Category: headline

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.

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.

5 must see reasons for traveling on KSRTC Airavat

My cousin had come for a holiday from the USA to Bengaluru and what better opportunity I had but to plan a quick backpack trip for a day from Bangalore to Jog Falls near Talguppa and Sagara (total of 399km approx). As a usual planner my go to destination for bus ticket bookings was RedBus.

My brother took up the bus booking and I managed the hotel booking, just to split the responsibility. This is where he suggested that we travel by the tried and tested KSRTC Airavat buses. Since a long time KSRTC has been providing transport to many states around Karnataka with their reliable Volvo and Scania buses.

Let us look at the top reasons for you to choose KSRTC over other private players for your travel specifically around Karnataka.

Timeliness

KSRTC buses mostly start from Majestic bus station at different times of the day. Many buses generally start near to midnight at or around 10:30 pm or so when the traffic within the city is a bit low so as to help them negotiate the exit from Bangalore. We had booked a ticket to Sagara in Karnataka and the bus departed exactly at 10:30 pm sharp.

Arrival time is also on the mark and they generally arrive at destinations on or earlier to the said time most of the times barring those times when there is some serious blockage on the roads which is beyond their control.

Online booking and cancellation facility

Though until sometime the online booking experience was not that great, these days the whole process is flawless. You can book tickets on the government portal of KSRTC. You can also use the KSRTC PNR enquiry system to view your PNR status of the booked tickets. While returning from our trip, since we got a train ticket with IRCTC tatkal booking, we needed to cancel the bus ticket. We could do that using the KSRTC ticket cancellation online by just using our PNR number and transaction password printed on the ticket.

You can easily pick source and destination and it shows all the buses available, including a seat map with seats specifically reserved for ladies for safety purposes.

If you are frequent traveler you can create your own login at the KSRTC login online booking link. Here you can save your details and easily book tickets as and when you like without much fuss.

On the topic of refunds, you can check the KSRTC refund status at the same source you booked the ticket with (like your bank account, or credit card, etc)

Reliability

There has always been one feather in the cap for KSRTC buses. And that is the reliability of the transport system. They undertake thousands of trips a year to different destinations and the drivers are familiar with the route and drive safely and within prescribed speed limits. They are careful on the road and one can hardly feel any discomfort while on their buses. The Volvo and Scania buses are comfortable and have decent amount of seat recline and space.

Facilities in the bus

You can get one or more water bottles depending on your use, they have a seat recline system which is decent and almost horizontal. There is also a blanket for you in case you feel cold. The airconditioning system has vents that are easy to close and open and you can precisely set an air flow pattern that you desire. Just to let you know about the comfort, we were sitting on the last two seats of the bus and rarely felt any jerk for the whole journey.

Compared to the Scania the Volvo buses are slightly more comfortable since the Scania buses sometimes lets in the road bumps filter into the cabin, but having said this – there is nothing seriously wrong with either variety of transport

Cleanliness

The buses look modern and clean, and you do not get a feeling you are getting into a rickety old bus at any point in time. Buses are neat, seats look new and well kept and the water, blankets are all well arranged.

Cost of Travel

The cost of travel is pretty reasonable compared to private players. Depending on the class of travel – normal, airavat or diamond class – the cost for our trip from Bangalore to Sagar varied between Rs.340/- to Rs.580/- which is in my opinion very effective for that distance.

If you are a senior citizen KSRTC has a special discount for you as well, you can see the rules on this link(section IV & V).

So what are you waiting for? Decide your destination, hop on to a KSRTC Airavat and sleep like a baby !

A sneak peak into the 2017 Diwali offers on Cars for different segments for Indian Buyers

Introduction

Here are a list of categories of cars and the respective offers under different brands this festive season. If you are buying one of these, do make sure to read through the offers list before taking up a test drive.

Common offers

Most dealers will offer a corporate bonus ranging between 5-10k, and a loyalty bonus of upto 50k. Further they will also offer an exchange bonus of 50k if negotiated hard. All in all, this itself is almost equivalent to almost 1 lac of reduction in the pricing of the new vehicle.

Specific offers

Here are the specific offers by the brands for Diwali 2017

Hatchbacks
i10
Buy new Hyundai Grand i10 and Get Benefits upto Rs. 90,000. Applicable on 1.2 CRDi Sportz Option,  1.2 CRDi Magna
Ignis
No Offers
Alto
Buy Maruti Alto 800 and Get MGA worth Rs. 30,000 + Exchange Bonus upto Rs. 20,000. Applicable on All Variants  Valid till – Oct 31, 2017
Tiago
No offers
Kwid
Drive home the new Renault Kwid at Special Rate of Interest of 7.99% (Schemes are available only from Renault Finance and Loan is at sole discretion of Renault Finance. Valid on bookings made between 2nd October 2017 to 31st October 2017 and retails until 31st October 2017). Applicable on 1.0 RXT Optional,  RXL
Figo
Buy new Ford Figo at Ford Credit Interest rate of 7.99%.
Applicable on 1.2P Ambiente MT,  1.2P Base MT
Polo
Buy new Volkswagen Polo and Get Exchange benefits upto Rs. 20,000 OR Loyalty Bonus upto Rs. 20,000 + Gifts galore on test drives, bookings and service visits.
Applicable on 1.2 MPI Highline,  1.2 MPI Comfortline
Celerio
No Offers
Baleno
No Offers
i20
Buy new Hyundai i20 and Get Benefits upto Rs. 25,000
Applicable on All Variants
Jazz
Buy new Honda Jazz and Get Honda Assure @ Re. 1 + Cash Discount upto Rs. 15,000 + Win a Magical trip to U.S.A.
Applicable on All Variants
KUV
No Offers
Wagon R
Buy new Maruti Wagon R and Get Consumer offer upto Rs. 35,000 + Exchange Bonus upto Rs. 20,000. Applicable on VXI Plus Optional,  VXI Optional
Swift
Buy new Maruti Swift and Get Consumer offer upto Rs. 25,000 + Exchange Bonus upto Rs. 30,000.
Applicable on LDI Optional,  LDI BSIV
Compact Sedans
Excent
Buy new Hyundai Xcent and Get Benefits upto Rs. 50,000. *T&C’s Apply
Aspire
Buy new Ford Figo Aspire at Ford Credit Interest rate of 7.99% + Loyalty 3rd year Extended warranty + RSA (100,000 Kms) + Cash Discount upto Rs. 10,000 + Exchange Bonus.
Amaze
Buy new Honda Amaze and Get Honda Assure @ Re. 1 + Accessories worth Rs. 26,000 + Win a Magical trip to U.S.A. *T&C’s Apply
Applicable on S CVT i-VTEC,  S i-VTEC
Tigor
No Offers
Ameo
Buy new Volkswagen Ameo and Get Exchange benefits upto Rs. 20,000 OR Loyalty Bonus upto Rs. 20,000 + Gifts galore on test drives, bookings and service visits. *T&C’s Apply
Applicable on 1.2 MPI Comfortline,  1.2 MPI Trendline
Dzire
No Offers
Premium Sedans
Honda City
No Offers
Ciaz
No Offers
Skoda Rapid
Drive home the new Skoda Rapid with Buy now pay later offer | EMI of Rs. 11,999 | 4 year warranty | 4 year Road side Assistance | 7.99% Rate of Interest. Applicable on 1.6 MPI AT Style,  1.6 MPI Active
VW Vento
Buy new Volkswagen Vento and Get Exchange benefits upto Rs. 20,000 OR Loyalty Bonus upto Rs. 20,000 + Gifts galore on test drives, bookings and service visits.Applicable on All Variants
Sunny
Buy new Nissan Sunny and Get Government Employee offer(POI) upto Rs. 10,000 |Corporate offer upto Rs. 6,000. Applicable on All Variants
Hyundai Verna
No Offers
MUVs
Ertiga
Buy new Maruti Ertiga and Get Consumer offer upto Rs. 30,000 + Exchange Bonus upto Rs. 30,000. Applicable on SHVS LDI Option,  SHVS ZDI
Lodgy
Buy new Renault Lodgy and Get Cash Discount upto Rs. 30,000 + Special Offers of Rs. 10,000 in Exchange by Renault Selection + Special Corporate/PSU Bonus upto Rs. 7,000 (Schemes are available only from Renault Finance and loan is at the sole discretion of Renault Finance).
Innova
Buy new Toyota Innova Cryta at Attractive Finance offer.
Datsun go+
Buy new Datsun Go Plus and Get Benefits upto Rs. 29,000 Includes (Free Insurance upto Rs. 14,000 + Government Employee offer(POI) upto Rs. 5,000 + Exchange Bonus upto Rs. 10,000) and Rate of Interest of 7.99% at 95% LTV + Corporate offer upto Rs. 2,000.
SUVs
Scorpio
Buy Mahindra Scorpio and Get Cash Discount upto Rs. 21,450 + Exchange Offer upto Rs. 15,000 + Corporate Discount upto Rs. 5,500.
XUV
Buy Mahindra XUV500 and Get Cash Discount upto Rs. 21,450 + Exchange Offer upto Rs. 15,000 + Corporate Discount upto Rs. 10,000.
Duster
Buy new Renault Duster and Get Insurance @ Re. 1 + Rate of Interest of 7.99% + Special Offers of Rs. 10,000 in Exchange by Renault Selection + Special Corporate/PSU Bonus upto Rs. 7,000 + Cash Discount upto Rs. 10,000 + 2gm Gold coin(Schemes are available only from Renault Finance and loan is at the sole discretion of Renault Finance).
Terrano
Buy new Nissan Terrano and Get Benefits upto Rs. 87,000 Includes (Free Insurance upto Rs. 45,000 + Government Employee offer(POI) upto Rs. 12,000 + Exchange Bonus upto Rs. 30,000) and Rate of Interest of 7.99% + Corporate offer upto Rs. 6,000.
Safari
Buy new Tata Safari Storme and Get Consumer Discount upto Rs. 15,000 + Exchange offer upto Rs. 10,000.
Nexon
No Offers
Hexa
No Offers
BRV
Buy new Honda BR-V and Get Cash Discount upto Rs. 1,00,000 + Win a Magical trip to U.S.A.
Ecosport
Buy new Ford EcoSport at Ford Credit Interest rate of 7.99% + Loyalty 3rd year Extended warranty + RSA (100,000 Kms) + Exchange Bonus + Cash Discount upto Rs. 17,500.
WRV
No Offers
S-Cross
No Offers
Isusu DMax VCross
No Offers
Creta
No Offers

Premium SUVs
Skoda Kodiaq
No offers
Jeep Compass
No Offers
Fortuner
Buy new Toyota Fortuner at Attractive Finance offer.
Endeavor
No Offers
CRV
No Offers
Tuscon
Buy new Hyundai Tucson and Get Benefits upto Rs. 1,00,000.
Tiguan
No Offers

The love and hate towards Polo GT TSI

(Image source: VW India)

Firstly its a shame that I took a test drive of the Polo GT TSI this late – nearly five years after its launch in india. Since then its price is steadily increasing north. Nevertheless finally I managed to get my hands on this hot hatch and I was rather inquisitive to see what exactly the heat is all about 🙂

Specificiations of Polo GT TSI

First things first some specs out of my way

  • 1.2 litre petrol engine, 4 cylinders
  • 105 bhp power at 5000 rpm
  • 175 Nm torque at 1500-4100
  • < 5m turning radius
  • 16 inch alloy wheels – so increased ground clearance
  • 45 litre fuel tank 

Features of Polo GT TSI that matter

When you buy a hatchback buyers are left high and dry with so many omissions that companies undertake just to cut costs. Take the example of cars like Celerio, or Alto, etc which give just one airbag, or no ABS or only ABS and no airbags, no wipers, no defoggers – the list gets endless. Some argue that it is done to price the car in one particular price bracket. But these are not luxuries anymore. They are darn necessities of life. Why should I feel that only me as the driver needs an airbag? Why not my co passenger? As a matter of fact why not 8 airbags, why only two ? In 2017 we must look at a proper and safe car even if it costs much.

Some of the features Polo GT offers is very admirable compared to comptetion. Some of them I personally appreciated were these:

  • ESP
  • Hill hold control for DSG petrol
  • Dual airbags and ABS
  • Cruise control (on a hatchback !)
  • Automatic climate control
  • 16 inch alloy wheels – takes care of the ground clearance aspect for good

I fail to understand whether they offer the following – My feeling is they do not which is a bit of shame

  • Anti pinch one touch windows for all sides
  • Auto dimming rear view mirrors
  • Rain sensing wipers and follow me home headlamps
  • Navigation / Android auto and Apple car play

Drive experience

Coming to the drive itself, I took only a brief drive which had the following along the route

  • Traffic – stop and go
  • Broken roads
  • Bad road humps
  • Smooth stretches to accelerate quickly
  • Slopes

The car is seemingly quiet upon start and does not let you know what is waiting to do when you press the pedal. Once you want to move you have three ways to use the car – D mode (completely auto) and Manual mode with tiptronic gear shifts and sport mode.

D-Mode

The D-mode is perhaps the best mode to drive this car in – it has precise understanding of the gear you are likely to be in and the dual clutch is just waiting to put the car quickly in to different gears just the way you expect the car to move about. If you are stressed out this is the mode to use and the car is always willing to work just the way you want it to and slices through traffic like butter. The chilling airconditioner also makes you very comfortable and long stretches of traffic jam would not be a bother anymore with the Polo GT.

Manual mode

The manual mode expects you to use the tiptronic transmission and for some reason VW have defined it in an anti progressive way – meaning we always expect + to be down and – to be up. In the GT its the other way round. for going higher you need to move the shift forward and for reducing gear move it backward. This is seriously counter intuitive and kills the joy of manual mode. If you want to know what I mean, drive the celerio AMT.

Sports mode

The sports mode is supposed to let you be on the same gear for a while longer to enhance pickup before gear change but it acts a bit sticky and just when you think it should be changing gear even on surges of acceleration it takes just that 1-2 seconds more which is disappointing. Again do not get me wrong here – its not unbearable – just could have been a bit more perfect. For the gears itself it does hold up pretty well and does not make you feel awkward. However it is still the D-mode i would prefer if you buy this car and it will never leave you feeling bad.

Ground clearance

All the reviews I see never really bother to cover this aspect properly. Somehow being in Bangalore for me this is one of the criteria to choose a car given the pathetic condition of our roads. Thankfully with VW deciding to give 16” wheels, the car did not even touch any of the most horribly designed road humps throughout the drive. I drove on them completely impressed with the way this car handles undulations on the road.

Body roll and suspension

The suspension is not exactly soft and more on the firmer side and hence you can expect slight body roll if you turn around corners sharply or go over real bad patches too fast. Again th car handles these bad patches well just that passengers inside may get pretty jostled at times.

Chassis and safety

This car comes with all the safety aspects you can think of – Dual airbags, ABS, ESP, Hill hold, etc. Most of all this is still the car with the reassuring european build even after a good 15 years since these cars started making in into the markets. Close the door and you get that reassuring thud which makes you feel safe at all times. God forbid you are involved in an accident with the Polo, you are bound to walk out alive for sure. Rest assured you are in one of the most safest car around.

Rear space

This sucks. No … Really. I mean it. This car should have been a 3-door car. Not a 5-door. I don’t know what VW were thinking when they designed this car for 5 people. Not even 4 people can sit properly if the front passengers are nearing 6 foot heights. The rest of them can forget enjoying sitting inside. The 2018 version of VW is much more roomy for this purpose. And its definitely a more spacious car. But you know how car manufacturers operate in India. They milk the consumers first for the old crappy products on sale currently and then bring in something new and make up a story that its so much more better than the older one and try to milk the buyers even more.

VW please do not fool people that this hatchback is the best for space and so on. No one will be able to believe it. Either bring the 2018 version out soon here for same price point or just dont mention space as a luxury element while advertising.

Fuel efficiency figures expected

I don’t go by ARAI figures or other such claims of mileage. Nowadays thankfully you dont need to go by the salesman’s word for mileage. There are systems that let you know the real time effeciency that the car is returning over a trip distance of a said number of kilometers. I did check the real world figures and it showed me 6.8kmpl for the Polo GT TSI. Agreed its a test drive car and most people always drive within 1st or 2nd gear. Its more of a performance automatic rather than something tuned for mileage. But even by extrapolated standards, I do not see this car giving anything beyond 10kmpl in city traffic.

If any of you are getting anything more than this, do let me know in the comments section and I will be glad to know how. There are cars that return 13-16/17 kmpl in hatchback category for petrol itself. So arguably the mileage figures of Polo does look a bit disturbing. Real world figures can touch a tad bit around 10 or slightly more. Do not expect anything more than this for an automatic vehicle.

Please do you research before blowing your money on a machine that burns your bank account at the petrol pumps often.

Conclusion

If you are looking at a powerful hatchback with an automatic transmission that steals the show the Polo GT TSI is for you. Safety and style are unquestionable and you get your money’s worth with this car. Rear space is a big disappointment and VW could have done well to utilize rear boot space for better rear space instead. However they chose not to do that due to not wanting to alter dynamics of driving.

The drive is powerful the car is nimble and makes you happy in stop and go traffic and your legs will thank you for the rest they get with the DSG gear shift. It is one of the most powerful cars in the category and it is there in the market for a reason. Driving enthusiasts. There is a waiting period of 8 weeks on the car and no discounts whatsover. That speaks a lot of where VW wanted to be with this car and they have been there since a long time now.

So if you do decide to invest on this car for the above reasons of power, ease of use – you will not be making a mistake.

The enormity and beauty of Pamban Railway

image-92

I had never visited Rameswaram as far back as my memory goes and was not sure what to expect out of the Pamban bridge. My sons have special interest in digging up maps of all places and when I showed them where Rameswaram was they were more than eager to get there to see the historic Pamban bridge.

How to get there?

There were few options for me to get there: Rail, bus, car or part flight-then car. We booked a train from Bangalore to Madurai and then an Innova for the rest of our journey. We stayed at Astoria business hotel in Madurai on which I have a separate post if you would like to read.

image-91

The shortest distance is about 560km via Salem-Trichy-Pudukottai-Karaikkudi and would take nearly 10 to 11 hours of driving with stops in between. Since this was too much of drive, and I wanted to spend the night traveling the best option was train. I took a train from Bangalore to Madurai. Two common trains are the Tuticorin Express and Nagercoil Express. If you want to know the exact list of trains, click here. I reached Madurai at about 7:00 AM. Please be advised these trains can be late sometimes and if you have tickets in coaches S10 and beyond you can expect lots of people from unreserved compartments to be flooding these bogies as well. If you want to read my experience on that read my blog post here.

Commutation from Madurai

Once you are in Madurai – major places such as Kanyakumari, Rameswaram and Kodaikanal are all nearby – about 3 hours by drive. We took up an Innova on hire from Madurai to Rameswaram which costed us between 10-12 Rupees per kilometre. There is a fixed cost and and a variable cost split in this arrangement. Be aware that if you are going to the hills, then a separate hill stay charge of upto Rs.600/- is levied. This could be 100 or 200 higher depending on the market fluctuations.

Travel from Madurai to Rameswaram takes a good 3 hours by the time you reach you should be hungry for sure. As you go along the route, you will first enter Rameswaram via the Pamban bridge. Most vehicles make an undesignated stop here owing to the popularity of the bridge.

Pamban Bridge Railway

We went in the month of April which was presumed to be hotter but was not really so. Humid yes, but hot no. So you could go to Rameswaram within April end but no later. Best time to visit Rameswaram is between August to February when temperatures would likely be bearable. Its not so much the heat but the humidity which will kill you.

(image source: Wikipedia)

Pamban is an island that has the town of Rameswaram and it is linked to the mainland via the Pamban Bridge. It is the second largest sea bridge after Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The bridge is nearly 2km long and was rebuilt after the initial construction in 1914. Due to a cyclone that damaged the bridge in 1964, the Government had to repair it after. In 2013 the bridge got a damage due to a naval barge again. At a cost of 25 crores, the existing 65.23 metres (214.0 ft) long rolling type span was replaced with a 66 metres (217 ft) long single truss span which could be opened automatically.

The beauty of this bridge is that it even takes the weight of goods trains which are more heavier than passenger trains. At the same time when ships need to go through it can be opened up to allow them to pass. The sea with its myriad shades of blue, indigo and purple is a sight to behold at Pamban. The enormity and beauty of Pamban Railway cannot be stated and has to be seen with one’s own eyes.

This is a 4K video of a train passing through the Pamban Bridge which i hope you will enjoy. If you have a 40-55 inches TV, this would be worth a watch on that size of a TV, its almost as good as being there in real. Remember to set the resolution to 4K on YouTube.

What do you think of the Pamban Bridge experience? Write to me in the comments section.

My mobile ownership journey

On a holiday me and my wife started discussing about whether I need to dump my iPhone 6+ and go for that new shiny Samsung Note 5 which was just launched, or perhaps the 6s, or the upcoming nexus phones. This is when my wife asked me whether I have kept a tab on how many phones I had purchased all my life. Well, I remembered and here is the list 🙂

Early 2000 : Motorola CD928

This Motorola was an awesome beauty way back in year 2000. It was a fashion to flip out the keypad, the large LCD text screen and the gorgeous antenna. Costing almost Rs.10000/- way back this was a status symbol to possess. Added to that the only mobile network at that time was JT Mobiles (which is now our famour Airtel) Not to mention outgoing calls were Rs.7 a minute and incoming was Rs.3 a minute. People still wondered whether as a college passout into industry I was mad to buy this expensive a phone, but the stares it got satisfied the ownership.
2002 : Nokia 3300

Nokia’s evolution from 3100 turned out to be the flashy 3300 and the gimmicky ringtones kept everyone tapping their feet. Solid battery life, some great call clarity, this was the phone doing the rounds in Malaysia when I used to stay there at that time
2003 : Samsung V200

Samsung’s V200 was their early foray into the camera flip phone segment and after much of analysis this phone was mine for a while until I returned to India.
2003: HP iPAQ

The HP iPAQ was already doing good with PDA’s and with GSM they took it a step further to have a portable computer running windows CE in your pocket. A phone, a PDA, life was great!
For the decade ending 2010, and beyond until now
Motorola A1200

With a stylus and a brilliant resistive touchscreen, even though the options of font were too small, this phone was capable of being a PDA and a phone at the same time. Very pocketable, loud speaker, and amazing call clarity were hallmarks of a motorola A1200. What followed was the razor which went on to create history, but somehow I did not own that!
Nokia 6600

It was Symbian’s best phone at the time of its rule, with users swearing by its quality. Such was the power of Nokia 6600 that merely owning it was a status symbol. The joystick, its easy to use options, buttons, and some great battery life with needless to mention great call quality, this was the phone to have.
Panasonic A100

I was always a huge fan of little phones, and the A100 from panasonic proved itself to be the mighty Jerry of the Tom and Jerry league. Its cool blue lighting, and its somewhat difficult to use buttons, its miniaturization – it was a product unique to its category and surprisingly good quality of calls.
Olive Compacta

The olive Compact from olive telecom is not a mere play toy though it looks so. Started off at Rs.999 and now at Rs.575 or so, this phone is a testimony that the category it belongs to still has takers even now. I still have the phone, and it works even now. No nonsense phone, nothing smart, just the calls. Absolutely unique and cool
The Nokia Asha Saga – The 3 series asha

Nokia was struggling to infuse fresh life into its Series 40 based phones with the Asha series. They suffered from lags, useless apps, though had a good call quality. However the hardware was still cool to hold and use. Since there was a need for a dual sim phone, with the advent of dual sim needs, this one went out of my house
The Nokia asha 5 series

For me I felt the 501 was an evolution of phones like the panasonic, olive, and moto a1200. Nokia had their brilliant design language stand out, though the software was extremely slow and did not match upto what the industry expected. I still have this phone, though do not use it anymore. Some things are there to be seen and to make you happy everytime you see them.
The Windows Saga
Lumia 710

Nokia’s effort at moving to Windows was some sort of disaster with the 710 and earlier models with the operating system itself being no more than a dud. Frequent hangs, crashes, and glitches was MS’ way of introducing their new mobile OS
Lumia 1520

After a span of 2-3 years I decided to give Nokia another chance and purchased their outrageously priced 1520 flagship. This was the best Nokia ever produced, barring another model which had the 41mp camera. In every way the screen was the best, the phone was a beauty to use. However the lack of apps even after so many years, put me down and in order to salvage some cost out of the loss, I had to sell it out, thereby also signifying my exit with Windows once and forever.
The Alcatel Ice Cube 803

Alcatel does not call it the ice cube for no reason. The 803 series is a brilliant resistive screen phone (even in 2015) as its sold for a purpose. The SAR rating for this phone is one of the best in the market which means your brains wont fry even if you talk on this phone for hours together. I still have this, and use it sometimes for overseas calls that last more than couple of hours. Absolutely cool on the ear, and does not provide anything else fantastic
The Android Saga
Dell XCD35

About sometime after Apple starting rolling out their smartphones, Android which started off somewhat in a lacklustre way started catching up. The Dell XCD 35 was a brilliantly designed product off the shelf and it was running Android 2.0+ After some while of using it, I had to give it to my wife who used it to the hilt before dumping it to a mobile shop guy who wanted it for the spare parts to repair a customer’s similar phone. Till today, there are two brands that impress me – dell and Blackberry – they have always had some solid designs on their mobiles and this has led to some good models in the past including the dell Venue and venue pro.
Lenovo K900

Lenovo was a master of industrial design and this clearly showed in their K900 which had Android married to Intel processors. The phone itself was just super awesome, but gaming made it hot (not warm) and their speaker and mic quality let them down on this model. I had to return it to flipkart for a refund simply becuase the most important functionality of the mic and speaker were horrible. They learnt their problem and had since launched K910 and more lately their k3 series lower than Rs.15000 where they are playing in their field well. More on that later
Hello Moto G

After Motorola’s sad butchering in the late 2000s, they came back with Android and the new Moto G. This phone with stock android still remains popular in many avatars even today. It had the most oustanding vibrate mode, some exceptional call quality which was typical of moto phones since a decade, but with less RAM though not necessarily slow. The battery tended to go weak after a year or so, but my wife still uses this, and she can swear by the quality even today. No wonder then that Motorola is again on the upswing launching the play and style editions of Moto X shortly expected.
Hello Moto E

If you like something, and your people at home also like something, then you need to buy two of the same immediately. In order to make my father in law happy, I purchased the Moto E which was a lesser child of the moto family with reduced hardware but somewhat still usable
LG G2

The LG G2 was by far one of the best android phones I used in my entire life. The user interface was silly in my opinion, but very usable, it had IR, it had wireless flash access, and everything else one could imagine. They pioneered the backside buttons concept which quickly caught on among other manufacturers. It was great to hold, with a premium feel and had a brilliant screen. However, the user interface grew on me so much that I felt that I really needed a change beyond a year. No amount of rooting, or otherwise could refresh this on the LG so I had to let it go. One of the good things about LG is the amount of software support they provide where you can brick your phone entirely and bring it back to showroom condition all by yourself. However the android updates were a pain to get as well.
Nexus 4

The Nexus 4 was an example of how NOT to design a phone experiment that LG undertook. Glass on both sides, phone getting extremely hot which was identified as a design flaw all over the world with no solution in sight, my phone just cracked on the rear glass on its own. Just was kept on the table and boooom. It was getting so hot to even keep on the ear and make a call that the only thing I wanted to do with it was to dump it in the recycle bin. No wonder then that the Nexus 5 was rolled out and this one went into oblivion. LG’s two different faces between the Nexus 4 and the G2.
The HTC 1

After LG, right there was the HTC 1 which was yet another phone which made some waves in the android world. They had one of the best speakers almost rivaling apple itself, and the premium feel was one of the best in the market. Somehow HTC UI never really improved and evolved over time and their keyboard though one of the best started feeling boring after a while. With a difficult decision to make I had to let it go for good.
HTC 616

After sometime I was using HTC 616 as my secondary phone, but with its internal 4GB memory, and an absolutely laggy OS, it was not a difficult decision for me to get rid of it. Sometimes I dont understand why a company like HTC goes into this low end business and gets screwed without knowing how to produce what can sell in large numbers. Anyway, now that I have seen two HTC phones, I am done with HTC for good.
Xiaomi Redmi Note

This one single company from China has caused so much ripples in the indian mobile industry that perhaps even Micromax did not cause. Their product the Redmi Note is one of the best in the price range, and my dad still uses the phone even though it may have a cracked screen. A bit laggy with 2GB ram, still Xiaomi has one of the best user interfaces and the hardware itself is solid bang for the buck. At less than Rs.10000 there is still no phone to beat this hands down. This company beat the Oppos, Gionees and many others so badly that even Lenovo had to bow down to the pricing versus quality pressure with their A and k3 series.
The Lenovo A6000+

More recently I purchased my Lenovo A6000+ for Rs.6000. An android phone this cheap and of reasonable quality was all was needed to set this market on fire for low end phones. The K3 note followed through as well pretty soon. The ViBe UI from lenovo, is slick, fast and cuts the crap out of user interface design. With two 4G sim slots, memory card slot and a brilliant screen for the price who the hell cared for anything else? This now replaced my Alcatel and HTC as my secondary phone and is doing the duty for me at the moment at home.
The Blackberry Saga
You know there is this company which was one of the best in the market and from Canada, that the entire world once stood up for them with respect. They had the best quality hardware, an advanced and straightforward user interface and some really great handsets. Blackberry was the businessman’s best friend forever.
Blackberry Curve 8520

The blackberry had many models including the flip, pearl, etc which were hits in their own right, and there was a time in India where they were heavily marketing the Curve series. For some god damned reason, they always bundled their own Blackberry talk plans with the operators, which they did away with after sometime. They had and still have a huge fan following in Indonesia primarily now and some people in India. The Curve series had a navigation trackpad, physical keyboards and some exceptional call qualities and it was an absolute joy to use. However my patience with it ran out after sometime having seen other better models with Apple and Android in the market.
Blackberry Storm touch

True to their tradition BB brought about the storm touch with the clickable glass panel which was funky, unique and silly at the same time. I loved clicking the screen wherever I wanted and it grabbed eyeballs all around my office at the time of using it. However pretty soon, I felt it was bulky and not so intuitive and started bringing me into boredom state once more. So it had to go for good. The thing with Blackberry is there are buyers who are fans of BB and only true fans will understand the brand and the phones. others will not.
Blackberry Z3

After many failures trying to compete with Apple and Android, BB still did not give up, they brought in their z3 with android sideloading and other such features to still remain relevant in the app store market. I decided to give them another chance after seeing the way they goofed up on earlier chances. Their CEO was replaced, and now a chinese CEO took over and I hoped that after so much of layoffs and cost cutting they would have learnt the lesson. But it was not to be. It does not mean I was against their hardware. I loved it. Really. Honestly. From the bottom of my heart, i loved blackberry. I will always love them. For what they were, not what they are or what they become. But that is one thing as opposed to living with their products day in and out.
The z3 is a brilliant piece of hardware. Truly well made. But the software sucks. big time. Its nice to use. Start thinking apps and you are done. I mean really finished. I had to sell the instrument within one week of buying it. I have never decided against blackberry this soon in my life ever. News has it that BB is busy working on their next pure android device the “VENICE” and its expected to some out sometime soon. Real soon. But for now I will remain far away from them. Once bitten Thrice shy.
The Apple journey
iPhone 3GS

Colourful icons, milky white body, lots of apps – who did not like Steve Jobs and his product the iPhone. This was truly a game changer of sorts. The iPhone, 2G, 3G later, it was time for the 3GS – which was faster and thinner than the 3rd generation iPhone. When I first held the iPhone in my hand, I truly felt the influence a smartphone can have in one’s life. I mean really it was not hard to appreciate the quality, the build the software everything put together so nicely. Steve had changed the world one product at a time and this was the beginning of domination.
iPhone 4S

It became a policy for me to skip one version and go for the improved versions. After two years of using iPhone 3GS which by the way was the longest ever product usage time for me, I decided to switch to the 4S. Similar screen size, less curves, more squarish, and thinner by a margin. Nothing changed except having more and more apps and a better camera.
iPhone 6plus

The one thing I was fed up of with Apple was the screen size. With their mentally retarted thinking they thought they could continue changing the world with just a 4 inch screen. While all others were moving steadily towards larger screens. It took them two years or more to move out of the 5 and 5S to bring in the 6 and 6plus and now the 6s all sporting bigger displays. This was precisely the reason I was on android with bigger screens getting pampered. I was lying in wait for the big screen Apple and here it was. Beginning of this year 2015, I upgraded to the 6 plus. And I have only one word for it. Gorgeous. I mean it. The screen, the battery everything is great. And when you buy and apple year after year, you know what to expect. Or what not to expect. And it makes me at home with that understanding. I am appreciating a lot of things with apple. Its stability, usability the components used etc. But even the flatter look is wearing thin. The bezels around the phone are irritating. Not being able to transfer something using bluetooth is irritating. And every other such thing is irritating. So it will be only time before I give away this one also. For good. And the iphone 6S is no good either with just force touch, better camera, and 4k recording – something all other brands already have for a long time. I will definitely always sell an apple with a heavy heart no doubt mostly due to the feeling that Apple is not giving what the market is expecting. The claps are getting fewer and fewer during the keynotes and one day deathly silence shall fill the room. I really hope Apple turns around much faster than disaster strikes. And there is no history of any one company enjoying number 1 status for a long time. Headweight must not get in the way of understanding market sentiment. And I wish Apple hears.
This then my friends is the entire Saga of owning phones in my life. Clearly every product has excited me for some reason or the other and they have also left me for some really good reason or the other. The phones shall keep coming thick and fast and they shall also be owned thick and fast. But in these times of choices in plenty if any phone can be with me for a minimum of 2 years as my iphone 3gs did then, you will understand that history has again be created with a product worthy of ownership for so long. Till then, I hope you enjoyed this read.

The degree kaapi life

(image credit : www.indiarailinfo.com)

The man inside the house is dressed only in a dhoti and is sitting facing his bare back to the busy main road either oblivious to the surroundings or perhaps ingrained in the fact that life has to continue despite the contraints that the world outside has to offer. He is either watching TV or just medidating in the midst of all the hustle and bustle barely a few feet away from the floor where he sits on. His palatial house of yesteryears perhaps offers the solace to him that the outer world can’t.

The pavements are decorated with navaratri dolls and vegetable and fruit vendors lined up for many a kilometer that the eye can see. With not even an inch left on the road, the traffic is everywhere. A loud sustained honk generated when you press the squeezy green ball shaped invention is umistakable as it announces that a vehicle perhaps 100,000 times larger than the horn is arriving at breakneck speed at rubbing distance from you. The driver seems least bothered whether there are humans walking on the road, or other vehicles either merging from the alleyways or from the opposite side. Frankly its upto one’s destiny to heed that honk and move away. Else the bark of pure unadulterated tamil is worse than its bite in Chennai.

There are both fast and slow paced worlds coexisting here. The traffic is maddeningly fast. Someone exits the main road to join a by lane, while someone appears suddenly and merges into the main road. Another guy does the unpredictable act of darting from the opposite lane aiming his squeaky two wheeler straight into one empty parking slot on your side. Driving straight on your face that is without any feeling of an error. He got that most coveted parking for the next half an hour that no one managed to notice.

As I approach an intersection there is a large corner plot which has been demolished. The compound wall now has large structures standing tall made of thatched coconut leaves. Every now and then I can notice the moon playing hide and seek as I walk by this large empty land. Its only a matter of time before a swanky new commercial complex or some apartment comes up here. As I near the corner, I am only able to notice very bright rays of a couple of sharp yellow bulbs and can smell something large which will unmistakably squash me if I dont pause.

A large vehicle followed by a few pesky two wheelers dart from one by lane to another putting to a complete halt every vehicle on the main road (the bus included). This precision system works without a signal or a cop and its merely based on an understanding of the teams working at right angles to each other. The traffic is self managed. Almost twenty five years ago, when I came shopping here, a series of petromax lights on vegetable stall quadricycles welcomed be in the cacophony shouting at top pitch – thakkali, urulaikazhungu, keerai, vengaayam.

There was no way you could get along without buying any one of that after a heightened marketing pitch. The very same fruit and vegetable stalls still dot the busy main road even today – petromaxes replaced with swanky chinese CFL lamps running on solar charge – minus the marketing. The old charm still remains but no one calls you to buy unless you stop by anymore.

Along the corner is a temple with people stopping by paying a visit to the diety, wishing that their lives become better than what it is while vendors are busy selling puja items to help the cause. Somewhere along two guys dressed in lungies are sitting besides lots of unsold navaratri dolls lamenting on low sales this year and how people are losing the traditional touch. Opposite the temple is a small but clear board in tamil that reads white font on blue background – “Saloon” – hair in chennai will quadruple the amount of sweat your body can generate, so you do need someone who can “take care” of that for good.

As I walk along, I notice a rather burly man, about three times my size (just to let you know my wife feels I am a pot bellied ‘fother’ to my kids already). He wears a neat full sleeved shirt rolled to 3/4th of the arms. His veshti can give an inferiority complex to Mamooty in the “salute Ramrajkku salute” ad. The folds of his veshti expose his rather large thighs, knees and strong hairy legs ending in a sandal. His gaze is fixed on me, and his large eyeballs look threatening and menacing. As I walk forward, I realize he is looking at something behind me. Some distance further the street gets dark due to lack of shops for a brief period.

This is place where dimly lit locked up houses are present, and I notice two friends are chatting up sitting on the pavement. One of them explains his injured fingers to another while showing the bandage. They share a laugh or two as I walk past. As I go further, a share auto screeches to a halt in front of me blocking my path and a man in a hurry jumps right onto my face from the auto. The share auto revolution has now managed to make the normal auto drivers by storm and they think again and they now “put meter” which is equivalent to the 8th wonder of the world.

Strong smells of agarbathi, degree kaapi fill the air as I walk further past. At a corner of Brindavan street, a huge shop screams of Krishna Sweets with the traditional mysorepa kept all over the place. I continue walking past in search of a certain Jockey showroom when I notice how dark the street has gotten suddenly. There are vehicles constantly whizzing past you reminding you to take care of your mortal remains assuming they have scared the rest of the shit within you while brushing past. “Anney, Seenu anney” screams a guy across the street from his garage. I continue to be amazed how some people live their daily life in a garage in an atmosphere dominated by sweat. Seenu anney does not respond and I walk on.

A bunch of auto drivers are loudly discussing something and it seems like anytime they would break into a fight. Whether they would hurt someone is anyone’s guess but most probably not. A woman screams something from an apartment on top to someone on the road at a time when mobile phones are the thing of the day even to talk from one room to another within the same house.

A bit further I notice a rather neat and well built small apartment on my left with huge entry gates and some builders name glorified on it. I fail to notice on my right something dark, black and almost non existent to the naked eye unless noticed carefully. Its nothing short of about fifty years old and the moss and algae all over without any light around makes it an apartment in complete contrast to the one I just otherwise noticed. Not to forget to mention two big multi utility vehicles squeezed into an already small lane.

Finally I reach a junction from where one cannot miss noticing the all encompassing Pothi’s store glittering away in lights that could perhaps light up a locality of frustrated voters in some other village outside the city. I find the Jockey store finally and quickly get into the comfort of the airconditioned lifestyle inside the shop. As my sweat from walking during the evening dries up almost instantaneously a rather confused store attender wonders which undergarment to show me.

He looks at me like I have come from Mars. He gives me a stare like I am not going to make a successful purchase and the whole atmosphere is now beginning to turn a futile shopping experience. When I ask for something that he does not have he says – “two shops later there is Fashionberg, you must check there you will surely get it”. I sign out of the store and stand in disbelief two shops later. “Fashionberg” is a 10×10 store with 100 customers already standing inside and I am sure the Germans would be feeling the heat seeing someone use their naming style for a shop this small.

I decide to walk away almost instantaneously and walk past the Venkateshwara Boli stall. I must say that all Boli stalls have something to do with the name Venkat (venkateshwara, venkataramana) to be successful. A father asks his young daughter – “Bonda saapadrayaa?” as he points to the shelf full of Bondas lined up. As I ask the store owner whether he accepts card and get a negative reply some others are jostling behind me uncontrollably with their urge to eat that “soodanna bajji rendu” just ordered before me. As I walk further past back to my home I notice a few more stalls ahead after a dark patch. A whizzing two wheeler driven by a lady and her young daughter on pillion abruptly stop at the dark side of the street.

After witnessing what seemed as a never ending chaos of overflowing traffic I assumed that there is a traffic jam ahead only to understand later that the woman stopped just behind a huge DUSTBIN which has been intentionally left at the middle of the busy street. When I was just feeling good for the woman who stopped on time avoiding crashing into the dustbin I was dumbfounded when she picked up a cover full of garbage, threw it into the dustbin in “rajini style” and vanished from the place all in one go. I was left imagining what kind of person would come all the way with her daughter in tow on a two wheeler to a designated dustbin to just throw some trash?

Finally as I walk past the last stretch towards my home I notice a clothes showroom which is brightly lit with a board saying – ‘all credit and debit cards accepted with no service charge’ prominently displayed in front of the shop. In today’s world its a matter of being customer oriented and service oriented. In a world where shark eats shark, you need to woo people to stay in business. And its so much more the case in an area like west mambalam where the crowd is humongous, the hunger has to be fed at the earliest and a missed opportunity means that you would be out of business on a sustained failure.

I cannot help noticing the temporary shed blocking 50% of a street as I reach my home. It seems the lady who owns this shed has single handedly fought with everyone in the locality who tried evicting her saying the government alloted her the land years ago and she will see how anyone will try getting her to vacate her hut. She speaks of political contact at government circles who she will go to if people disturb her existence.

Welcome to west mambalam, Chennai.

The destiny farmstay, Ooty

In my last post , I wrote about my journey to Ooty, spiced up with certain constraints and situations. In this post, I will let you know my review of the Destiny Farmstay at Ooty. Read on ….

The Destiny Farmstay is about 25-30 kms away from Ooty main bus stand. The car parking in Destiny is about 2km away from the actual farmstay, and the road beyond that does not permit normal sedans or hatchbacks to get to the actual farmstay as its very slushy, extremely bumpy and risky in terms of damage to the vehicles. The directions provided by the resort is fairly accurate, but towards the end you may have to keep your ears and eyes open for signboards, turns, identification points and the likes.

An army truck belonging to the Little Earth group who run destiny farmstay, took us from the car parking into the resort. The ride can be very bumpy and little kids can feel rattled and extremely afraid as did my little one. So take care of this part. The reception at the resort was neat and kept well attended and the staff there were very courteous in welcoming the people to the stay. A welcome drink was also made available on arrival since it would mostly be beyond noon when people reach there. As other formalities were being completed, the lunch menu was also being taken for order from different guests so that lunch could be made available on time.

A point to note here about the lunch or dinner is that they are limited in timings and one has to be within the time frame of cafeteria being open to source the required dishes. Room service is available at a cost but not always. So its best you return to the cafeteria at specified times in order to avoid missing out on the food. And you guessed it right that there is nothing near the resort where you can otherwise go for food and so you are by yourself. Another thing I felt about the food was that it was quite expensive (even beyond bangalore standards) which is not a good thing. This is always a demand supply factor resorts capitilize on and I am okay with that if the resort were to be otherwise highly rated. Though TripAdvisor rates this resort high, one must understand the fact that there are actually very few new, other resorts, around this place. So naturally everyone who goes here would tend to recommend only this one. Additionally they do not add too much spice into the food, so its kind of kid friendly too which is a plus.

The rooms themselves are nestled neatly along a row overlooking a valley created by more than few mountain slopes. This is the valley where sloped farming is done. When we went to the resort rains were lashing ooty, and towards the evening the atmosphere was damp and the skies opened up a bit. The sunset was a surreal experience. The rooms were large with two single beds put back to back. So that meant some ample room for four of us (two kids). The toilets were large and neat, however not always did we get hot water. You can compare that to my review of the eagle eye holidays in chikmagalur where I did have hot water 24 hours of the day. So if they can do it, why not Destiny?

The room was supposedly a deluxe room, but the only deluxe part about it was the front verandah area overlooking the valley. Other than that the sofa inside the room was not well maintained and the springs had worn out. It was more uncomfortable to sit on it than anything the other way round. The rooms also had no tube lights or no fans and had a coffee maker in case you needed a quick one.

The farming itself consisted of many different type of flowers, cabbages, carrots and the likes being cultivated there. In addition to this they had a horse stable with atleast 3-4 horses who would take you for a ride at a specified time in the mornings with supervision on a high ground area. In addition to this were a large amount of cows, and some sheep. There were also rabbits and ducks which were near the pond down the valley. There were hundred odd steps that led to the valley below which is a good exercise if you take your kids down and back, assuming you are carrying them.

In addition to this, there is a disco room that’s operational at night, and there is a bonfire every night which in my opinion is absolutely necessary. Its advisable to carry a set of diapers, all essentials for kids, and atleast three pairs of footwear for kids. Some woolens and raincoats and atleast one or two umbrellas are a must.

Please be advised that there are NO medical facilities anywhere nearby atleast for a good 20+ kilometers, so you have to take all medical supplies that you might need. Remember that your car is parked a good 2-3 km away from the resort from where the nearest hospital is another 20km away, so this could be risky if you need urgent medical attention. From what I spoke with hotel staff, I am not sure that they are addressing this need.

Its also mostly likely that the cafeteria or reception would remain out of reach beyond some earthly hours. There is also a well stocked library to spend some time in. One of the major reasons I went to this place was that they had advertised some activities for the kids such as nature painting and so on, but the person conducting these was away on holiday himself, so one promise never met. Luckily since I carried a whole lot of sketch pens myself, I was able to get some paper and let my son try his artwork there.

I stayed at Destiny Farmstay for only one night, but I feel its an experience where kids learn about farming, and look and feel domestic animals once in a way. To summarize Destiny is aiming to be unique in what it offers, but the expensive food and no medical help nearby might make it go out of your list for a holiday. If you still want to give it a try, the location is beautiful and would relax a tired soul.

The cost for a deluxe room towards end of March was 5,500 + and the three time meal cost came to almost 1,700 +, add a fuel of almost 3,000 + from bangalore upto the resort and we are looking at around 10,000 for a day’s worth of holiday.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,