Affordable foreign destinations

Sharing an interseting read from the net. Want to get more value out of every rupee while travelling aborad? Then these are some destinations. Just beaware of the fact some these countries prefer to charge tourists in dollar rather than their own currency. I am aware of wildlife trips to Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Therfore my advise is to do further reserach before you take the bite.

17 Super Affordable Countries That Will Make Every Indian Feel Richer

Timeshare Holidays in India

There always is a gap between how much you said and what finally appears. It was fun interacting with an editor of a leading national newspaper. Given the no of phone calls I receive from strangers based on the articles I had written on my blog, I seem to have become an expert on timeshare holidays smile emoticon . In fact the BS team contacted me after reading my blog.

Business Standard, Mumbai, 24 Aug, 2015

Brahmaputra river cruise

Assam Tourism to introduce economical cruise of Brahmaputra for domestic tourists next year. This is a good intiative. There are few local circuit river cruise available around areas like Guwahati, Kaziranga and Dibru Saikhowa. Tourism in Assam has picked up reasonably well in last few years. People in general no more consider it as a troubled state. Living in Delhi, I had observed that more people had died in road accidents in Delhi in last one year itself then stray incidences of violence in Assam over last ten years. The areas from Guwahati to Kaziranga, Gibbon WLS and Dibru Saikhowa WLS are absolutely trouble free. I am happy to see many photographer friends making these circuits regularly in recent years.  This intiative will promote untapped tourism. 

Read the full article here:

Assam Tourism to introduce economical cruise of Brahmaputra

Ranthambhore diary

Mismanagement, corruption and resulting crowd menace at Ranthambhore is increasing every year. It is no more a place where you can watch a tiger walking the forest in peace.  After every visit, I said to myself that this is going to be the last time. But the tigers of Ranthambhore keep bringing me back. We had a sighting of T19’s cubs last year when they were just 3 months old. They were barely larger than a house cat last June (2014). Now they are sub adult cubs of one and half year. And they were treating tourists and photographers to some lifetime’s sighting. They were everywhere in FB – playing in water, chasing crocs, play fighting, suckling. The most magnificent creature in the entire world, the tiger is. - Jack Hanna. So I could not held me back. May be one last time to Ranthambhore before moving out of Delhi. 

Summer is the best time for watching the tiger in the wild. Temperatures in Rajasthan during peak summers can soar to mind boggling degrees. It is not easy to travel in an open gypsy, specially the journey of 3-4km from your hotel till you enter the park, when scorching loo brush you at more than 40km an hour. Yet, more and more people are braving the sun to travel in summers, even to hot places like Ranthambhore. Demand for safari seats have gone up drastically over the years. @Rs.750 per seat or @Rs.4500 per gypsy, safaris do not come cheap. Most regulars to the park knows which zone to visit to get maximum value for their money. Booking a safari online in your desired zone is tough, in fact near impossible these days. The controversial online safari booking process has grown in notoriety this year. Supply is as short as just 3 gypsy in each zone as against a train full of crowd clamouring for it. There is sheer madness for online booking. Imagine a situation when you land there without any booking! You will have to shell out 1000-1500 per seat in gypsy depending on the day of the week. Or take a horrible ride in canter with a motley crowd of 20 others, that too at a hefty rate of about 600 per seat.

Tiger - Ranthambhore (High resolution image for professional use is available for sale at Getty Image)

The prime attraction this summer was T19 with her three sub adult cubs roaming in zone 3. So everyone who are familiar with Ranthambhore wants to be in zone 3. There were only 18 seats available for online booking in every safari session for zone 3 (or an equal no in each of the zones). Supply was so short that the demand for zone 3 was unimaginable. Thanks to a friend, I had to acquire special skill to beat it and manage booking for zone 3. This happened after failed attempt over 4 nights, with even money getting deducted on two occasion. Finally I got lucky on fifth night. Once I had managed zone 3 booking, planning the trip for other zone over 3 days was cakewalk. For all those unfamiliar with this zone business may refer some of earlier posts on Ranthambhore. Tiger dynamics changes every couple of years. Therefore, even after ticking all boxes right in your trip plan, sighting a tiger is a matter of luck.

This year’s trip to Rnathambhore was my longest till date, with 6 safaris spanning over 4 days. Ranthambhore was rocking this year. Baring the first safari on Sunday afternoon, which was actually booked to fill the spare time, we had ‘photographic’ tiger sighting. As a wildlife photographer, and someone who had seen many tigers in wild, a ‘photographic’ sighting is all that matters. Even one photographic sighting out of 4 or 5 I generally do in a trip, sooths the soul. Here we got super sighting in 5 out of 6 safaris this year.

However it did not start off that well. My first safari in zone 4 was actually more of an afterthought or ‘fill in’ kind of arrangement to utilise my spare time after arrival in Ranthambhore. Safari in Zone-4 is a bone rattling experience because of rocky roads. Though I had fond memories of zone-4, this time I had no hope and hence I did not even carry my camera expecting nothing to see. My only sighting of legendary Machli was in zone 4 and we had a close encounter with elusive T41. Sultan had also reportedly moved into zone 4. Even though jungle always throws up surprises, expecting to see any of the tigers was a farfetched hope. As expected it went blank. However as were exiting the park, a disappointing piece of news passed onto us was that T19 had moved with her cubs into adjoining zone previous day, and has not been seen since either in zone 2 or 3. They might have made a kill deep inside and hence were not coming out. It was enough to plan a seed of worry in my mind.

Day 2:

Next morning, leaving our can of worries behind in hotel, we set off our next safari in zone-3, touted as sure shot sighting zone. It took me 5 night’s attempt to get zone 3 booking. The bad news of previous evening was confirmed barely minutes into the safari. The T19 family had not returned to their lakeside palace. After checking the area around Padam talao for sign of T19 families return to the lake, our guide decided to explore upper areas where another tiger T64 is occasionally seen. We went up and down, but could not track down any tiger more than one hour into the safari. This was supposed to be sure sighting zone! Everyone was clamouring for it. I too had come only after getting zone-3 booking. It was rocking for last few months with 4-5 tiger regularly roaming the scene, and here, we are yet to find even a single tiger. I know that despite ticking all boxes right in your trip plan, sighting a tiger is a matter of luck. ‘Best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray’. That day, we were in zone-3 and the tigers were in adjoining zone-2. We would be going to zone-2 next day, and what if tigers return to zone-3 that night. The thought was frightening. The ghost of not sighting a tiger in any of the safaris in this trip started haunting me. Couple of my friend had this misfortune once. In that trip together I beat them by the barest margin of just a single tiger sighting in four safaris. You have to be extremely unlucky not to see a tiger in 4-5 safaris.

 A tiger amidst dust cloud at Ranthambhore. Image courtsey my daughter Swathi.

With an ever increasing bag of woes and the sun over our head getting hotter by minutes, we came back to Rajbagh area, expecting against hope for one of the T19 cubs to return. We had about two hours of safari time left with nothing to do but to wait in hope.  “The miserable have no other medicine but hope.”  Then came the moment which was change the course of our fate in next 48 hours. We saw a gypsy hurrying onto the dirt track we were standing. In one of them was the national award winning wildlife film maker S Nallamuthu. I know him for quite some time now. On seeing me, he informed that tiger is reported at a spot called platform. We too hit the dusty trail left behind by Nalla’s gypsy. And there he was.  T64, the male cub from T19’s last litter was cooling off majestically in lake, with the Ranthambhore fort and Rajbagh hunting palace as backdrop. It was a dream backdrop for a Ranthambhore tiger frame. T64 took the opportunity of T19’s absence to visit the area where he grew up. We were looking for him up in the hills, but he was sleeping by the lake. T19, though his mother, no more tolerate T64 in lake area for the safety of her new litter. The sighting soothed our frayed nerves. Now we were relieved that we had a tiger sighting and the trip will not go blank. I cannot express this sense of relief in word.

More importantly, this was the moment that had changed our luck. In the afternoon safari, we caught up with T64 again, before he went up the hill to cross over to zone-4. My two safaris in zone-3 was in expectation of T19 and three cubs. But they were zone-2 that day. Now I have full day booked for zone-2 next day. What if T19 moves back to zone-3 that night?  And, with T24 no more there to give a darshan, what if we do not get to see a tiger tomorrow. Many IFs remained unanswered that night.

Day 3:

Next morning we entered zone 2 with an air of uncertainty. Barely half kilometre into the park, there were they – the T19 family. Partly hidden behind tall grasses, they were lying by a dry nullah. We were informed that all 4 of the family were there. As cavalcade of gypsy’s started arriving one by one, T19, the mother of the cubs got up and started walking. Two of the cubs also got up and followed her. We did not find the third cub though. As the tigers started moving, the madness of vehicle started. Fortunately the mother and the cubs went different way. Therefore the drivers and guides of the vehicles were making choices on the tracks to hit.

As the commotion continued, the cubs sat down to became invisible, while T19 perched herself up in almost open. Few canters arrived by then and join the hordes of gypsys already there. Officially there is supposed to be only 5 gypsy. But there were too many. How and why is known to most regulars to Ranthambhore. We got caught up in traffic jam. I hate Ranthmbhore for this madness. If we give tigers more space, they will be more relaxed. What is required is an open view, not close view. Unfortunately most people do not have long lenses like photographers. Instead of enjoying the moment, they too would like to click with their PS or mobile or whatever they have, without realising the banality of it. If vehicles are parked sparsely, rather than crowding around the tiger, everyone will get a good view. I will love if one of the tiger of Ranthambhore turn charger. But then they may send him to zoo like Ustad.

T19 decided to excuse herself of the scene and went down a deep nullah. Meanwhile one of the cubs came out to a waterhole by the road. Vehicles started to converge there. One more cub joined in after some time. Despite of the crowd, I managed to get some pleasing frames. The overcast sky lent lovely diffused light for the scene.  As I had only half the gypsy, it was not easy to manoeuvre my heavy 400mm lens. My daughter would not allow me to use her 70-200. I missed my old warhorse 100-400. In Corbett, I generally use to hire a full gypsy. But in Ranthambhore, it is very costly @ 4500/- per gypsy. That too when you are doing 5-6 safaris. I was happy with the frames, given the limitations of sharing the gypsy with 6 persons. After full three hours of tiger sighting, we returned to hotel, all sporting smug smiles.

The good news for the evening safari was that the cubs decided stay back where we had left them in the morning. Therefore, we had another round of super sighting, but in different light conditions in the afternoon safari. After spending about an hour with the cubs, cooling off in the waterhole, our guide opined that we should go up and explore other areas and look for other tigers. We had enough of the cubs for the day. Two gypsy were ahead of us as we hit the road winding up a hill. On turning a bend, we saw the two vehicle ahead of us reversing. Our guide immediately realised that a tiger is coming straight at us on the road. When a tiger comes your way, you are supposed to reverse and give way. But then the inevitable occurred.

Another gypsy came behind us and its driver was shouting at us. He was telling our driver that ‘tera tanki phut gaya’. Your petrol tank had ruptured. As the tiger was about hundred meter away, our driver checked and found petrol leaking through a big crack. We all felt the vehicle hitting a rock while crossing a stream some 50 mtrs downstream. It is quite usual in safari. What is unusual is a ruptured tank. ‘There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.’ Driver had the means to stop the leak, but as the tiger was approaching us, he could not get down. Now he was worried that we might have no fuel left by the time tiger crosses us. As the vehicle ahead of us were shouting us to go back, our driver managed to bring the vehicle to a point where they could barely cross us. Then he positioned the vehicle in a downward position as the hole was towards the rear of the tank. Keeping it downward will drain the petrol slower.

Majestic T19

By now the tigress T19 had almost reached us. She was surprised that we have not moved back. She stopped about 15 feet from our gypsy. She looked at us and then stood up holding a tree by the road, picking up scent left by her kins. May be smell of petrol leaked was confusing her. Her behaviour was clearly indicating that she was expecting us to give way. But we were stuck. Could not tell her ‘tanki phut gaya’. Our gypsy was parked tightly by the hill, leaving barely 4-5 feet of space on the road. As we were not bulging, she explored the possibility of going down. But it was steep gorge on that side. Finally she decided to cross our gypsy, walking by almost the edge of the road. We were told to sit tight and not make any sound or movement. She should not feel threatened at all while crossing us. Trepidation in all six occupants of the gypsy were palpable. ‘Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings’. As she walked passed us, she kept an eye on our vehicle all the time.

As the tense moments passed, and the tiger had reached a safe distance, our driver to get down and managed to plug the leak with soap and cloth. However, almost all the fuel has drained by then. The driver and guide said that in their career spanning over 10-15 years, this is the first time that such an incident had occurred. What an experience for us too. We will never forget those minutes. I had couple of tyre punctures during safaris earlier. But never something like this. The driver decided that as we would be going mostly downhill, we would reach the Jhalra gate if we make a dash. There they could get some help or a replacement vehicle.

The driver managed to turn around in whatever space he had and then made a dash. Soon we faced the road block of vehicles still flocking the cubs by the waterhole. Our driver shouted at them to give way, else if he stops all might get blocked. We managed to wade our way through the crowd, and finally even out of the Sherpur gate. Thanks to very skilful driving by the driver. Even the last drop of fuel was consumed and the vehicle come to a halt. Our safari ended one hour earlier that day. But it was a safari we will never forget.

Day 4:

It has been an eventful trip till then. We were pretty happy with the sightings. Therefore we set out for our 6^th and the final safari to zone 3 on morning of day-4 without any expectations. And best things happens when you have no expectations. May be.

Within minutes of entering the gate, we noticed a couple of gypsy. The behaviour of the occupants clearly pointed to presence of a tiger. We reached the spot in no time. There she was, crouching behind a scrub, lying in wait for a herd of wild boar. One of the female cubs of T19 had moved into zone-3 overnight. The barren landscape provided a great viewing of the stalking. Due to her inexperience, the hunting attempt failed. The cubs are still learning. Then she went onto give us some wonderful sighting and photo opportunities that morning. She walked couple of kilometres around the Padam Talao, scent marking, chasing deer, before finally disappearing over the dhonk trees up in the hill. This female cub had grown very bold and have started to stay alone of late. She has the blood of Machli. May be another Machli is in the making.

With the lone tiger of zone-3 gone for the day, the activities had now shifted to Jhlara as news of other tigers attempting to cross over to zone-3 were pouring in. There is a nullah by choti chatri, where brethren from zone 2 and 3 exchange information. However we got to see only one more of the cubs before our time was over. A happy ending depends on where one decides to stop. It was time to end our journey this year, on happy note.

Closing report:

The controversy over Ustad aka T24 had not died down. T24 had gone to jail. With it went to dust the reputation of some well-known people or so called tiger ‘experts’. Everyone has an opinion in the matter. My 13 year old daughter also had her view against this jailing of T24. Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the issue, I told my family not to raise the topic to any driver or guide, as they may differ our point of view. However, each of the 12 different guides and drivers, I met in the 6 safaris, voluntarily offered their view, blaming these few people for the debacle. They were all against the shifting of Ustad. They were not scared to name these guys and shower few abuses on them.  Even if I do not name those few people, all familiar with the issue knows who they are. We missed you Ustad, in this trip, and in all the trips to come.

Delhi-Sariska-Ranthambhore-Bharatpur-Delhi wildlife circuit

Peak of summer in Rajasthan. An angry sun looking down in contempt for the scars human folks had etched on mother earth, letting the temperature soar above 45 degrees. The barren landscape, generally devoid of green, appears more desolate. I was on my annual pilgrimage to Ranthambhore, located near Sawai Madhopur, driving down almost 450 km in these conditions from Delhi. The searing heat will boil the tin box you are travelling into an oven. At times you will barely feel the existence of the air conditioner. One needs to get out of the car to feel that the AC is actually working. I had done this trail for last three years without fail. Every time I did it, I said to myself that this is the last time. But the tigers of Ranthambhore keep bringing me back.

Emergence : A tigress from zone 7 in Ranthambhore

Summer is the best time for watching tigers in the wild. More and more people are braving the sun to travel in summers, even to hot places like Ranthambhore. Demand for safari seats have gone up drastically over the years. Booking a safari online in your desired zone is tough, in fact near impossible these days. The controversial online safari booking process has grown in notoriety this year. Supply is as short as just 18 seats as against a train full of crowd clamoring for it. There is sheer madness for booking. Thanks to a friend’s coaching, I could acquire special skill to crack the booking conundrum and manage full days booking for zone 3 and 2. Therefore I am back in Ranthambhore again.

Despite the convenience of trains, I prefer driving down to Ranthambhore. Reason number one is that carrying my heavy camera gear is easier with car. Having a car at disposal also helps you get safari permits released by self or get a chilled beer from shop at half rate than your hotel. Of all the combinations of routes out of Delhi, the Gurgaon-Dharuhera-Bhiwadi-Alwar-Sikandara-Dausa-Sawai Madhopur is the shortest route from Delhi. From my residence close to East Delhi, the distance via this route is about 400km. Most part of this is tolled highway and hence drive is generally pleasant. However hold up is common on NH8. The perpetual road work on NH8 was seen creating long jams on opposite carriageway at two places. Fortunately it was not our carriageway and we were spared with a 15-20 min hold up at Manesar toll both.

As my first safari was scheduled for a Sunday afternoon, I had a Saturday to spare. I decided to utilise it to take a small diversion en-route to Sariska. Besides sparing me the pain of driving down 400 plus km on a single day in this heat, this diversion would also allow me to explore the recently opened Sterling Tiger Heaven Resort. I have a Sterling Holidays membership, and Sariska at 200km is the nearest resort from Delhi. Thus on day 1, I drove around 200km to Sariska via Alwar and then next day, I covered about 250km from Sariska to Ranthambhore (via Sikandara). I had started from Sariska around 8am after breakfast, yet I had reached Sawai Madhpur well on time for my afternoon safari at 2pm. Road condition is mostly excellent, and at worst drivable. The drivable section referred to is the 38 km stretch of Alwar-Sariska road.

My three nights stay at Ranthambhore this year has been my longest till date. Ranthambhore was rocking this time of the year. Baring the first safari on Sunday afternoon, which was actually booked to fill the spare time, we had ‘photographic’ tiger sighting. As a wildlife photographer, and someone who had seen many tigers in wild, a ‘photographic’ sighting is all that matters. Even one photographic sighting out of 4 or 5safaris, which I generally do in a trip, sooths the soul. Here we got super sighting in 5 out of 6 safaris this year.

On the day of my return, I did morning safari that would end around 10am and hence was not expected to check out before 12am. This means that I would be reaching Gurgoan around 6pm and then would be meandering though peak office hour traffic all the way to Ghaziabad. That would be too much taxing after driving 350km for 5-6 hours. The perpetual road work on NH8 and possibility of jams was also a deterrent. So the idea of trying out a different route dawn on me. The alternate route is via Bharatpur-Mathura-Yamuna Expressway-Noida. This would complete the full cycle of Delhi-Sariska-Ranthambhore-Bharatpur-Delhi wildlife circuit. With this route, I would emerge at Noida, close to my residence in East Delhi, thereby avoiding traffic nightmare via Gurgaon.

Keeping the new route in mind, we started from Sawai Madhopur around 12 noon. In any case, we had to travel 150km to Sikandara before taking the call. The attendant at the Sikandara toll both on Jaipur-Agra NH11 estimated the distance to Bharatpur as 60km. I had done 150 already, plus 60 more, and Bharatpur to Delhi via Yamuna Expressway is about 200km. This comes about 410, almost the same as that of Alwar-Gugaon option. Therefore I decided to continue straight to Bharatpur, instead of turning left for Alwar. But the very next road sign I came across announced the distance to Bharatpur as 85km. This added 25km to the journey to make it almost 435km. I was already in a state of no return, and hence only option was to continue driving ahead. However the saving grace was the excellent road condition and very little traffic. Unlike NH8, which is always full of trucks, there were very few trucks on NH11. On reaching outskirt of Bharatpur, we exited NH11 and took the Mathura by-pass to avoid the town. This road is familiar to me as I have been to Bharatpur many times. Passing through Mathura, we reached Yamuna Expressway without any held up. Soon after crossing Jewar toll plaza, we took a break, the only one of the trip, after 5 hours of non-stop driving. Being a weekday, traffic on expressway was also low. We hit Noida almost on the stroke of evening. The drive of almost 400km upto Noida was very pleasant, mainly because of very low traffic en-route.

Finally we got stuck in office hour traffic at the Akshardham junction to NH24. But it was nothing as compared to what I would have to endure via Gurgaon at those hours. Thus the decision to return via Bharatpur turned out to be a prudent one. The extra 35km and additional Rs.120/- toll paid was worth it. In fact, if one is travelling from East Delhi / Ghaziabad / Noida, then I feel that this route should be preferred. Those living around South or West Delhi and Gurgaon, have only one option via Alwar. Total toll via Alwar route was Rs.280/- and via Bharatpur was Rs.400/- (including 240 paid for Expressway use).

With this trip, I had completed the full cycle of Delhi-Sariska-Ranthambhore-Bharatpur-Delhi wildlife circuit. Total distance covered was about 950km. I had now explored all possible routes to Ranthambhore viz. via Jaipur-Dausa, via Alwar-Sikandara-Dausa and via Bharatpur-Dausa. You can explore my blog for my earlier write up on these other route options.

Indian Railways : few interesting facts

Sharing some interesting facts about Indian Railways (source: TOI)

Interesting Facts about Indian Railway (TOI)

Domestic travel insurance: what is covered and what is not

I have been habitually purchasing insurance for domestic air travel with the expectation that I will be able to buy ticket for another flight on spot in case any flight gets cancelled and thereby, I hoped to prevent the entire trip getting jeopardised. I thank my stars that for all these years I never had to invoke my rights for an insurance claim, until my recent trip to Andaman in end January, 2015.

Traveling out of Delhi in peak winter season of end Dec to mid Jan, which unfortunately is also a peak tourist season, is always full of uncertainties due to fog. Both flight and train schedules go haywire as fog plays havoc across north India. To minimise possible impact of weather, I had planned my trip with return from Portblair on 17^th Jan, 2015. I had booked tickets with MakeMyTrip who were offering travel insurance by Apollo Munich. It cost me around 169 per person per ticket. While travelling abroad, I had purchased insurance for a period covering my travel. But somehow domestic travel insurance is linked to a ticket, not for a period.

Apollo Munich domestic travel insurance certificate

In last few years, there has not been serious fog issue after 15^th Jan. But when nature decides to play truant, you can only be mute spectator. Fog came late this year, and stayed late, well past 18^th Jan, 2015. Waiting in the lounge for a whole day at Portblair airport, with bright sunshine all around, we realised that the world is so interconnected that fog in Delhi is sending flight schedule go haywire across India, even at places as remote as Portblair which probably have never seen fog. The day I landed at Portbalir, the temp was 23 or so, as against 6 degree of Delhi.

There are 3 daily flights between Portblair and Delhi via Kolkata. My ticket was with Jet Airways. Against all odds, the flights that were least expected to arrive that day, Spicejet and Go Air did landed, though quite late, and returned to Delhi or Kolkata. But the Jet Airways flight, which was the only full fare carrier, and which was most likely to arrive did not come that day leaving us all stranded at Portblair. We came to know that due to fog the flight took off quite late from Delhi as against scheduled departure of 0930 hrs. By the time it had arrived at Kolkata for stopover, it was too late for them to attempt a trip to Portblair, which is a military airport and hence night landing or take off are not allowed. The last hours by which a flight has to depart was 1630 hrs. This means the flight from Kolkata has to take off latest by 1400 hrs so that it can land by 1600 hrs and return by 1630 hrs. Apparently both the Kolkata – Portblair and Portblair-Kolkata-Delhi flight were reasonably full, and hence Jet Airways did not cancelled and dumped all passengers. Rather than refunding fares or attempting a risky trip and then getting struck at Portblair for the night, Jet Airways had arranged for an unscheduled flight next morning. The airport staff had written on ticket that due to fog delay at Delhi, flight is cancelled and passengers to report tomorrow at 7am. They had a discussion with CISF at stamped the tickets so that passengers are allowed in next day. Now came the issue of accommodation. Full fare airline is supposed to provide accommodation in case of flight cancellation and Jet Airways is one of the few remaining full fare airlines. But the shock came in the form of their declaration that accommodation is not provided in case of fog delay. We all had argued in vain. I thought that my travel insurance will come in handy for the first time. I decided to call their helpline from airport itself to find what is admissible.

Call centre line was not busy. Responding to the customer care executive’s greeting of how he might help me, I announced about my policy details and said that my flight is cancelled. The voice over responded that flight cancellation is not covered. Note this first catch - flight cancellation is not covered. Thus my very first reason for purchasing travel insurance went up in smoke. You will not be able to buy an emergency ticket in case your flight gets cancelled. So what next? I changed track, and told him that even though my flight is cancelled for the day, it is rescheduled for next day. Then the executive read out to me certain clauses of insurance I had not access to earlier. He told me that flight delay has to be more than 6 hrs, and reason for delay is either due to bad weather or technical fault with aircraft. Strike by staff not covered. I will have to obtain a travel certificate from the carrier mentioning total delay and cause of delay. Further, I was advised to retain all bills and vouchers of expenses. The maximum amount reimbursable is Rs.2000/- per person. As I have 3 tickets for the family, the potential claim amount of Rs.6000/- would be enough for one night’s additional stay in a decent hotel at Portblair. At that point we were more worried about daughter missing her unit test at school scheduled for next morning.

We reported at Portblair airport next morning and were happy to see Jet Airways staff arriving. We were relieved to be informed that aircraft had departed from Kolkata. The Jet aircraft indeed came from Kolkata in an unscheduled flight. But it was now informed that the aircraft would now ply between Portbalir and Kolkata. The Jet staff at Kolkata will arrange to send passengers to Delhi at the earliest available flight. The other option was to wait till evening for that day’s regular Delhi bound flight to arrive. The manager of Jet Airways team opined that there is no point staying stuck at Portblair. Fog was reported from Delhi on that day’s morning as well and flight had been delayed. Hence one cannot be sure of when flights from Delhi will arrive. Once you reach mainland, there will be various options for further transit. There was merit in his comment. So we boarded the flight and reached Kolkata at 1130 hrs. It was another ordeal at Kolkata as all flights were full. Finally we were handed boarding pass for a Kolkata-Delhi flight at 1830. Therefore my total delay had actually crossed more than 24 hrs.

Travel certificate by Jet Airways

After reaching Delhi, I had downloaded forms and couple of other documents from Apollo Munich’s website. The claim is to be preferred within one month.  I tediously filled up claim forms, separate forms for each one of us, claiming a total amount of Rs.6100/- as against admissibility of Rs.6000/- (@2000 per person). The travel certificate issued by Jet Airways, Portblair says that flight on 17^th Jan was cancelled and passengers were rebooked on flight on 18th Jan. This along with my boarding passes covered my total delay clause. The ticket also had Jet Airways’ stamped statement that due to fog delay flight is cancelled. This covered weather delay clause. I did not want to send original bills along with my claim, and hence sent photocopies. I wanted to ensure that my claim is acknowledged first before I part with my original bills.

After about a month of preferring the claim, I had received a letter from Apollo Munich saying that they are in receipt of my claim and have provided me a claim id. They requested to submit all bills in originals within 15 days. Assured that my claim has not been put into dustbin, I sent all original bills through reputed courier so that receipt can be verified.

In another month’s time, I had received a confirmation from Apollo Munich saying that my claim had been settled for Rs.4660/- with reasons for rejecting balance amount. They did not pay cost incurred in additional to and from trip to airport. This amount was good enough as I had recovered 90% of cost I had incurred.

If you closely examine Domestic travel insurance policies, it is not difficult to understand that it actually is a medical insurance with some elements of travels fitted in. It is offered by airline or travel portal in association with an insurance company. Therefore insurance certificates are mailed to you separately after tickets are booked. For any claims, you have to deal directly with the insurance company, not the travel portal. The policy issued shows elements covered and the max amount payable against each of the clauses. But it does not say anything about situations under which you are eligible for claim. Therefore, you should visit the insurance company website for detailed clauses. Here are relevant clauses from the detailed document of my policy.

Detailed clauses-1

FIner points of detailed clauses

Going through the detailed clauses will make you understand what is covered and what is not. I would suggest to call their helpline to understand fine points. Always keep their helpline no ready. You do not know when you may need it. Insurance is meant to cover uncertainties. And, uncertainties arrive without calling. This was a good lesson in travel for me. For me it ended on a happy note. I hope that my sharing of this experience will help you stay informed to travel smart.

Bursting the online shopping myth- Part-II

Continuing from my earlier posts, here I intend burst another myth on online shopping. The diaspora tends to believe that items are cheaper online. But is it really cheap?

Well, this may be true for those living in second or third tier cities. But certainly not for metros where there are stiff competition, it may not always be true. While online may be cheaper for items like mobile phones, but not for many marchandise. So onee should explore before making the purchase. I am sharing one of my recent experiences to burst this myth.

My wife was looking to purchase a pair of sports shoe for her gym outings. Therefore when Myntra.com had announced a hyped sale with a full page ad on the TOI, we decided to explore it. We shortlisted a Nike shoe with a MRP of 3596. It was on offer @30% discount for that day. Thus the price indicated after discount was 2517. When we added it to the cart and proceeded for payment, the surprise element popped up. VAT Extra. How much VAT? Rs.431/-. How it was calculated. @12% of MRP, not on the discounted price. So final price I need to pay after adding VAT was 2948. Thus effective discount got reduced to a mere 18%. As most of the shops in malls gives a 20% discount during sale season, we decided to try it out at a shop rather than buying online. In shop purchase resluts in lower post purchase disonances as you can try out various options on spot.

Item on sale with 20% discount on a hyped sale

Notice the extra VAT amount when you add the item to your cart

Out of curiosity, I decided to visit Myntra.com again next day. The hyped sale was over as it was only for a day. Hence the same pair of shoe was on 10% discount only that day. To check VAT applicability, I added it to the cart and proceeded for payment. To my surprise there was no extra VAT that day. This means that customers are taken for a ride in the name of sales. One is made to feel like getting an extra 20% discount in sale, whereas he was actually getting just 8% extra discount.

Same item when not on sale.

Notice no VAT extra on background. Coupon codes never applies on such items.

Now that there is a Nike factory outlet in one of the malls not very far from my home, we decided to visit the shop. This being the end of season sale period, everything was on flat 40% in the shop, including the model we had checked online. And to the top of it, there was no extra VAT. Therefore we got that pair of shoe for 2217 from the Nike outlet whereas the price on hyped sale was 2948. To make you all understand how we are being taken for ride by these online sale, I have decided to corroborate this with screenshots I had retained. Unfortunately I did not save screenshot of the sale circus with extra VAT. But the images below clearly shows that the offline purchase from outlet was cheaper by almost 22% than the online price. I however have retained images of a much lower scale sale @20% off, which also attracted extra VAT.

Same shoe purchased from Nike factory outlet

Bill showing actual price from shop which was much lower than online sale price, And no VAT extra.

It reminds me of the famous quote – You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. So next time you see another full page ad of an online sale, make sure to compare before you buy.

Bursting the online shopping myth- Part-I

I am among those early users of online shopping. My first online merchandise purchase was made way back in 2002 at baazi.com which later went onto become eBay.in. During this intervening eleven years, I had shopped with various portals across the globe. With a smart phone in every other hand, ever improving internet connectivity, coupled with vigorous advertising push, the online shopping phenomenon had taken India by storm between end of 2013 and 2014.

I had procured a wide range of products online. From microwave (2002), Digital camera (2003), handycam (2004), Books, Watches, camera accessories, mobiles, kitchen accessories, bags, voltage stabilizers, etc. The list goes on. Internationally I had used services of amazon.com, alibris.com, aliexpress.com, etc.  ordering items from US, China and Hongkong. Fortunately all of them got delivered without any fuss at Delhi. On domestic front, I had availed the  services of bazee.com, ebay.in, tradus.in, flipkart, snapdeal, amazon, infibeam, firstandsecond, myntra, yepme, jobong, printavenue, zoomin, and few other standalone single vendor sites which I do not recall now. Thus I had availed services across a wide gamut of e-commerce platform, from the one selling a single specialised product to those selling almost everything. Needless to say that I had come across an equally wide range of experiences to share. This article is the first of two articles I had penned to share my experiences.  

I was never worried about buying something online, until recently. An incident that had changed my opinion about online shopping. I would be wrong if I say there were no issues during the 2003-2010 period when I had mostly traded through bazee and eBay. In fact, online shopping was looked upon suspiciously by most because of cheap imitations sold online during those days. However, both bazee and, later eBay, had a very strict customer protection policy. At some point, a seller in ebay would automatically get banned for 3 negative customer feedback. The system had changed somehow, yet you see those pleading lines from seller requesting you to contact them directly before leaving a negative feedback. As a customer I was always allowed protection and all issues were resolved with prompt refund. I still vouch for eBay’s time bound issue resolution policy. On two occasions in last 6 months eBay had offered me refund with 150% of price I had paid within two days of lodging complaint– once for defective product and once for part of the order missing.  In these ten years, I also had come across fraud site like booksorbit.com. They have a perfectly working website even today with secured payment facility. However once you place an order, they neither delivers, not respond to your mails and more importantly not reachable over the phone mentioned in their website. Our laws are so lax that the site is still online and God knows how many have fallen victims. I was rescued by my credit card company from the booksorbit scam.

December 2013 saw something beyond the regular 10-20% discount online, offered often on selected items only. For 3 days, the most stupendous online sale ever happened in India, promoted by all major credit cards. The discount was on final cart value, not on specific items. I remember buying even wildcraft items on this sale at 20-30% discount. None of the sales that followed offered even 10% discount of wildcraft goods. Before this sale, Jobong used to deliver in less than 24hrs in Delhi. I kept receiving apologies for delivery delay for items purchased during the sale and it took 7-10 days for delivery of all items. Success of this event led to several such hyped sales like GOSF, Black Friday sales, etc. in the last 12 months. It also include the botched sale by Flipkart leading to issuing an official apology. But nothing had matched that sale of Dec 2013.

If awareness creation was the objective, then these hyped sales had achieved it. Diaspora now believes that things are available cheaper online. Everyone now seems to be doing online shopping. The delivery boys lugging a huge bag on back riding zipzap through city traffic are ubiquitous these days. Scammers saw this as opportunity to make some quick bucks. They setup shops on sites that do not have any customer protection policy. You can be held responsible for not dispatching an item, but it will be tough on customer to prove if a similar imitation is sent, or even a blank box.

Despite occasional smaller issues, my brush with online purchases had generally good. My first real issue came with snapdeal in 2014. I had ordered a camera lens – Tamron 90mm macro VC. The item has a MRP of 39K and was available at snapdeal for about 32K, which is close to its street price. For me the reason to buy online was payment by credit card with emi option. The item was delivered 7 days after I had ordered. To my horror the item sent was ‘similar’ but not the exact item I had ordered. The product delivered was Tamron 90mm macro non VC. Tamron has two different version of the leans – non VC and VC where VC stands for Vibration Correction, similar to IS – Image Stabilisation. These lenses have distinct product code and MRP of also differs.  The non VC version is priced about 10K lower at 29K. SO I was delivered a product which costs about 24K in market as against my payment of 32K. This is too big a ‘mistake’ someone dealing with photo goods to make. It was a well-planned fraud. Fortunately the bill. Which invariably was for the VC lens, also had serial no of product mentioned for warranty. The product label on cartoon where this serial no is printed clearly indicated the item code and item description as non VC version. Even the MRP sticker substantiated the ‘mistake’.  Without bothering  to break the seal, I called up snapdeal helpline. The lady on other side keep reiterating that I should not worry as the purchase is covered under ‘protection’ and promptly sent me a mail asking for photographs of items, bills, etc. Little did they realise that it was a high value item of 30K plus value at that time. Without wasting time I sent back images within couple of hours of receiving the mail. But that was it. I had received a system generated acknowledgement. I had gone through such experience once for a smaller value product. So I had kept proof of everything – my communication, their mail, system generated acknowledgment, snapdeal policy of dispute resolution, etc. There had been no response back from sanpdeal even after couple of days. I kept calling them at helpline and I kept getting information like your issue is being addressed, we have written to the seller who is to respond back, etc. Finally I lost my patience on 7^th day and called my credit card company to lodge a complaint of fraud. They asked for evidences to be submitted with dispute lodging form. As I had everything ready with me, I did it promptly. But before submitting I wrote to snapdeal once again informing them about the action I am initiating with my bank and gave them 2 more days’ time to respond. Still snapdeal did not reply. Thus on the 10th day, I lodged a formal dispute with bank submitting all proof of communication. Bank was satisfied with my proof and reversed the charges on my card. I could breathe easy now. I got my money back.

2 days after that snapdeal awoke from its slumber. It was the 12^th day since deliver and my reporting of incident. Some idiot from their Okhla office called me up and said that they had asked the seller about the dispute and he had confirmed that he sent the correct item. I lost my cool and gave him a piece of my mind. It was quite evident that they did not bother to look at the evidence submitted by in form of bill and images of packet, its item code, etc.  Customer bought an orange, the seller sends him a lemon; customer lodges complaint with evidence of lemon being delivered, they ask the seller again; he says he had sent an orange, and you as customer care relay it back to the customer! Then I told him that I had already got my money back. This is your item lying with me which you can get picked at your leisure. 3 days after that it was picked up as a 'reverse pick up'. The pickup slip said ‘defective item'. My ordeal had come to an end.

Few days after this incident I came across another photographer friend from Mumbai who had exactly the same issue, and with the same product. I asked him if he bought on snapdeal? He said yes. So we both were victims of a well-planned con, on the same portal and apparently by the same seller. Unfortunately, snapdeal never bothered to apologise to us, forget about taking some action against the seller. Little do they understand that these sellers are ruining their reputation.

This problem is unique to snapdeal. Few weeks later, one of my friends shared a youtube video in facebook. He had ordered a pendirve from Flipkart. When he opened the box, there was nothing inside. When he called up, Flipkart did not agree to his version. But as he wanted the item and it being a low value product, he ordered again. Ditto same time. Empty inside. Flipkart disagreed again. So he setup a trap. He ordered it a third time. This time on COD. When the delivery boy came, he paid the money as you have to do for COD orders, and recorded a video of opening the box in front of the delivery boy. Your guess is right. It was empty again. And this time he had proof. I had no follow-up of how Flipkart finally settled it. Another image I saw on a social networking site is someone receiving a bar of soap instead of a mobile. But that was a still image, hence veracity cannot be established.

But the bottom line is that fraud is happening across several platform which allow independent sellers to set up online shops. This has seriously dented customer confidence. I have stayed away from snapdeal since the incident. There had been sporadic incidences of local traders in second tier cities holding protests over proliferation of online commerce. Such protest with vested interest is not going to rollback e-commerce. Whether you like it or not, e-commerce is going to stay here for the convenience, choice and savings it offers. It is like the supermarkets that has become part of our life because they sells almost everything below MRP. What is going to hold back e-commerce’s further progress is the failure to stem the rot within. Once bitten twice shy.  And with social network fuelling, a duped customer will spread his message to thousand others. I do not agree with the point of view of banishing online commerce so that customer’s continue to buy items on bloated MRP at a local shop, that is part of a longer than required supply chain, that add to the cost to the customer. However, the idea of a legislation is welcomed. Besides regulating the business, this should seek also protect customers from these frauds. Not only that customer gets back his money instantly, but also the portal should get penalised. In turn they will pass on the penalty to the seller which will eventually discourage them. Right now, the fraud sellers are having a free run without any fear of crackdown. Most sites do not require a seller to register with a PAN or TAN no, which will establish their identities with a verifiable address. Are they carrying out checks on sellers? Did they forget the incidence where eBay India chief landed in jail for someone selling porn though his portal?

If any of these e-commerce portal comes up with such a system where they can claim that all their sellers are verified, and they offer a time bound dispute resolution process, and also provide feedback to the buyer in case of a proven fraud, then everyone will be happy to pay a premium for their services. As such a utopic situation is unlikely and a legislation is a distant shoot, a customer should trade cautiously as you do not know when you will slip and found yourself staring at an abyss. You will cry for help, expecting succour from the portal to pull you out of the mess, but it may never come. Till that time, safe online shopping in India is likely to remain limited to only cloths and shoes, and may be books. Till that time, think twice before ordering anything above couple of thousands rupees.

Delhi to Bharatpur via Yamuna Expressway

I have been using NH2 via Faridabad to Mathura for going to Bharatpur over the years. NH2 is too overcowded now and is a painful experience to travel by this route. Now that a second option of Yamuna Expressway had come up, I decided to explore this route on this year’s first trip to Bharatpur. Therefore I am sharing this route guide from Delhi to Bharatpur via the Taj / Yamuna Expressway.

The first toll gate on expressway is at Jawar. You can pay toll upto Mathura at this gate itself. Total toll upto Mathura as on Feb, 2015 was Rs.230/-. Shortly after crossing the Mathura toll booth, you will get the exit for Vrindavan. Do not exit by this. About a couple of km ahead is the Exit no. 8 for Mathura. Exit here and you will be on SH33. One end goes to Hathras and the other to Mathura. Turn left for Mathura. Road sign exists. Follow the road. After some time you will get a railway line on your right along the road. Keep moving straight till you reach a crowded junction with a police point /barricade. This is a market. Do not turn left. Left goes to Gokul. Keep moving straight till you cross the Yamuna via a narrow bridge. Barricade was apparently for preventing heavy vehicles from getting onto the narrow bridge.

Sarus crane pair is mating display at Bharatpur

After crossing the bridge, you will reach a T point. Turn left. You will drive through a narrow road in a market. En-route you will get a near 90 degree bend. Follow the road till you reach another T junction. Turn left here. This is Agra road. Drive till Yodha circle. I found a good overhead road sign just before the circle. There is a big bust of a soldier at the centre of the rounabout. This is Mathura cantt area. Take the near U turn around the circle. After about five hundred meters, when the cantonment campus ends, turn left at the first lane. You will get to see a school as you turn on right hand side. There exists only a small sign here. Straight goes into Mathura city.

Now follow the road and keep moving straight. Avoid a road named as Yodha Marg en-route that veers off the main road towards left. Stick to the main road. You will get another narrow market area of about half km. Continue through the market. You will get a railway crossing. This road is a single road with decent traffic. It will finally connect the NH2. At the very point it connects NH2 there is an opening to cross over to the other side. Cross the NH2 and drive towards Delhi by going onto the flyover. The road to Bharatpur (SH33) starts exactly at the middle of the flyover on this side. If you come from Delhi via NH-2, then also you need to cross this flyover and take a U turn at this point.

From there on Bharatpur is 34km. This is a single carriage way road and is in fair condition. You will have to manoeuvre many terrible spread breakers on this road. Therefore do not dive very fast. Closer to Bharatpur, when you enter Rajasthan, the road it is in good condition. Almost on reaching Bharatpur, you will find a road sign telling you to go straight to Bharatpur and turn right to Jaipur. Avoid going straight as the road is temporarily closed due to construction of a flyover near railway station. Hence turn right. After about a KM or so you will get a junction with an indicator to turn left for Bharatpur. Avoid this left turn as this again goes to the closed road at station. Instead go straight till you reach a T point and you see Vijay Hospital on other side of T point. Turn left at this point onto the flyover. After crossing the flyover, you will cross the railway line through an underpass. About 50mtr from the underpass, there is a left turn for entering city. Take this left turn to get into the city. As you come out of the underpass, there is road sign indicating to go straight for Bharatpur and Keoladeo Ghana. But all locals whom we had asked for direction advised us to turn left as the road ahead is not in good shape.

After turning left, continue straight till you reach a T point. Turn right. If you have been to Bharatpur earlier, then you will be familiar from this point onwards. Else, check my old post for a road map through Bharatpur to the Bird Sanctuary. You need to find your way to Bijli Ghar circle. Turn left there to reach Saras Chowk on the Agra-Jaipur Highway. Park is about 500 mtr from this point. All the hotels and guest houses are here.

Rudy shelduck

For staying RTDC Saras is a decent option @1200 for non-AC room. Rooms are OK, but service and food is very poor. However they have a huge parking lot and we found that gates were locked after 10:30pm. Birder’s Inn is the costliest @4200 with BF and Dinner. But it is the best property at Bharatpur. Sunbird in next campus is also decent, but prices were at par with Birder’s Inn. Therefore given choice to splurge, I would choose Birder’s Inn. There are couple of Guest Houses on the road where RTDC Saras is located. One can look to explore them as well. If you are there on weekdays, you should bargain hard for good discount. Tariff of RTDC Saras is a guide for bargaining. As a photographer, my favourite den is Iora Guset House. But this place always stays booked. This is photographer’s den from all over India. Staying here you not only get to interact with fellow photographers. But also get to know what is happening in the park and where it is happening.