Travel Planning Online

It never ceases to amaze me when people ask me how I plan all my 'exotic' vacations and I tell them that I do it all on-line. Jaws drop and eyes pop - 'how do you do it'; 'is it safe'; 'is it reliable' are the usual questions. Yes, using Internet to manage your travel research, correspondence and bookings is not just safe, it is very rewarding and a lot of fun, provided you take the basic safeguards and remain within a prudent framework of operation on the net.

I use the net extensively for researching destinations, air and hotel options and deals, sightseeing packages, dining options, city maps and more. And, I have everything down to a 'T' before I travel, hassle-free and ready to enjoy my vacation.

Researching your destination on-line:

This works in two ways. If you know where you want to go, you just zero in on the destination and get to know the place (step 2). On the other hand, many a time, I play an interesting 'game'. I 'google' a continent or country map and then scroll over the places there till I hit one that looks interesting. Step 2 for me means getting to know the place in a whole lot of aspects - the 'touristy' highlights, the topography, the transport, accommodations, food, currency, et al. Sites that I use here and would strongly recommend are Fodor's; Frommers and the travel sites of the concerned destination/country, very often the local tourist boards. As I go through these, I draw almost a mental picture of the place and decide whether it is for me or not. Personally, a key aspect of any place is the 'family quotient', i.e. enough for my child to do by way of theme parks, children's museums and so on (London scores BIG!) as also ease of local transport, availability of apartment-style accommodation and so on.

Organizing boarding, lodging and basics:

In my book, finding and booking the 'right' accommodation is critical. Location is a key factor in this - proximity to the sights, ease of access; local shopping and availability of public transport are critical for 'stay-ability'. Hotel booking sites with maps are great for this, because at a glance you can see how the hotel is located with respect to other hotels, the transport lines/routes and stations and shopping and sightseeing landmarks. Of course, you might have other criteria and may actually prefer to be away from the hubbub; in any case, this is a great way to see where you'll be located. Key 'search' tactics are to 'google' 'XXXX hotels' ('XXXX' being the name of the place) and you will get a plethora of information on categories, rates, location, specials and what-have-you. A site that I use very often to get a sense of how a hotel is rated by users is Tripadvisor - very often this verifies if the hotel I am opting for has good reviews.I like to invest time in this, as it can be a 'make or break' for your vacation. Once you have shortlisted 3-4 hotels you like, it's worth going directly to the hotel sites and looking for deals. Sometimes, you'll find better deals here than the hotel/travel booking sites. Another way to 'get personal' is to write directly to the hotel asking for their best rates and - more often than not - you may strike gold. The advantage this approach has over the booking sites is that early on you can establish a relationship and make special requests (early check-in; bed type; proximity to the elevator etc); a lot of the booking sites do not entertain this. However, good booking sites that I have used very satisfactorily are Expedia, Travelhero and Travelocity. Most booking sites are security verified (look out for the 'verisign' logo or the lock on your browser's bottom bar) and therefore safe to use your credit card. If you are corresponding on e-mail, it is better to break up your card details into 2-3 mails, as most hotels will require a guarantee. Tip: since travel plans can change, I avoid using sites or dealing with places that take a non-refundable deposit. I don't mind giving the card for guaranteeing the room as long as there is a cancellation policy/time frame - this gives me comfort that even if things have to change, I will not lose money if I cancel as per policy (normally up to 48 hours before check-in). Rate inclusions such as breakfast and transfers are always great when keeping an eye on the budget, so look (or ask) for those.

Get as much organized as you can before you arrive:

Of course, there is the school of thought that it is more fun to discover and explore a place as one goes along. And, I understand this viewpoint, but for me it works better to have sightseeing options, trips, journeys etc. researched and booked as far as possible. This keeps the stress off once we are there and we can literally 'cruise' through our vacation. Again, I do an Internet research on sightseeing tours, operators, amusement parks, shows and the like and reach out by e-mail to explore options with operators and make bookings. Again, I apply my 'refundable bookings within a time limit' principle. While it may not be feasible (or even necessary) to buy tickets for the local transport or shows or parks in advance, it does make sense to acquaint yourself with the lay of the land, so to speak. So, before going to London I familiarized myself completely with how the Underground works, before going to Seoul I was clued into the various amusement parks, before going to Vancouver I had my sightseeing trips booked. Tip: if you are a family of 4 or more, it often makes sense to book private tours, which are more cost effective for the group as well as customized and relaxed to your needs.

Airline bookings:

Today there is a surfeit of sites where you can book your international as well as domestic travel. Airlines have their own sites as well, but a number of them do not do e-ticketing out of India (and possibly other select countries), and you have to get a ticketing agent to do the actual booking. So, for international travel, I research the best fares, routes and times, make a choice and call my travel agent to make my bookings on-line. Very often, I've got better fares than those advertised! Of course, since we invariably travel Business Class, rarely does one get the great deals that airline sites offer for Economy Class. But, more often than not, the earlier you book, the better are the rates. This season, of course, turned travel economics on its head, with the best deals (even for Business Class) coming by as late as May/June, normally peak travel months out of India.For travel within Europe or America or Australia, I find it best to book tickets on-line. Domestics deals very often go for a song!

Visas:

Again, do your research on documents needed, processing time-frames, rules and regulations on-line. Most countries have dedicated visa sites which give you all level of detail. This saves one a lot of to-and -fro and filing for a visa can become quite painless if you are well informed and well armed!

Create your itinerary:

Once you have all your bookings in place, take a print-out of each i.e. your e-tickets, your hotel bookings, your sightseeing packages, your domestic bookings and create a 'dossier' of these. Throw in photocopies of your passports, travel insurance, contact numbers of your various vendors and people you will visit, addresses of places you will be staying at visiting and you are all set. Tip: It is useful to take an extra set or two of this dossier, keeping one in your handbag, one in a checked bag and one with another member of the party. This way, you will never be at a loss, and even when bags get misplaced, there is a full itinerary for airlines to reach you.

Very often there is more fun in this armchair planning than you can imagine. It is great to reach your vacation destination without a hiccup and just soak in the pleasure of a new place and experience. Try going on-line!

Romancing the Rain

Few sights must be as beautiful and stirring as the monsoons in India.

When rains come to the Indian subcontinent it is a time of unabashed euphoria, a clebration of nature, a celebration of life itself. For a people that date back their civilization many thousands of years, rain has been the bounty of nature that has sustained man and earth down the ages. Few cultures would see the many odes to rain, the festivities that surround it, the prayers that preceed it.

The farmer, the hot dusty earth, the parched animals, the expectant fields, the powers-that-be all turn heavenwards to invoke the rain-god. As the summer temperatures scorch the land and heat waves lash across, the one topic that becomes a national obsession is 'when will the monsoons come?'. From newspapers to television to Parliament to the man on the road, it's the one hope that keeps everyone going.

And then the rain comes - glorious in all its splendour. Lashing across the countryside, painting browns green in its wake, moistening the parched soil, sending up waves of earthy aroma, it's a sight to behold, no, to experience.All across the country you see the joy of a rendezvous met; at tiny thatched tea stalls on the wayside, the man pours steaming hot tea from metal kettles into glass tumblers for people who huddle under the thatch; children come out and dance in sheer abandon, soaking the wetness into their very being; people hurry home under raincoats and umbrellas and as lights come on, the rain drops become an elusive film that glimmers and shimmers as they catch the light.

Rain in the mountains - steep, wet, winding roads bordered by looming trees and hills; rain on the coastline - water merges with water and the ocean roars its approval; rain in the plains - rivers surge and little paper boats make their way through in tiny brooks; drops in the desert - hennaed hands, swings on trees, riot of colours and peacocks dancing. In India, rain is a leveller - rich and poor, blue and white collars, children and aged, all share the same space, the same joie de vivre.

And yet, rain often devastates. The fury of floods is feared as much as drought; the homeless have as much to protect from heat as from rain; old trees and young crops shudder alike; crumbly buildings and shifty municipal works face the brunt.... and yet, what we hanker for is this essence of life.Is it because we are primarily an agricultural economy? Is it because the stock market, the food prices, the commodities are all ruled by rain? Yes, sure, but it goes beyond that. It is the revival of the spirit, a spiritual awakening to the softest of emotions within us, a caress that connects us to the river valley civilizations that were our beginning, a reminder that heavens still bestow the nectar of life.

Few experiences must be as beautiful as this.

Just Ad Libbing

After a long time I see an ad spot on TV that's difficult to tear one's eyes from. It's different, a little quirky, uplifting and addictive. How many ads can one say that for?

I'm referring to the Madhya Pradesh Tourism ad that uses the most expressive pair of eyes to highlight the attractions of the state (computer-graphy plays its role, but so what?). Then the eyes take you on a journey from the forests - turning into tiger peepers - to Sarnath - turning into calm slits of meditative bliss - to rail yatras - turning into rail wheels chugging along and so on. The narrative is in the folklore style of Bundelkhand and grows on you, rythmic and homespun in tone and flavour. It's a visual and aural stimulation that catches your attention and makes you want more. Even as a part of you does not succumb to the lure of MP, you are carried away by the romanticism of the depiction. But more than all this, it's a presentation that makes you feel so proudly Indian. A salute to the concept and the makers!

If our state government departments can do this, why do our Health, Finance, Railway ministries continue to come up with such pathetic ads on pulse polio, tax returns and ticket black-marketeering? Unimaginative and a challenge to finer sensibilities, these ads are no better than shoddy powerpoint presentation put together by amateur babus in the corridors of Nirman Bhavan and the like.

Then, on the other hand, you have the commercial ads that are hugely dependent on star power for their pull and glamour. At least some of them make the effort to evolve a good story line like most of Aamir Khan ads or the Idea ads with Bachchan junior. The rest simply rely on cine beauties who swirl their hair or their clothes or flutter their eyelashes and disappear.

Anyway, this was meant to be an ode to a great ad - and I'd like to end on that note. Keep them coming!

White Khadi Brigade

The other day, a friend said - only half-jokingly - that she would like to be in politics. I stopped mid-sentence and re-checked whether I'd heard right. Yes, why not, Monica countered, one can be in politics without being in the dirt. Right, technically speaking, one can. You can do what politicians are actually supposed to do - serve the public, serve the nation, get the 'aam aadmi's' voice heard where it matters, check what is wrong, help set it right, assume the spirit of enquiry, set vision. set roadmaps..... you could go on and on. Lofty? Ummmm... maybe, maybe not.

So, why it it that a mid-career professional like Monica, earning well, well-settled in career and personal life feels the pull, feels strongly enough to dip her toes into the vast murk that befuddles our national governance systems. I believe it is the latent urge that lies deep within a whole lot of us - the urge to spread our wings beyond our immediate horizons, the urge to thrust our head above the hordes and wish to be counted, the urge to bring to command our learning and our experience and deploy it on a larger canvas. The reason why the country's best flock to forums such as the TOI Lead India and strive to be pitted on national platforms.

It is also the climate or the nurturing environment that fosters such desires. The last time we witnessed such a summer was when Rajiv Gandhi played Pied Piper to the 'baba log', leading them into his vision of the 21st century. Technocrats, bureaucrats, film stars, academicians upped jobs and countries and followed him. Today, is it the charisma of another Gandhi that beckons? The promise of grassroot governance, the promise of cure at the core? If that summer the issues were of computerization, globalization and de-abusing consumerism, today the issues are of reconstructing institutions and revitalizing youth to action.

All said and done, then as now, the garb of our netas - old, young and ancient - remains the same. White Khadi is your passport to netagiri. All aspirants need to don the universal uniform of Indian polity. Look at the benefits:

• One style fits all
• You can have one or many and nobody will be the wiser about the state of your wardrobe.
• Crushed, crumpled, even frayed, will just go to show how hard you work.
• Sleep, work, party, travel in it and yet you will never be inappropriately dressed.
• Accessorize it with Nike shoes, Armani glares, Louis Vuitton bags and you declare yourself as one of the breed of the 'upmarket' neta.
• You don't have to worry about changing uniform should you decide to party hop and switch loyalties - the White Khadi is universally welcome.
• Step out in this and you will acquire a few hangers on/henchmen/chamchas, magnetically draw people with please and petitions and elicit a few 'salaams' - you'll know you are in business.

My friend Monica, are you ready and reading?

'Izzat' on Wheels

Didi chugged and puffed her way through in 'Hengali' (Mamata Banerjee's curious brand of Hindi, English, Bengali), words running into one another, grammar taking a tumble, pronunciation flying past your head, and yet the Mamata Express sped on, dropping budet nuggets at every station.... and 'shairi' in 'Hengali' - truly pioneering!

It never amazes me how generations of our successive Railway Ministers and Finance Ministers don the garb of conjurors on B-Day, pulling out one pigeon after the other from their bag of goodies. A flourish, a pithy comment ('jindagi ka safar ijjat se suru hota hai......, etc. etc.') and voila, one more gift out of the goody bag. Conveniently, this time around there were no price tags to the gifts - no fare hikes, no freight increases - and it was that much easier to have 'izzat' (or ijjat); 'turant' (sounding tantalizingly 'toronto') and mobile vans (spoken 'bhains'; and you scratched your head trying to picture how huge black bovines got onto this budget track!) roll off the Minister's tongue and play music to our ears.

It sounds like a dream come true (or, to be precise, about to come true). Clean trains, clean loos, world-class stations, Rs. 25/- season tickets, non-stop superfasts and what-have-you. Interestingly, she spoke of puctuality. Ha, I smirked, sure. Travelling on Swiss trains and trains in the UK, you witness a degree of punctuality to almost a nano second. In London, I could not get over my disbelief when station tickers flashed 'XXX Down to London Bridge will arrive 10 seconds late at this station'. 10 seconds? Are these folks paranoid? In India we think nothing of trains running 10 hours late... with no one to inform us as well; the crummy 'enquiry counter' window shutter tells the story at station after station across the country.

Great, if we can look forward to even a fraction of all that that popped out of the goody bag this morning. Hard to keep the cynicism and scepticism at bay, given our experiences with political pronouncements. Or, to keep the hopes up when things begin well and then water down to abject levels (travelled lately on some of the Shatabdis, or tried something from Lalu's much touted rail kitchen? - you'll know what I mean).

So, this budget is about giving 'izzat' to the 'aam aadmi' - the 'aam aadmi' who started straying to low cost airlines in the hope of getting a fast, clean, slightly snazzy ride for his hard-earned buck. Will he come back to the 'lifeline of the nation' in the hope of restored izzat that translates to a clean coach (music, A/C plus, plus?), non-smelly toilet, a ticket that doesn't burn a hole in the already frayed pocket, a tantalizing array of new trains criss-crossing and connecting 'hometowns' with urban migrant destinations and clean, non-greasy rail 'thalis'?

Mushkil aache? Let's see......

Today Gay Means Happy

As I write this, news has just come in that the Court has scrapped Article 377, thereby legalizing gay liaisons.

Wow, in one stroke India shrugs off age-old taboos, steps out from ancient teak closets, leaves behind a civilization steeped in multi-religious folklore, looks at the world through a bejewelled hand mirror.... and finds itself face-to-face with the assorted images one sees on television - dolled-up transvestites, purple-haired punks, breast-beating gays and lesbians and sex workers taking the day (or night?) off.

So, do we celebrate a 'coming of age' or do we rue the passing of an era where such behaviours were a comfortable abnormality that more 'normal' people squinted at and shrugged at, half embarrassed, half incredulous. So, do we prepare ourselves to take a more accepting, more 'with it' stance or do we dig in our heels and banner this the onset of ultimate depravity?

If this generation had to cross a most defining watershed - cultural, moral, sociological - then this is it. It doesn't get more in your face than this, it definitely doesn't get more controversial than this (at least for now, till the next whammy comes along!). Even today, across the length and breadth of India, gay/lesbian liaisons remain an area of disbelief, wonder and naivete. Just yesterday, my driver tells me he saw a news item that two girls had got 'married' in some mofussil town and asks me 'yeh kaise ho sakta hai? kitni ajeeb baat hai'. Contrast this to three weeks back when we were on a luxury cruise to Alaska. On the ship, the Cruise Director was anchoring the popular 'Love and Marriage Show' that has become a bit of a tradition on such cruises. He called for newly married couples to stand up and lo! among the three-four couples that responded there was a same-sex (female) duo, who said they'd got married a week back. My eyeballs nearly fell off and I clutched my friend's hand. But, hey, as I cast a look around the 1000+ audience, nobody seeemed to even miss a beat. For all you saw, this was yet another 'regular' honeymooner. The clincher came when just one couple had to be selected to come on stage and participate in the show. The Cruise Director said he'd ask each couple 3 questions and the audience would voice vote. Now, this will be fun, I thought - let's see if progressive America would shout for the 'odd' ones or will the dormant resistance surface and they would get a couple that all would feel wholesome and comfortable seeing up there?? Sure enough, even though the two girls fared as well as the others (in my eyes), the cheers for them were far less lusty.... and we all slipped back into our seats to see a more 'familiar' ritual on stage.

So, yes, even societies that embrace this diversity more readily and do not react outwardly at least, have trouble with complete acceptance. And where does that leave India, steeped as it is in traditional mores?

Sure there are no 'rights' or 'wrongs', but there will be gasps and splutters, choking and spitting and kicking and pummelling for the old order to give way to the new. Will gay 'pride' be plastered in your face as they celebrate victory? Will this make it even more difficult for the masses to accept? Will flashing images of purple hair, masks, wriggling bottoms and cleavages thrust into the camera nauseate our senses? Will a society that still frowns upon romantic public displays between 'regular' couples be able to stomach same sex couples smooching in the metro? My sense is that this will call for the legendary sensitivity that the gay/lesbian community professes to. The more they underplay this breakthrough, the easier will be the assimilation, the less the 'nautanki' the more the acceptance.

After all, in a country where sublimation of the senses is the religious goal of a vast majority striving towards moksha and nirvaana, where processions are largely associated with Durga Puja and Ganesh Chaturthi and Moharram and Gurpurab, where the Christian community has all but shut the door to these winds, it is going to be a long haul for acceptance and integration. And the less either party crows or rants over it, the smoother it will be for the page to turn in history.