
enter image description here

Also was a small printed manual, a set of extra ear buds as spare. Nice touch but what I was impressed with is I got the same blue colour as advertised. Exactly the same fluroscent blue. Absolutely the same colour. Nothing was photoshopped. For a price of close to 2500 INR, the quality was comparable to Bose. Absolutely soft feel and extremely comfortable to the touch.

enter image description here

Build & Specs of the Leaf earphones

The earphones themselves were of top quality including the cable and were a snug fit into the ears. They also had the extra hooks or flaps as people call it which guarantees a perfect fit and since these were meant for jogging it had to come with those flaps. If you dont like them, you can remove them and put them on again. Its a DIY stuff. The ear piece is slightly inclined to give you a best fit and once you wear these on, the external noise is practically weeded out. You still can hear the outside, but not if you have the music playing. The cord is as less as can be and as is necessary, so that it won’t get in the way of your jogging.

enter image description here

On the specs side, the earphones boast of 8 hours of play time, with Bluetooth 4.1 support and 10m of connectivity distance among other features. The USP of this earphone is its reproduction of bass. No other earphones in this category which is made by any Indian company boasts of such good bass reproduction in this price range. Of course you do have the Sennheisers and the Sonys but the Leaf is something different and it deserves respect for some other reasons such as the homegrown option.

enter image description here

Quality comes at a cost and reducing the cost would effectively mean you screw up on the quality front. Leaf has tried to keep it balanced and has struck a good compromise between cost and features.

Real world performance

Battery and sound

In the real world experiences part, I did not have to charge the earphone for quite a long while before it died down, almost a week of a few conference calls each day which is impressive. On the bass claim, they are pretty much right – I have not seen another Indian earphone that comes with so much bass capability yet. But coming to the treble part, it does not sound exactly tinny, but it does not get so much prominence where it should ie., at higher volumes. The bass supersedes the treble part which is a bit of a downer. But then again its not like you cannot hear it properly at all. It does not seem like a balanced combo.

Buttons and tactile feel

enter image description here

Next are the buttons, specifically the power/play/pause button on the right earphone and the volume up/down on the right earphone. Both are clumsily placed either with respect to placement, or with respect to operation. Allow me to explain. First off the power button. You need to press it really hard for activating it and if you are doing it whilst the earphone is in your ears, that means you are pushing the buds much inside your ear – something that terrifies me. We need to treat this organ with extreme care, if something gets stuck inside, it can prove to be a hearing safety hazard. At least in the next version of these earphones I wish the company makes it a soft touch and use button.

enter image description here

Next off the volume rockers. They are placed okay for the access but are so small for big fingers like mine, that I am not sure I am actually pressing them. Its a sort of clumsy placement to be honest and if I were to design these, I would have used the left earphone to put this button just like the power button with a two way action for up/down volume control. Currently the volume button seems like an after thought & it is not clear why the company decided to put the volume rockers where they are.

Sportiness, calls and pricing

On handling sweat, I have not used these rigourously for sporting activities, but you may need to wipe them dry of sweat after use if you use it heavily. That said, wearing in ear earphones and jogging hard can actually make your ears rather warm, and at least for me to a level uncomfortable too after which I need to take out these. I prefer an option without the additional flaps and with Leaf that is possible very much. These are the real cheap cousins to Bose QC-30 at about 1/10th the price.

I did try a few calls using these and the calls sound good and others can receive your voice only if your right earphone is placed in the ear. That is where the microphone is located and unless its in the ear it may not pick up your voice properly. I have this habit of using only one side for calls, and hence you need to know which side of the earphone matters based on where the mic is placed!

My final thoughts

The Leaf earphones are no doubt an awesome pair of earphones in terms of build quality and the company – an Indian startup – Leaf Studios in Delhi – have given a lot of thought over the design, usability, reliability, materials and needless to say technology adoption to bring these earphones close in quality to the other higher priced models in the market.

enter image description here

Time will tell whether there are future revised iterations based on feedbacks on various online and offline forums tha the company will come up with, but for now at Rs.2500/- approximately, these are hard to beat and won’t disappoint the user on his expectations. So what is your excuse to wait ? Let me know if you found this review useful in the comments section below, and if you wish to buy one of these head here.

The desert safari sand dune bashing experience – an event that you willforever remember!

Some history …

In my previous post you would have read about the buggy ride experience that we had at the Desert Safari tour. The day continued towards the late afternoon when the sun went down a bit and after the buggy rides, we rode our hummer onward to the dune bashing area.

Dune bashing landscape

When you reach a certain region of the desert you can notice that the landscape automatically changes to drifting sands which form small mounds and the whole region looks a bit hilly with some small mounds leading to larger bigger slopes. By the time our earlier buggy ride was over, the driver had by then reduced the air/nitrogen in the tyres of our hummer substantially which made the car adaptable to being driven in the sand.

With lesser air/nitrogen in the tyres the hummer suddenly swerved from the main highway right into the sand dunes. And before we knew it, the famous “Boushret Kheir” song from Hussain Al Jassmi, the Arab world’s proclaimed artist, was rocking the hummer already. And then began the roller coaster ride.

For first timers this would be nerve wracking a bit, but you must understand that these drivers drive here every single day of the year mostly and they are extremely well trained.

All you need to do, just like me is to hold on to the vehicle and enjoy the ride. Of course I was terrified of having a slide into the sand mounds on the hummer and I did not get a chance to drive it either due to obvious reasons of safety. But then after few seconds it was just pure joy. Up and down and up and down a convoy of our hummer with a few other Toyota land cruisers dotted the sand dune landscape for a whole 10-15 minutes till we cried in joy just wanting more of that over and over again.

Sunset point

After the mood changing sand dune bashing was over we reached what is known as a sun set point. Here we can spend a while to see the sun go down although we needed to get away before it became too dark lest we could not see where we were going.

It is not recommended to drive here alone during night and it is very easy for someone to get lost here. And without food or water you are inviting trouble. At this sunset point, we can see how the wind shifts the sands from one place to another. If you are the types who enjoys the small things in life then you will enjoy this.

Camel camp

From here we drove to the camel camp where we spent a while looking at camels feeding and being taken care of. It is not much of stuff to see but you do get to see a camp overlooking the highway from where you can see stunning desert sunsets like nowhere else.

After this most interesting drive was done, the hummer tyres were inflated again to full capacity and we made our way to the final part of the evening – the desert safari camp for an evening filled with food and performances. Look forward to my next post where I will bring to you glimpses of those events!

Stunning views of the sunset across the highway …

The desert safari sand dune bashing experience – an event that you willforever remember!

Some history …

In my previous post you would have read about the buggy ride experience that we had at the Desert Safari tour. The day continued towards the late afternoon when the sun went down a bit and after the buggy rides, we rode our hummer onward to the dune bashing area.

Dune bashing landscape

When you reach a certain region of the desert you can notice that the landscape automatically changes to drifting sands which form small mounds and the whole region looks a bit hilly with some small mounds leading to larger bigger slopes. By the time our earlier buggy ride was over, the driver had by then reduced the air/nitrogen in the tyres of our hummer substantially which made the car adaptable to being driven in the sand.

With lesser air/nitrogen in the tyres the hummer suddenly swerved from the main highway right into the sand dunes. And before we knew it, the famous “Boushret Kheir” song from Hussain Al Jassmi, the Arab world’s proclaimed artist, was rocking the hummer already. And then began the roller coaster ride.

For first timers this would be nerve wracking a bit, but you must understand that these drivers drive here every single day of the year mostly and they are extremely well trained.

All you need to do, just like me is to hold on to the vehicle and enjoy the ride. Of course I was terrified of having a slide into the sand mounds on the hummer and I did not get a chance to drive it either due to obvious reasons of safety. But then after few seconds it was just pure joy. Up and down and up and down a convoy of our hummer with a few other Toyota land cruisers dotted the sand dune landscape for a whole 10-15 minutes till we cried in joy just wanting more of that over and over again.

Sunset point

After the mood changing sand dune bashing was over we reached what is known as a sun set point. Here we can spend a while to see the sun go down although we needed to get away before it became too dark lest we could not see where we were going.

It is not recommended to drive here alone during night and it is very easy for someone to get lost here. And without food or water you are inviting trouble. At this sunset point, we can see how the wind shifts the sands from one place to another. If you are the types who enjoys the small things in life then you will enjoy this.

Camel camp

From here we drove to the camel camp where we spent a while looking at camels feeding and being taken care of. It is not much of stuff to see but you do get to see a camp overlooking the highway from where you can see stunning desert sunsets like nowhere else.

After this most interesting drive was done, the hummer tyres were inflated again to full capacity and we made our way to the final part of the evening – the desert safari camp for an evening filled with food and performances. Look forward to my next post where I will bring to you glimpses of those events!

Stunning views of the sunset across the highway …

The Desert Safari Quad Bike (Buggy) Experience, Dubai – Sun, Sand, & Fun + Do’s and Dont’s during the trip

General information

Any country is well known for its traditional attractions and Dubai is no exception. Being a desert country what better way is it to enjoy Dubai than a visit to the desert. Authentic experiences of sand, sun, camels, dance and some fun! The desert safari camp is about 89km from Dubai international airport and can vary slightly based on where you start from on your itinerary.

This is a post noon desert tour experience so if you wish to allocate time, find a day when you can get up late, have a late lunch and be ready to leave for this trip. There are lots of travel agents who organize special vehicles for this trip for you, so it should not be difficult for you to find one by looking on the internet.

Since you will be dune bashing, this needs a sophisticated car/SUV to handle that kind of terrain. Typical tours are undertaken with Toyota land cruiser Prado 4×4 SUVs. I did see some Fortuners and was even fortunate to have got a Hummer myself

Buggy Rides

The Safari ride has two parts, first they take you to a quadricycle ride where you can experience driving quadricycle or quad bikes as they call them in sandy terrain. This gets the thrill started for you which culminates in the actual dune bashing across few kilometers of sand dunes. Typically if you leave reasonably early you will reach the quad biking point accordingly. The safari motor rides is itself a good one hour from DXB international airport and is located in Nazwa/Margham area (in sharjah)

There are two or three people who provide quad bikes including Al Badayer, Sahara Amusement and golden desert motorcycle rentals. We had been to Sahara. We reached there by about 3pm which was the right time. There were hardly anyone and the sun was slowly going down. The temperatures remained hot so its preferable to carry a hat, wear sunglasses and choose comfortable cotton clothing as needed. These are called buggy rides and there are lots of buggies to cater to everyone’s needs. The management understands pretty well that this is one of the major attractions so they have done everything possible to keep the supply stocked so no one is left high and dry.

Duration and Driving conditions

The ride itself is for about 30 minutes and the buggies use a lot of gas to ride on. No matter how much of driving you have done, do not assume that riding a buggy is easy. It presents its own challenges and kids MUST be accompanied by adults. When you are with kids drive safely. Its rare that a buggy would fall down completely since its on four wheels. But I did have a tricky situation where it got stuck in the mud and I had to wait for the helpful guys to arrive to remove me from that situation. The buggy also tends to veer slightly to one direction so its not that you point the handle straight and it may go stright indeed. Due to sand it can be tricky to ride this.

Cost of the rides & cautionary instructions

The buggy rides cost 250 AED for 30 mintues. And no you are in tough luck if you provide your credit card as everything is only on CASH basis. Luckily for us our driver had the cash so I loaned that amount from him. There are absolutely no ATMs or major shops there so its best you pack everything you need upfront including cash. Further the shops at the quad bike point are super expensive and even a tender coconut can cost 20 AED which is ridiculous – its nearly 400 bucks which is 4x costlier than the costliest coconut in India possible 🙂

Instructions for buggy use

Some general terms of the buggy use

  1. 30 minutes of ride
  2. people only for the ride
  3. Adults can take kids behind them
  4. Changing people is not allowed so you need to choose the 2 people who will go on a buggy and do 30 minutes of that because depending on how many people you go with so many buggies are utilized which is a cash cow for the management
  5. You can take photos wherever you wish to just ensure that not many people are around riding their own buggies

TIPS and words of caution for better preparedness for the ride

  • On some negotiation the management agrees you can swap people. So I drove with my wife for sometime, then swapped each of my two kids for the next ten minutes each. But by the time I was 25 minutes into the ride, I was actually fed up. 
  • The buggy moves forward when you press a lever like the horn you have on local two wheelers in india and this causes a lot of finger pain after 25 minutes of ride. You need thumbs of steel to use this stuff
  • Post 4PM there are enormous number of buggies around you including various sized ones – 2 pax, 4 pax etc. These generate a lot of petrol fumes all around so you can feel nauseated pretty soon
  • After your drive, go wash your face in that makeshift toilet, sit in the lawn and see other buggies ride around – that is the best thing to do
  • If you get stuck in the mud, raise your hand and someone will come and help you, if you feel like the vehicle will topple, get down from the vehicle
  • When you are stuck, dont raise the accelerator else there will be lots of mud that will thrown on your back and head sometimes into your eyes as well – please be careful about this part
  • Carry plenty of juice or water for yourself and keep it in your car – it will come in handy after some bit of buggy riding, plus you can save yourself some cash even!

If you liked this post, I will bring to you in my next post the Sand Dune Bashing experience !
Leave me your comments below on what you feel, and subscribe to my blog.

The Desert Safari Quad Bike (Buggy) Experience, Dubai – Sun, Sand, & Fun + Do’s and Dont’s during the trip

General information

Any country is well known for its traditional attractions and Dubai is no exception. Being a desert country what better way is it to enjoy Dubai than a visit to the desert. Authentic experiences of sand, sun, camels, dance and some fun! The desert safari camp is about 89km from Dubai international airport and can vary slightly based on where you start from on your itinerary.

This is a post noon desert tour experience so if you wish to allocate time, find a day when you can get up late, have a late lunch and be ready to leave for this trip. There are lots of travel agents who organize special vehicles for this trip for you, so it should not be difficult for you to find one by looking on the internet.

Since you will be dune bashing, this needs a sophisticated car/SUV to handle that kind of terrain. Typical tours are undertaken with Toyota land cruiser Prado 4×4 SUVs. I did see some Fortuners and was even fortunate to have got a Hummer myself

Buggy Rides

The Safari ride has two parts, first they take you to a quadricycle ride where you can experience driving quadricycle or quad bikes as they call them in sandy terrain. This gets the thrill started for you which culminates in the actual dune bashing across few kilometers of sand dunes. Typically if you leave reasonably early you will reach the quad biking point accordingly. The safari motor rides is itself a good one hour from DXB international airport and is located in Nazwa/Margham area (in sharjah)

There are two or three people who provide quad bikes including Al Badayer, Sahara Amusement and golden desert motorcycle rentals. We had been to Sahara. We reached there by about 3pm which was the right time. There were hardly anyone and the sun was slowly going down. The temperatures remained hot so its preferable to carry a hat, wear sunglasses and choose comfortable cotton clothing as needed. These are called buggy rides and there are lots of buggies to cater to everyone’s needs. The management understands pretty well that this is one of the major attractions so they have done everything possible to keep the supply stocked so no one is left high and dry.

Duration and Driving conditions

The ride itself is for about 30 minutes and the buggies use a lot of gas to ride on. No matter how much of driving you have done, do not assume that riding a buggy is easy. It presents its own challenges and kids MUST be accompanied by adults. When you are with kids drive safely. Its rare that a buggy would fall down completely since its on four wheels. But I did have a tricky situation where it got stuck in the mud and I had to wait for the helpful guys to arrive to remove me from that situation. The buggy also tends to veer slightly to one direction so its not that you point the handle straight and it may go stright indeed. Due to sand it can be tricky to ride this.

Cost of the rides & cautionary instructions

The buggy rides cost 250 AED for 30 mintues. And no you are in tough luck if you provide your credit card as everything is only on CASH basis. Luckily for us our driver had the cash so I loaned that amount from him. There are absolutely no ATMs or major shops there so its best you pack everything you need upfront including cash. Further the shops at the quad bike point are super expensive and even a tender coconut can cost 20 AED which is ridiculous – its nearly 400 bucks which is 4x costlier than the costliest coconut in India possible 🙂

Instructions for buggy use

Some general terms of the buggy use

  1. 30 minutes of ride
  2. people only for the ride
  3. Adults can take kids behind them
  4. Changing people is not allowed so you need to choose the 2 people who will go on a buggy and do 30 minutes of that because depending on how many people you go with so many buggies are utilized which is a cash cow for the management
  5. You can take photos wherever you wish to just ensure that not many people are around riding their own buggies

TIPS and words of caution for better preparedness for the ride

  • On some negotiation the management agrees you can swap people. So I drove with my wife for sometime, then swapped each of my two kids for the next ten minutes each. But by the time I was 25 minutes into the ride, I was actually fed up. 
  • The buggy moves forward when you press a lever like the horn you have on local two wheelers in india and this causes a lot of finger pain after 25 minutes of ride. You need thumbs of steel to use this stuff
  • Post 4PM there are enormous number of buggies around you including various sized ones – 2 pax, 4 pax etc. These generate a lot of petrol fumes all around so you can feel nauseated pretty soon
  • After your drive, go wash your face in that makeshift toilet, sit in the lawn and see other buggies ride around – that is the best thing to do
  • If you get stuck in the mud, raise your hand and someone will come and help you, if you feel like the vehicle will topple, get down from the vehicle
  • When you are stuck, dont raise the accelerator else there will be lots of mud that will thrown on your back and head sometimes into your eyes as well – please be careful about this part
  • Carry plenty of juice or water for yourself and keep it in your car – it will come in handy after some bit of buggy riding, plus you can save yourself some cash even!

If you liked this post, I will bring to you in my next post the Sand Dune Bashing experience !
Leave me your comments below on what you feel, and subscribe to my blog.

A journey to Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi (plus tips on do’s and dont’s while visiting the place)

Introduction to the monument

We landed in Dubai via Oman Air pretty early into the morning. If you wish to read about that experience, you can click here. Most of the next morning was taking rest due to a lengthy and unnecessary air travel which I will explain in another blog post.

The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is about a 45 minutes drive from the Dubai International Airport, it is located at Abu Dhabi which is the capital city of United Arab Emirates.

We went on an afternoon drive with a private vehicle to the mosque. At the time of arrival there were not many people there and we could get parking pretty easily but the fact remains that too in the evening hours getting parking could be a bit troublesome.

There are a lot of people who visit the mosque in the evening and the place gets pretty crowded there. Still there is ample space around the mosque and it never feels very congested.

Features of the mosque

This Mosque can sometimes hold up to more than 41000 people for prayers at any given point of time. This Mosque is well known for its minarets and the architectural beauty it encompasses through its construction.

Built between 1996 and 2007 this mosque was designed by a Syrian architect, and employed about 3000 people and 38 companies to complete the construction.

World’s largest carpet

The carpet in the main prayer hall is supposedly over 60000 square feet in dimension. The carpet itself took around two years to complete and was done by more than 1000 workers.

The world’s third largest chandelier

This Mosque has seven imported chandeliers from Germany including the world’s largest that incorporates millions of Swarovski crystals.

The chandeliers are awe inspiring and people usually slow down to spend some time staring at the beauty of the architecture. At one point in the hall all the three chandeliers can be seen one behind the other.

Highlights about the mosque

The minarets of the mask and the central courtyard make the mask and astounding beauty to look from far away. No matter whichever angle you are looking at it from, you can never seem to get enough of seeing the mosque.

There are wide walkways with small lights on both sides which illuminate the pathway during the night. There is also an area where there are small fountains which make it very nice to see and spend some time around, specifically for kids.

As you enter the main hall there are cupboards and shelves where you can leave your footwear before going inside (socks are permitted). In general most people maintain silence and are busy with photography since photos are allowed within the mosque as an exception.

There are toilets around the mosque and specifically facilities for women are better.

Photographic opportunities

This monument presents a lot of photographic opportunities for the photo enthusiast. The gardens & the fountains lighting the monument with the sky behind, the afternoon and night views of this mosque and a view of the mosque from the highway are some excellent photographic opportunities. 
You don’t really need an SLR for enjoying all of this even a mobile camera would suffice. All photos of this mosque in this blog post are taken with the Samsung Galaxy S7, the best in the camera department (until the Google Pixel trumped it)
One can easily spend up to two hours in this environment enjoying the beauty of the place.

Do’s and don’ts while visiting this mosque

It is important to bear in mind some of the regulations before entering his mask so that you are not surprised when you arrive there. This part of the blog post will try to explain as much as possible how to be prepared while going to see this place.

  • [ ] security: since this is a monument of national importance there is a layer of security around the mosque and at the mosque entrance which you need to clear before entering inside. The security will do a baggage scan and also offer the traditional burqahs so that people can cover themselves completely.
  • [ ] it is essential that women are covered from head to toe and as long as you are wearing a dress which is like that it should be okay. Even for Men shorts are NOT permitted and it is preferable that you wear full pants and shirts. It’s not really clear when the people at the security might ask you questions about your dressing but generally if you are fully covered it should be fine.
  • [ ] Women do get all sizes of burqah at security entry point so it is not a big deal to be worried about.
  • [ ] as far as I understood food is not allowed into the mosque so it’s OK to just carry a water bottle or so with yourself and keep the rest of the food in your car for later.
  • [ ] Since the whole visit is going to take less than two hours you are not going to be so tired that you need food very often.
  • [ ] there are no entry fees for getting into this mosque it’s free for everybody.
  • [ ] try to follow the queue system as much as possible where applicable and try to remain silent while going about taking photographs. This whole place is very elegant when it is silent and you should enjoy the beauty in such a situation rather than making noise.
  • [ ] stop by the lawns or the fountains and take some rest by sitting down whereever you feel like nearby.
  • [ ] don’t forget to see the carpet and the Chandeliers, these are most important parts of the inside of the Mosque.
  • [ ] you can leave between 2 and 3 p.m from Dubai so that it’s a good one hour drive to reach the mosque
  • [ ] sometimes the mosque may be crowded so be patient
  • [ ] you will not be allowed to go into the central area of the Courtyard so stay away from there and just follow the pathways. There are plenty of photo Ops even there among the pathways
  • [ ] as far as possible do not touch any part of the monument but just enjoy the beauty while walking past.
  • [ ] inside the main prayer hall it is extremely important for women to keep their head covered and hence they should ensure that the clothing does not fall of the head to avoid reminders from the staff. It is against the religion for women to show the head within the prayer hall so please take care of this and stay clear of this controversy.
  • [ ] it is essential that you keep moving forward from the entrances as there are enough places to stand and take photos from rather than crowd the entrance itself.
  • [ ] finally when you exit the mosque it is likely that lot of people have come in so you need to remember where you put your car in order to find it more easily.
  • [ ] when you exit you are supposed to give back the clothing given by the staff upon entry.
  • [ ] in general when questioned by the staff be courteous and be specific with your answers.
  • [ ] the big bus abu dhabi has a stop here in case you are opting to come by bus so they have you covered for this destination. 

If you liked this post, please consider sharing this with your friends – they benefit from reading content you felt was useful to them, and I benefit from writing more such articles for your reading pleasure.

A journey to Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi (plus tips on do’s and dont’s while visiting the place)

Introduction to the monument

We landed in Dubai via Oman Air pretty early into the morning. If you wish to read about that experience, you can click here. Most of the next morning was taking rest due to a lengthy and unnecessary air travel which I will explain in another blog post.

The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is about a 45 minutes drive from the Dubai International Airport, it is located at Abu Dhabi which is the capital city of United Arab Emirates.

We went on an afternoon drive with a private vehicle to the mosque. At the time of arrival there were not many people there and we could get parking pretty easily but the fact remains that too in the evening hours getting parking could be a bit troublesome.

There are a lot of people who visit the mosque in the evening and the place gets pretty crowded there. Still there is ample space around the mosque and it never feels very congested.

Features of the mosque

This Mosque can sometimes hold up to more than 41000 people for prayers at any given point of time. This Mosque is well known for its minarets and the architectural beauty it encompasses through its construction.

Built between 1996 and 2007 this mosque was designed by a Syrian architect, and employed about 3000 people and 38 companies to complete the construction.

World’s largest carpet

The carpet in the main prayer hall is supposedly over 60000 square feet in dimension. The carpet itself took around two years to complete and was done by more than 1000 workers.

The world’s third largest chandelier

This Mosque has seven imported chandeliers from Germany including the world’s largest that incorporates millions of Swarovski crystals.

The chandeliers are awe inspiring and people usually slow down to spend some time staring at the beauty of the architecture. At one point in the hall all the three chandeliers can be seen one behind the other.

Highlights about the mosque

The minarets of the mask and the central courtyard make the mask and astounding beauty to look from far away. No matter whichever angle you are looking at it from, you can never seem to get enough of seeing the mosque.

There are wide walkways with small lights on both sides which illuminate the pathway during the night. There is also an area where there are small fountains which make it very nice to see and spend some time around, specifically for kids.

As you enter the main hall there are cupboards and shelves where you can leave your footwear before going inside (socks are permitted). In general most people maintain silence and are busy with photography since photos are allowed within the mosque as an exception.

There are toilets around the mosque and specifically facilities for women are better.

Photographic opportunities

This monument presents a lot of photographic opportunities for the photo enthusiast. The gardens & the fountains lighting the monument with the sky behind, the afternoon and night views of this mosque and a view of the mosque from the highway are some excellent photographic opportunities. 
You don’t really need an SLR for enjoying all of this even a mobile camera would suffice. All photos of this mosque in this blog post are taken with the Samsung Galaxy S7, the best in the camera department (until the Google Pixel trumped it)
One can easily spend up to two hours in this environment enjoying the beauty of the place.

Do’s and don’ts while visiting this mosque

It is important to bear in mind some of the regulations before entering his mask so that you are not surprised when you arrive there. This part of the blog post will try to explain as much as possible how to be prepared while going to see this place.

  • [ ] security: since this is a monument of national importance there is a layer of security around the mosque and at the mosque entrance which you need to clear before entering inside. The security will do a baggage scan and also offer the traditional burqahs so that people can cover themselves completely.
  • [ ] it is essential that women are covered from head to toe and as long as you are wearing a dress which is like that it should be okay. Even for Men shorts are NOT permitted and it is preferable that you wear full pants and shirts. It’s not really clear when the people at the security might ask you questions about your dressing but generally if you are fully covered it should be fine.
  • [ ] Women do get all sizes of burqah at security entry point so it is not a big deal to be worried about.
  • [ ] as far as I understood food is not allowed into the mosque so it’s OK to just carry a water bottle or so with yourself and keep the rest of the food in your car for later.
  • [ ] Since the whole visit is going to take less than two hours you are not going to be so tired that you need food very often.
  • [ ] there are no entry fees for getting into this mosque it’s free for everybody.
  • [ ] try to follow the queue system as much as possible where applicable and try to remain silent while going about taking photographs. This whole place is very elegant when it is silent and you should enjoy the beauty in such a situation rather than making noise.
  • [ ] stop by the lawns or the fountains and take some rest by sitting down whereever you feel like nearby.
  • [ ] don’t forget to see the carpet and the Chandeliers, these are most important parts of the inside of the Mosque.
  • [ ] you can leave between 2 and 3 p.m from Dubai so that it’s a good one hour drive to reach the mosque
  • [ ] sometimes the mosque may be crowded so be patient
  • [ ] you will not be allowed to go into the central area of the Courtyard so stay away from there and just follow the pathways. There are plenty of photo Ops even there among the pathways
  • [ ] as far as possible do not touch any part of the monument but just enjoy the beauty while walking past.
  • [ ] inside the main prayer hall it is extremely important for women to keep their head covered and hence they should ensure that the clothing does not fall of the head to avoid reminders from the staff. It is against the religion for women to show the head within the prayer hall so please take care of this and stay clear of this controversy.
  • [ ] it is essential that you keep moving forward from the entrances as there are enough places to stand and take photos from rather than crowd the entrance itself.
  • [ ] finally when you exit the mosque it is likely that lot of people have come in so you need to remember where you put your car in order to find it more easily.
  • [ ] when you exit you are supposed to give back the clothing given by the staff upon entry.
  • [ ] in general when questioned by the staff be courteous and be specific with your answers.
  • [ ] the big bus abu dhabi has a stop here in case you are opting to come by bus so they have you covered for this destination. 

If you liked this post, please consider sharing this with your friends – they benefit from reading content you felt was useful to them, and I benefit from writing more such articles for your reading pleasure.

Oman air ticket booking experience online

Introduction

In this post I want to share with you my experience of booking tickets via Oman Air to go to Dubai. I’ll try and cover the options that I had and the final choices that led me to make this decision of choosing Oman air and the overall experience of having to deal with them while on the flight.

Booking tickets online

I’m a faithful customer of the Cleartrip app and I always use the app for booking flight tickets where ever I fly. The reason I like that app is because of the clear user interface and using minimal clicks to get my things done. However most of these apps are based on dynamic pricing and whether you are browsing using your phone or depending on the country you are doing it from etc.

The prices change based on where you are accessing the app from and how many times you have accessed it before on the same day. Somehow I felt all the prices for Dubai were peaking a lot using these apps due to the holiday season. Also most of these ticket charges did not offer me enough luggage capacity or seating choices. I had to pay over and above the stated amount for choosing my seating and or meals.

Oman Air was the only airline which offered me sufficient luggage capacity meal choices and sitting choices as well. So I directly went to Oman Air website and wanted to book the tickets to Dubai. The route was via Muscat and there was quite a lot of waiting time at Muscat. The sweet part of this whole booking experience was the cost. I could get to and fro tickets for 4 of us to Dubai for 65000 rupees. This included 30kg baggage per person (one of the highest) plus 7kg hand carry, meal and seat selection included as well. Hats off to Oman Air for offering so much during booking.

The problem with layover time

Sometimes due to the tickets being cheap or the rush during the hour of booking you can get tickets which have a lot of transit time at the intermediate airports. This is what happened to me while flying to Dubai and I had to wait in Muscat airport for nearly 6 hours before my next flight to Dubai.

Issues with modifications to tickets

The problem with the fare being offered on most of these routes is that these conditions are non negotiable. Like for example you cannot change the meals or change the seats.

Modifying the flights will cost you quite a lot and if you do decide to cancel the flight sometimes you will lose all the money. Depending on the package taken if you cancel the flight you may also get some money back but that is normally about 50% of the booking cost.

Approaching Oman Air office in Muscat

The situation that I had was that I had my next flight from Muscat to Dubai 6 hours after I landed.

As a last minute effort I tried to get a seat for the four of us on to other alternative flights 3 hours apart and earlier. The effort was to minimise waiting time at Muscat airport.

When I reached the Oman Air office and ask them whether I could change the booking even if it was at a cost they simply ask me to go to the same source from where I book the ticket and try to change it from there.

They did not have a clue on how to handle customer request and they didn’t even care about what I was actually trying to communicate or seek a clarification on. I went online to Oman Air website using Oman airport free WiFi since my roaming connection was not available and I noticed that it would not allow me to even load the ticket leave alone modify it or change it.

The reason for this is when you undertake a journey with Oman Air or for that matter any other airline they will mark against a ticket that this journey has been undertaken. My last journey from Bangalore to Muscat was not yet recorded since I just landed in Muscat. Due to this I was not able to load the ticket and make any other changes.

Contacting Oman Air office in Dubai

So upon reaching Dubai in my schedule flight late in the night the next day I decided to call up Oman Air office in Dubai and try to alter the return journey. The person on the other end who answered the call had no clue how to get this done for me and gave me an email id that I should send a mail to ask for a refund.

Reaching out to Oman Air on Twitter

I sent him an email and for nearly one whole day I did not get any response. So I took to my usual route of contacting Oman Air via Twitter and after another one day of wait and two days of turnaround time they responded to me saying that they will reply to my email regarding the refund.

After another day or two they replied to my email stating that I would lose two thirds of my money if I decided to modify or cancel the flight.

Testing other options such as upgrading to business class

When I entered my PNR number and requested for Oman Air has to upgrade my ticket to business class the whole ticket immediately popped up and started showing me fares for the upgrade.

All this while when I tried to enter the same PNR and try to retrieve my ticket it did not allow me to do so just because the current location was not updated. Only for the upgrade process everything seem to work which was a bit disappointing.

Lessons learnt from this booking experience

I will go ahead and share a few things that you need to know in order that you do not do the same mistakes that I did while planning a trip.

  • [ ] take a look at the transit times before finalising the tickets
  • [ ] understand whether your airline has an active customer support policy
  • [ ] talk to people who have been to the intermediate airport and ask them about the customer support facilities available there
  • [ ] if the direct flight is about 10000 to 20000 costlier you may decide to book that instead of the one that has a transit time
  • [ ] if you have kids Who need to board a flight beyond 12 P.M then it is better not to up for that kind of schedule because it will be very difficult to wake them up and make them board the flight since they often tend to get cranky.
  • [ ] do a trial run on Twitter by approaching the airline to see how the response would be.
  • [ ] understand the refund policies and cancellation policies for cancellation of tickets
  • [ ] charges apply even if you want to modify the ticket so you may need to be aware of what you would be losing in terms of cost.
  • [ ] it is not worth while trying to reach out to airport staff at the transit airport in case you are already about to sleep. This is likely to lead to lot of frustration and improper responses can only make things worse.

If you liked this post, please consider sharing this with your friends – they benefit from reading content you felt was useful to them, and I benefit from writing more such articles for your reading pleasure.

Oman air ticket booking experience online

Introduction

In this post I want to share with you my experience of booking tickets via Oman Air to go to Dubai. I’ll try and cover the options that I had and the final choices that led me to make this decision of choosing Oman air and the overall experience of having to deal with them while on the flight.

Booking tickets online

I’m a faithful customer of the Cleartrip app and I always use the app for booking flight tickets where ever I fly. The reason I like that app is because of the clear user interface and using minimal clicks to get my things done. However most of these apps are based on dynamic pricing and whether you are browsing using your phone or depending on the country you are doing it from etc.

The prices change based on where you are accessing the app from and how many times you have accessed it before on the same day. Somehow I felt all the prices for Dubai were peaking a lot using these apps due to the holiday season. Also most of these ticket charges did not offer me enough luggage capacity or seating choices. I had to pay over and above the stated amount for choosing my seating and or meals.

Oman Air was the only airline which offered me sufficient luggage capacity meal choices and sitting choices as well. So I directly went to Oman Air website and wanted to book the tickets to Dubai. The route was via Muscat and there was quite a lot of waiting time at Muscat. The sweet part of this whole booking experience was the cost. I could get to and fro tickets for 4 of us to Dubai for 65000 rupees. This included 30kg baggage per person (one of the highest) plus 7kg hand carry, meal and seat selection included as well. Hats off to Oman Air for offering so much during booking.

The problem with layover time

Sometimes due to the tickets being cheap or the rush during the hour of booking you can get tickets which have a lot of transit time at the intermediate airports. This is what happened to me while flying to Dubai and I had to wait in Muscat airport for nearly 6 hours before my next flight to Dubai.

Issues with modifications to tickets

The problem with the fare being offered on most of these routes is that these conditions are non negotiable. Like for example you cannot change the meals or change the seats.

Modifying the flights will cost you quite a lot and if you do decide to cancel the flight sometimes you will lose all the money. Depending on the package taken if you cancel the flight you may also get some money back but that is normally about 50% of the booking cost.

Approaching Oman Air office in Muscat

The situation that I had was that I had my next flight from Muscat to Dubai 6 hours after I landed.

As a last minute effort I tried to get a seat for the four of us on to other alternative flights 3 hours apart and earlier. The effort was to minimise waiting time at Muscat airport.

When I reached the Oman Air office and ask them whether I could change the booking even if it was at a cost they simply ask me to go to the same source from where I book the ticket and try to change it from there.

They did not have a clue on how to handle customer request and they didn’t even care about what I was actually trying to communicate or seek a clarification on. I went online to Oman Air website using Oman airport free WiFi since my roaming connection was not available and I noticed that it would not allow me to even load the ticket leave alone modify it or change it.

The reason for this is when you undertake a journey with Oman Air or for that matter any other airline they will mark against a ticket that this journey has been undertaken. My last journey from Bangalore to Muscat was not yet recorded since I just landed in Muscat. Due to this I was not able to load the ticket and make any other changes.

Contacting Oman Air office in Dubai

So upon reaching Dubai in my schedule flight late in the night the next day I decided to call up Oman Air office in Dubai and try to alter the return journey. The person on the other end who answered the call had no clue how to get this done for me and gave me an email id that I should send a mail to ask for a refund.

Reaching out to Oman Air on Twitter

I sent him an email and for nearly one whole day I did not get any response. So I took to my usual route of contacting Oman Air via Twitter and after another one day of wait and two days of turnaround time they responded to me saying that they will reply to my email regarding the refund.

After another day or two they replied to my email stating that I would lose two thirds of my money if I decided to modify or cancel the flight.

Testing other options such as upgrading to business class

When I entered my PNR number and requested for Oman Air has to upgrade my ticket to business class the whole ticket immediately popped up and started showing me fares for the upgrade.

All this while when I tried to enter the same PNR and try to retrieve my ticket it did not allow me to do so just because the current location was not updated. Only for the upgrade process everything seem to work which was a bit disappointing.

Lessons learnt from this booking experience

I will go ahead and share a few things that you need to know in order that you do not do the same mistakes that I did while planning a trip.

  • [ ] take a look at the transit times before finalising the tickets
  • [ ] understand whether your airline has an active customer support policy
  • [ ] talk to people who have been to the intermediate airport and ask them about the customer support facilities available there
  • [ ] if the direct flight is about 10000 to 20000 costlier you may decide to book that instead of the one that has a transit time
  • [ ] if you have kids Who need to board a flight beyond 12 P.M then it is better not to up for that kind of schedule because it will be very difficult to wake them up and make them board the flight since they often tend to get cranky.
  • [ ] do a trial run on Twitter by approaching the airline to see how the response would be.
  • [ ] understand the refund policies and cancellation policies for cancellation of tickets
  • [ ] charges apply even if you want to modify the ticket so you may need to be aware of what you would be losing in terms of cost.
  • [ ] it is not worth while trying to reach out to airport staff at the transit airport in case you are already about to sleep. This is likely to lead to lot of frustration and improper responses can only make things worse.

If you liked this post, please consider sharing this with your friends – they benefit from reading content you felt was useful to them, and I benefit from writing more such articles for your reading pleasure.

The Jog Falls travel experience

Travelling to Jog Falls

As part of my previous post I have already written what it takes to go from Bangalore to Jog Falls. We stayed at Sagar in a hotel called Green Embassy, whose review I have given in another blog post. If you wish to know more about the hotel please click here.

Jog Falls tourist attraction

Bus journey from Sagar to Jog Falls is roughly around 25 km plus or minus and it is a treacherous route down the Mountain and up the Mountain again. Since it’s a waterfall you will need to go down the Mountain to some extent to see the falls from the top. There are lot of private buses that operate from areas like Sagar up to Jog Falls in a regular frequency.

The cost of the bus is roughly around 1 Rupee per kilometre so we ended up paying around 20 or 30 rupees for a ticket one way per person. What is more important to note is the time it takes to cover this distance and it is slightly on the higher side due to the terrain. It is quite common that you might feel a bit giddy and may even feel like puking.

Jog Falls pathway

The Jog Falls is a Majestic tourist attraction and has roughly around 1300-1400 steps all the way down. The steps themselves neatly laid out and it gets steeper by the flight as you reach down. It takes roughly about an hour to go down and between an hour and a half or two hours to come back up. We carried only a couple of bottles of water along with our bags down. It is highly recommended that you keep some food like biscuits or the likes while going down. The time when we went was in November and hence the water was pretty less in the falls itself. Like I said earlier in one of my posts this was more of a backpack trip and we had to do it in haste without rhyme or reason.

The best time to go would be between June to August during which time the thunderous falls are a sight to behold.

Safety along the stairs

There would always be a question what happens to you if you go alone all the way down or even with another person all the way down. Would there be somebody who would pickpocket you? Or rob you? Or mug you or even much worse. What is worse is that there are just two security guards at the bottom of the falls. These guys cannot help much and they are just there to control the crowds. Sometimes there could be a set of unruly people who just want to have fun. So far I have not heard of any mishap but there is a genuine risk of something happening. Going down is essentially at your own risk although it is not a very difficult thing and you do not hear incidents happening every other day.

Some things to take care of while going down

  • take a few bottles of water and something to eat like biscuits
  • preferably go between 9AM to 11AM or even earlier
  • as the sun rises it gets pretty difficult to come back up again
  • safety is at your own risk so be aware of your surroundings
  • the mobile signals are not available as you go down so be aware of that
  • preferably go with someone else or as a group of people
  • time your descent and ascent accordingly
  • while coming back up again take as much rest as you want wherever you want
  • do not stress yourself to climb up the stairs fast
  • ample time to come up give time for others to take rest but at the same time keep looking at your watch in order to come back in a reasonable time
  • the staircase USA open between 9AM in the morning and 6AM in the evening
  • if you are going during the monsoon, take an umbrella and use proper clothing like shoes/raincoats etc. 
  • It could also be cold during monsoons, so cover your ears and chest if you can

Food options at Jog Falls

The Options for eating food at Jog Falls are extremely Limited. So you need to be aware of this and plan accordingly. There are a few stores selling frozen paratha or chapati along with some ill made curry.

The shops also stock a lot of ice creams & beverages cold and hot. So you should be able to get your Coke or Fanta or Pepsi easily. Please avoid the rice items here as the rice is not well cooked. Additionally there is also a KSTDC hotel which is only slightly better than the shops around.

Still this restaurant has its own flaws. Not all of the items listed are available at all the times. And if you go somewhere in the afternoon most other items are not available.

The best solution is to pack your own food and take it along with you so that you have something tasty and something made by you that is more edible than the ones available there.

Options to stay near Jog Falls

The couple of hotels that I did notice which is very near to Jog Falls. One of them is the Gerusoppa Maurya by KSTDC. I also noticed Jungle Lodges and resorts nearby. Barring this your nearest best option would be to stay at Sagar or Shimoga.

The total time it took for us to visit Jog Falls and be back is a little more than half a day so you need to plan accordingly if you are going there. This was of course from Sagar so if you are staying at Shimoga it could take much more than that.

Even though it was November it was pretty humid and sweating all the time. The climb down and back up only makes it worse. If you are going between July and August and plan to go down the staircase, don’t forget to take a raincoat or an umbrella and still continue to take water and some food. This should help you to be hydrated as well as mitigate the sweating problem during rainy season.

Conclusion

The Jog Falls is a must visit for everybody at least once in their life. Be careful to choose a place nearby to Jog Falls for your stay. Take care to pack food and water while going down Jog Falls pathway. Try to avoid the food which is available there. Time your visit properly. It would also serve if you can read about Jog Falls and its history before going there to appreciate the place.

If you like this post and photos please consider sharing and leave your valuable comments for me in the comment section below.