A Road Trip to Goa - Part 2

Days 2 and 3 - September 1, 2011 and September 2, 2011

After our long drive the previous day, none of us were in a mood to do anything other than laze around and relax amidst the facilities that the Leela had to offer us. Our room was adjacent to a lagoon, with a number of lotus flowers blooming in it. The lobby area was beautifully done, shaped a little bit like an old South Indian palace. Parts of the lobby (and if I am not mistaken, the usual location of the Coffee Shop) were boarded off, due to the ongoing renovation - and breakfast was served in a restaurant that seemed as if it had been located in one of the conference halls.



Given the extent of rain the previous day, the grounds of the Leela were rather water-logged - very oddly, we had to wade through ankle deep water on the path heading towards the beach. The beach itself was fairly broad and clean, albeit with black traces on the sand. (I was unclear if that was natural or arising from oil spills). The sea was extremely rough, and there was no scope for any of us to venture near it.

Leisurely meals, lazing by or in the pool, long walks on the grounds, reading novels, Ayurvedic massages - what more can you ask for while in Goa?

Day 4 - September 3, 2011

After 2 days of lazing around at the Leela, we decided to visit Colva Beach on Day 4 of our holiday. The drive to Colva took a bit, and frankly the beach was rather disappointing. It was much smaller, and narrower than the quasi private beach near the Leela, and there was not much to do either (at least in the afternoon). After looking around to try and find a place to have lunch, we gave up, and headed for the Taj Exotica, which was on the way back to the Leela for lunch. After a nice buffet lunch at the Exotica, and some time spent walking around on its grounds, we headed back to our hotel, where we spent some time walking down the banks of the Sal river.

Day 5 - September 4, 2011 - The Journey Home

Before we knew it, our brief vacation was over, and we now had to drive back home. Given that the last leg of our journey would be in Bombay (with street lights et al), the imperative to make a very early start did not exist. We got some breakfast packed for us from room service, and headed out by 7:30 am. This time, we did not have lunch with us, and I decided that we should aim to hit the Kolhapur McDonalds in time for lunch. It being early on a Sunday morning, traffic was light (except around Churches, where a number of people had come for early morning mass), and we were able to maintain a good speed through the Goa section. We refueled at a petrol pump a little ahead of Madgaon (I had not bothered to identify "reliable" pumps in Goa, and chose one that looked better than the rest). The journey from our hotel to the Goa border took just 1 hour 45 minutes, as opposed to almost two and a half hours while going the other way. 

Despite bad roads, the section to Sawantwadi was covered in a little less than half an hour, and in the absence of a slow Alto blocking us, we made it to Amboli in a further 45 minutes, reaching at about 10:30. The Goa - Amboli run thus took us almost an hour less than the running time on the Amboli Goa run while going the other way. Just off the main road at Amboli, there is a Vithal Kamath restaurant, and we decided to stop there for some snacks. Amboli was shrouded in mist, and there was a light drizzle - perfect weather for some Batata Vadas and Poha. After a 45 minute break, we headed off again. The drive was amazing - one moment, we had thick fog around us, and the next the mist would lift and we had fantastic visibility. After crossing Ajara, we decided that since the so called quality road through Gadhinglaj had not been that great, we might as well try the Uttur route.

A relatively small pothole

NH4 near Tawandi Ghat

The road towards Uttur was incredibly scenic, with undulating landscapes, and pretty yellow flowers along the way. The road quality also seemed to be much better than the road we had driven on while coming from Sankeshwar. This seemed like a very good decision for us to have taken, and I was mentally passing remarks on how web-sites are not completely trust-worthy. And then, we crossed the state border in Karnataka, and the road disappeared. It was like crossing a minefield or a lunar landscape - with potholes big enough to swallow a small car, and where even SUV drivers have to crawl at under 5 kmph for fear of bottoming out. As I understand it, the stretch of road from the Tawandi Ghat turnoff (which is in Karnataka) to Uttur (which is in Maharashtra) is mostly used by Maharashtra State transport vehicles and people traveling from Kolhapur - hence the Karnataka government does not bother to maintain it. Clearly, we need to work on a better system of dealing with road maintenance. Fortunately, this stretch lasted just 4 km (which took about 20 minutes to cover), and on a net basis, the time from Amboli to Tawandi Ghat was more or less as the time going the other way (even if the distance was 20 km less).

We reached Kolhapur by about 1:20, and after spending 40 minutes at McDonalds, set off towards Pune. The journey back towards Pune was terrible - incredibly heavy traffic, with rows of ST buses traveling at 40 kmph arranged in a mobile chicane,  which in turn were slowed by idiot truckers trying to overtake each other at 25 kmph. My lack of experience in highway driving shone through - and I often ended up getting stuck behind someone or the other for long stretches of time.

Nevertheless, we made it to Pune by about 5:45, and took our final break at a Cafe Coffee Day just off the bypass.

We restarted from Pune at 6:30 - fortunately Sunday evening traffic on the bypass was not too bad, and we hit the Expressway fairly quickly. Traffic on the Expressway itself was very heavy - and made worse by heavy rain. I tend to drive relatively slowly at night, and kept top speeds down below 120 kph (and speeds on the ghat at much lower than that). Nevertheless, the 120 km Pune to Panvel stretch took just 1 hour 40 minutes, and shortly before 8 PM, we thought we were nearly home. As soon as we exited the Expressway, we hit a wall of traffic. We crawled till Belapur, and fortunately for us, most of the traffic continued along Thane Belapur road while we diverted onto Palm Beach Road, which allowed us to drive a bit faster. Neverthless, the  20 km to Vashi had taken us over 40 minutes. After Vashi, we made relatively quick progress till Chembur, which we reached before 9 pm. We were just 6 km from home, and I commented that we should be home by 9:20 or so.

But just after Suman Nagar, we were faced with the worst that Bombay can throw at us, with a massive traffic jam heading towards Sion (at 9 PM on a Sunday night). The next 2 kms took us over an hour, and finally we reached home at about 10:15. It did seem a little surreal - we had covered almost 600 kms in a bit over 10 hours, and then taken almost two and a half hours to do the last 40 km.

Including local travel in Goa, we had covered 1350 km. The NH4 sections were by and large fabulous - and would probably be a lot better if a little bit of driving discipline were inculcated in the heads of our truck drivers. One did also feel that a better system of toll collection, a la the EZ Pass systems we had come across in the US or ERP in Singapore is needed - on the NH 4 stretch between Pune and Kolhapur, toll payment time of 45 minutes (in total) was a ridiculously high part of the total drive time of 3 hours 45 minutes. But all in all, it was a great vacation - and certainly one that has inspired me to consider more driving holidays in future.

A Roadtrip to Goa

Planning

"Drive down to Goa and back? With Radhika and Avinash? Without a driver? In a single day each way? You must be crazy." That was the first reaction of most of my friends when I told them that the three of us intended to drive down to Goa and back during the 5 day break that most Bombayites managed at the end of August / beginning of September this year. The 5 day break was of course made possible due to Ramzan and Ganesh Chaturthi falling on consecutive days (Wednesday and Thursday - hooray for Indian secularism!!), implying that a 5 day break was possible by just taking Friday off. The moribund condition of markets also made it possible to actually disappear for 5 days, without impacting business too much.

As all of you know, I am extremely fond of driving. Ever since I got my Skoda Superb in May 2010, I have been itching to take it on a long road trip. The fun I had driving long distances in Scotland during our holiday in 2010 only whetted my appetite for more driving holidays. When we started planning our US holiday in June this year, I had originally penciled in State Route 1 in California as a must do - only to postpone that once we decided to stick to the East Coast. The fact that Avinash and Radhika also seem to enjoy road trips encouraged me. However, driving on Indian roads is not always pleasurable or safe. The longest distance I had ever driven in India was just 325 km, from Bangalore to Coonoor in Amma and Appa's Santro, back in 2004. And driving to Goa (over 600 kms) would be more than 50% longer than the longest I had ever driven on a single day - 250 miles, or 400 km from Inverness to Edinburgh via the Great Glen, Fort William, Loch Lomond and the outskirts of Glasgow. Hence, before setting off, I started doing detailed research on what a drive to Goa would entail.

My first port of call was a car crazy friend, Ghanashyam, who has done several trips to Goa (and even a couple to Mangalore, his home town). "Driving to Goa. Its a breeze.", he said. "Just start at 5 am, and you should make it there by 330 or 4 PM". Ghanashyam of course is the kind of guy who can take the CR2 parking lot ramp at 40 kmph, do 180 kmph on the Bombay Pune expressway, and slice through traffic like Vettel passing Karun Chandok. So his time estimates had to be taken with a pinch of salt. But clearly if he could make it by 330 or 4, I should be able to make it by 7 pm, I thought. Further research was done on an Indian car freak web-site, team-bhp.com. There was a detailed thread on the Goa route, and it very quickly emerged that the best route to Goa was to take the Bangalore highway (NH 4) till somewhere between Kolhapur and Belgaum, and then divert via Amboli Ghat to Sawantwadi on the Maharashtra Goa border. The direct Bombay Goa road is shorter, but has just a single carriageway, and monsoon road conditions could be quite unpredictable.
View Larger Map

The next question was where to stay. The last time we went to Goa, we stayed at the Taj Holiday Village, in North Goa. But Bombayites plan their long weekends well in advance, and the Holiday Village did not have rooms at anything resembling a reasonable cost. The other major North Goa resort, the Fort Aguada was fully booked as was the Park Hyatt in South Goa. But surprisingly, there were relatively cheap rooms available at the Leela in South Goa (which is usually the costliest resort in Goa) - mainly because the resort is undergoing a renovation. A few quick checks revealed that the renovation was not really intrusive, and hence I made our bookings there. Booking at the Leela when you fly to Goa is a no brainer... Dabolim Airport is in South Goa, and just about an hour from the Leela. But while driving from Bombay, this meant that I would need to drive about 70 kms more than the distance to the North Goa resorts.

The final step in the planning phase was to prepare for the journey. My role was limited to getting the car ready, which involved checking that the tires (including the spare) were okay and inflated, that coolant and brake fluid levels were fine, and that I was stocked with a 1 litre can of Shell Helix Ultra. (The Volkswagen Group's ultra modern, turbo charged, direct injection petrol engines tend to drink oil like old Morris Minors). Radhika as usual had the tougher job, packing for the three of us, visiting Chedda Stores at Matunga to buy snacks for the journey, and with Amma's help, getting hot food (rotis and idlis) prepared for the journey.We set a hard deadline of 5 am for us to leave for Goa, knowing that with Avinash around, we would need to take more than our fair share of breaks, and that we would have to travel a long way through Goa to reach our hotel. My objective was to complete the NH 4 stretch till Kolhapur by 1130 or 12 noon, which would ensure that we had sufficient time to drive through the narrow ghat road from Sankeshwar through Amboli to Sawantwadi, and reach our hotel by 7PM or so.

August 31, 2011 - Bombay to Goa

About to leave

We woke up as per plan at 345 am, and started getting ready to leave. However, despite our best efforts, by the time we were all in the car, it was 520 am. As we exited our building, Radhika realized that we had forgotten our packet of rotis - hence, we had to return to the building to pick them up. Our departure time was thus effective 5:30 am - we had lost 30 minutes even before we started. Long weekends tend to be terrible from a traffic perspective, and this day was no exception. Even at 530 in the morning, there was a lot of traffic on the road from Parel towards Chembur.

We made slow but steady progress (avg 45 kmph) till we reached Vashi, but the drive down Palm Beach Road was a relief. Soon, we reached the expressway, and made extremely rapid progress till the first toll booth at Khalapur. There was a massive crowd at the toll booth, which was a precursor for things to come. The next section of the Bombay Pune expressway along Khandala Ghat follows the same alignment as the old Bombay Pune road. Truck and car traffic was heavy, with trucks trying to overtake each other at under 25 or 30 kph, and blocking faster traffic. Where I got the space, driving was a pleasure - with my car climbing the ghat at 120 kph with the engine gently ambling along at 3000 rpm in D6. But the overall section till Karla was extremely crowded, and we could average only 45 kph on this stretch.

Khandala Ghat - a rare clear stretch

Beyond Karla, the proper expressway resumes, and we once again made rapid progress. It took just 15 minutes to cover the next 30 kms to the Talegaon exit, where we took our first break to eat the breakfast of Idlis that Amma had packed for us at about 725 am. We managed to keep this break down to 20 minutes, and shortly thereafter, we exited the Expressway - at this stage we had managed to get our average speed up to almost 70 kmph, which was the highest that it would touch. Despite the traffic, our Bombay Pune time had not been worse than what we had anticipated.


Even though it was just before 8 am when we hit the Pune bypass, it seemed as if the entire town was out on the streets. The two lane bypass section was extremely crowded. After a quick tank up near Pune, we continued on our way, and it took 45 minutes to cover the 32 km Pune urban section.

Once we crossed Pune, the road was less crowded, but overall traffic was still high between Pune and Satara. The other big issue is the toll booths, which do not have enough lanes, often witness negotiations between MUV drivers and the toll attendants (fortunately, no shootings as witnessed in Gurgaon yesterday), and result in a dramatic loss of time. Between Pune and Kolhapur, there were 5 toll booths, and we lost an average of about 7-8 minutes in each of them. In the second toll booth we came to, at Anewadi, there was a traffic warden directing cars into an extra South bound toll lane (which had been opened by converting one of the North bound lanes). As I tried to get into that lane, a truck tried to close the gap down, and I swerved , ending inches from an ST bus. I stopped, but at that instant, the bus tried to start, and rolled back a few inches, knocking my LHS rear view mirror off. Avinash was distraught at seeing the damage caused to the car - I would have been upset too, but realized that we probably got away lightly - a few inches one way or the other and the car body could have been damaged.  After Karad, the road opened out, and we managed to average 70 kph on the last 80 kms to Kolhapur. We reached Kolhapur at about 1230 pm, more or less on time given that we had started 30 minutes late. We had taken 3 hours 40 minutes to cover 220 kms between Pune and Kolhapur, and at least 40 minutes of that time was wasted at toll booths.

There is a McDonalds and Cafe Coffee Day just off the highway on the Kolhapur bypass, and this is the suggested lunch halt for all people traveling towards Bangalore from Bombay. We, of course, had our lunch - but used the parking lot of the McDonalds to eat it. Since we wanted to use the facilities there, we also ended up ordering some Ice Cream at the McDs, and before we realized it, we had spent almost one hour stationary there. About 2 kms from the McDonalds, we reached the famous Konduskar Petrol Pump, and refueled there. (Given the extent of adulterated fuel found on Indian highways, people driving modern petrol cars in particular are well advised to make note of all reliable petrol pumps on their route, and refuel only at those locations.) About 8 kms from Kolhapur, we crossed in Karnataka, and immediately, the road quality improved dramatically.

Our speed picked up, and the distance to Tawandi Ghat (about 10 km from the town of Nipani), which is the location of the first turn off towards Amboli was covered in short order. We skipped this turnoff (which leads towards a town called Uttur) since the web-site that we had looked at advised against it, and proceeded a further 20 kms to a town called Sankeshwar, from where we turned off towards another small town called Gadhinglaj. The stretch from the Karnataka border to Sankeshwar was probably the nicest stretch of the entire journey - a combination of superb roads and beautiful undulating, green landscape, which inspired Radhika to pick up her EOS 550D and shoot a few snaps. We probably covered this 40 km stretch in about 20 minutes.

Misty Amboli

The web-site we had checked had told us that the Sankeshwar Gadhinglaj Ajra route was the best way to Amboli from Kolhapur, even though it is 20 km longer than the alternate Nipani Uttur Ajra route. (In case anyone uses the map shown above as a reference point, it shows the Nipani Uttur Ajra route).  But the road we were driving on certainly did not feel that way. It was narrow, with plenty of Maharashtra State Transport bus traffic, and had a very rough surface (even if deep potholes were few and far between). The road also runs through the heart of Gadhinglaj town, and progress was pretty slow. After Gadhinglaj, the road quality improved, and we were able to pick our speed up to about 60 or even 70 kmph in parts. Nevertheless by the time we reached Amboli, it was almost 3:45 pm - we had taken over two hours from the Karnataka border to cover 110 km - or 1 hour 40 minutes to do the 70 km Sankeshwar Amboli stretch.

Amboli is one of the many fabulously beautiful but virtually unknown monsoon destinations that abound in Maharashtra. It is famous for its waterfalls - on our way back, Avi counted 15 falls by the road before getting bored. We stopped briefly to see the falls, but there was a large holiday crowd of mostly drunk folks around, and we left after a very short break. There had been a major landslide at Amboli in late June, and shortly after the waterfall, there was a 500 metre stretch where the road was just mud and gravel. But after that, the rest of Amboli ghat was really nice, and oncoming traffic had reduced considerably. The only issue was that I was stuck behind an Alto that was driving along at 25 kph and on the twisty ghat section, I did not dare overtake, even if I could have driven about 15 kph faster. It therefore took an hour to cover the 30 kms from Amboli to Sawantwadi. A combination of the twisty ghat roads, and the long, virtually non stop drive since Kolhapur made Radhika feel extremely queasy, and we therefore stopped at Sawantwadi for some tea even though it was already 4:45 PM and I was not keen on driving for too long beyond sunset. We ended up spending about 45 minutes on this break.

After Sawantwadi, we were on NH 17, the Bombay Goa road. A bypass of Sawantwadi town is currently being constructed, and hence the existing road is heavily neglected. The roads near Sawantwadi were extremely narrow, and filled with deep craters. After about 10 km of this, we reached the point where the bypass construction was on - and to our amazement, the road quality became even worse. The 16 km from Sawantwadi to the Goa border took over 30 minutes. We crossed into Goa at 6 PM. Once we entered Goa, the road surface was super smooth, but the road remained a single carriageway for most part. Further, it had been raining very heavily for 3 days prior to our departure from Bombay, and once we entered Goa, the rain returned with a vengeance. Finally, after over 12 hours on the road, I was tired, and hence chose to stick behind slow moving buses and trucks, overtaking only on double carriageway sections or where the driver ahead took pity on me and slowed down to let me pass.

The sun set shortly after we passed Panjim, and the high beam lights of oncoming traffic made driving even tougher. Further, I was not exactly sure of how we should get from Madgaon to our hotel - hence about 10 km from Madgaon, I interrupted Radhika who was on a long call with Vidu, and asked her to call the hotel for directions instead. The hotel told us to take a turnoff from the highway towards Colva Beach, and that the rest of the way was posted. By the time we reached this turn-off, it was 7:30 PM. We made the turn, and kept going towards Colva, until we realized that we were almost at the Beach. It was pouring, and there was not a soul on the road. Fortunately, there was a lone shop open, and we managed to get directions from the shopkeeper, we had to travel back about 200 metres, and go through a series of narrow roads, before getting to the road heading for the Leela.

I had managed to borrow an old Garmin India map from a friend - but it was clearly useless - it was not aware of even sections of the National Highway, much less these narrow streets. At this point, we turned to the Google maps on my  Samsung Galaxy S, which turned out to be far more accurate, and with Radhika navigating, we got onto the long straight road that leads to the Leela. While it was pitch dark and pouring, someone (I presume the hotels on the road including the Taj Exotica, Holiday Inn, Radisson Blu and the Leela) had ensured that there were reflectors on both sides of the road, and driving was therefore not difficult. Finally, at 8:23, having covered 655 kms in a little less than 15 hours door to door (with about 2 hours 15 minutes of halts on the way), we were at the Leela. It was an exhilarating journey, and I was glad that we had made it with only a minor mishap. 

Our room itself was fantastic - it had two sections, one with a master bed, and a small sitting area where a smaller bed (perfect for Avi) had been laid out. Best of all, there were separate TVs for Avi and us - and Cartoon Network was available.

It would be extremely wrong of me to end the narrative of this day without commenting on Avi's exemplary behavior during our journey. Barring the halts at  Talegaon, Kolhapur and Sawantwadi, he asked for only one other break, and kept himself and us amused with his comments throughout the journey. Clearly, this is one kid who loves the long road trip. 

For those interested in road trip speed stats, one final picture.

Canada and USA Trip 2011 - Part 6 - Days 19 to 22

Day 19 - June 15, 2011

We had been completely drained by all the travel, and the overall length of the previous day, and also by the length of the trip. Consequently, despite Jagan Peripa and Syamala Perima's desire that we make an early start and get a chance to see Morgantown and its surroundings, we were extremely slow off the blocks.

I was the first (amongst our group) to wake up - perhaps because I had a conference call that morning (one disadvantage of writing a chronicle more than 3 months after the event is that one does not remember the details). At any rate by the time I got down from the bedroom, Perima was up and about, and busy in the kitchen. (Poor Perima spent more than a fair share of our Morgantown trip in the kitchen).

Jagan Peripa's house is beautiful - its located on a small, curved street, with lots of trees. While we were driving back to his house the previous night, I saw an animal run across the road - I thought it was a dog, but on a closer look, realized that it was a deer. The house is built with three levels, basement, ground and first. The existence of the basement is not obvious at first glance - its massive, and in typical Coonoor family style, filled with odds and ends. The house is surrounded by a nice garden, with loads of large trees, and Jagan Peripa's prized vegetable patch at the rear.

By the time the Appa, Amma, Appu and Renu arrived and finished breakfast, it was well past 1030 am. We (viz everybody except poor Syamala perima) then set out for West Virginia University, to look at the place where Peripa had worked for over 35 years. The campus is huge. Amazingly for America, Morgantown has a public transport system - a personal light rail, which was the brainchild of a WVU professor. It connects most large buildings in the Campus, the Football (yeah, American football, not the real thing) stadium and downtown Morgantown. After parking our cars near the medical center building, we took the light rail to downtown Morgantown. By this time, Avi was hungry. I also think he was still feeling a bit under the weather, since he was certainly not at his best behavior.  Fortunately, we managed to find some muffins in a store nearby, and he was slightly better after that.

After lazing around and chatting post lunch (and deciding to skip a drive to some other destination that Perima had planned for us), some of us (Peripa, me, Appa, Appu and Renu) headed for a mall, where my prime objective was to buy a pair of formal shoes (since I had a business dinner in NYC the next day). Renu took ill while we were there, and after buying my shoes, we headed back to Peripa's place. Radhika, Avinash and I decided to stay put at Peripa's place for another day, but made a booking at the hotel for the next night, since Ram, Amrita and Sloka were to arrive on the following day.

Day 20 - June 16, 2011

From my perspective, the vacation in the US was over. I had a business dinner scheduled in New York City for the evening of the 16th, and an all day meeting in NYC on the 17th. Our original plan had been for all of us to take a flight from Pittsburgh to Newark on the 17th afternoon, and then connect onto flight to Bombay (on Lufthansa for the 5 of us, via Frankfurt, and on Continental for Amma and Appa direct to Bombay). However, since this meeting got scheduled, I had re-booked to fly a day earlier. I need to leave Morgantown by about 1230 to make my flight.

Ram, Amrita and Sloka had set off the previous night from Phoenix, AZ, and were to arrive in Morgantown after a difficult all night journey. Fortunately, their flight was on time, and they arrived at Peripa's place by about 11am - hence I got to spend an hour with them. At 1230, I set off in our hired Camry for Pittsburgh. The drive to Pittsburgh was beautiful - I got to take in the beautiful scenery that we had missed on the way in. The roads were fantastic - the only challenge was sticking to the speed limit of 65 mph once I entered Pennsylvania. There were times when without noticing (and following the other traffic), I was doing over 80 mph, which I did not want to do for fear of being ticketed in an alien land.

My flight to Newark had no hiccups, and I was able to get a cab to my hotel very easily. As we approached the Holland tunnel into Manhattan, there was a massive traffic jam, which my driver bypassed by going the wrong way down one way streets. -:)

I will ask Radhika to add to this and describe what the rest of them did - it involved going to a riverfront park, as can be seen from the pictures that I have added.

Day 21 - June 17, 2011

The next afternoon, while I was in my meetings, there was a brief thunder storm over Manhattan. Sheets of rain poured down, and the lightning reminded me of Bombay at the beginning or end of the monsoons. Within 30 minutes, the storm had passed, and I did not pay it much heed at that time. At about 3 PM, I was on the dais, participating in a panel discussion. Suddenly, my phone rang - it was Radhika. I disconnected the call, but Radhika tried again, and then sent me an sms asking to call urgently. I stepped out from the panel (fortunately, it was an internal meeting), and called her. She told me that their flight from Pittsburgh had been delayed due to the thunderstorm over New York, and that they would likely miss their connection to Frankfurt. As it happened, I was booked on a later flight than the others to Frankfurt, and I thought they could be rebooked onto my flight. As soon as my meeting was over, I set off for Newark. As we headed towards the entrance to the Holland tunnel, my taxi driver turned on the radio, and heard that it was taking approximately 90 minutes to cross the tunnel - traffic was backed up due to that brief storm. I quickly had him divert to Penn station, and took the train across to Newark. Radhika and the others had boarded their flight, but it had still not left the gate. I got into a queue to rebook their tickets at about 730 pm - there were about 8 people ahead of me, but only two agents, and each person was taking an exceptionally long period of time.


Very quickly, I realized that Radhika and others would not be able to make my flight either, and decided to change my booking as well. Fortunately, this could be done by my travel agent from Bombay. The wait in the queue was interminable, and I still had one passenger ahead of me at 9 pm when Radhika messaged to say that her flight was taking off. Then it was my turn. Lufthansa informed me that all flights via Frankfurt to Bombay on the next day were overbooked - but managed to get seats for Radhika, Renuka, Aparna and Avinash on an Air India flight from JFK to Bombay via Delhi. While issuing the tickets, the agent however warned me to reach JFK before 130 PM the next day even though the flight was only at 5 PM, as the flight too could get overbooked. She then went about trying to issue the tickets, and by the time she finished, it was 1030 PM, and Radhika et al had landed in Newark. In the meantime, I spoke to my travel agent in Bombay to rebook me on a Lufthansa flight from JFK to Bombay (I could not shift to Air India as I had cancelled my  flight, and the cost of changing airlines was prohibitive).

I had presumed that like in India, Continental Airlines (Lufthansa's code share partner), which had caused the delay, would have made hotel arrangements for them. However, when I caught up with the others, I realized that not only had they made no hotel arrangements, but they had not even rebooked Amma and Appa onto an alternate Continental flight to Bombay. In the entire airport, which is Continental's major hub, there were only 2 counters (served by 4 agents) to handle over 300 odd Continental passengers waiting to be rebooked. We stood in a queue for a while, but at 1130 PM, the agents announced that their duty period was over, and that we would need to return the next morning. On pressing, the agent informed us that one of the counters opened at 3 AM, while the other would open at 5 AM.

We then set about trying to retrieve the luggage that had been checked in at Pittsburgh. We were told to hand in a form, and then wait near a carousel to see if the luggage could be retrieved. Avinash was asleep in his stroller (that certainly was the best buy of our trip). We tried to see if some nearby hotel was available, but all hotels in the Newark area were booked. We then tried to reach both Nana and Jayashri - we were unable to get Nana, but Jayashri and family were at home, and we therefore decided that Appa, Amma, Radhika and Avinash would go to their place by cab once the luggage arrived. While we were waiting for the luggage, Renuka decided that she would go across to the Continental counter (which was to open at 3 AM), and camp there for the night. She was the first one to have this idea, and very quickly, a large queue formed behind her. At around 1230 AM, Renuka, Aparna and Appa / Amma's luggage arrived, and the foursome set out for Randolph.

Day 22 - June 18, 2011

The luggage service at Newark Airport shut down at 1 AM, without any sign of Radhika's luggage. Aparna and I therefore went across to the Continental counter and waited there with Renu. At 3 am, we were the first to be served. We found that there were about 200 people in the queue by then. There were no tickets to Bombay on Continental's flight leaving on Sunday, June 18, and hence we booked Appa and Amma on the next day's flight. By this time it was 4 am. I was concerned that Radhika's luggage may end up coming out on the carousel when it reopened at around 530 AM, and decided that I would wait for the luggage, while Renu and Appu headed for Randolph. I waited till 630 AM but there was no sign of the luggage. I went back to the counter, and was told that I should wait till 8 AM, since they were very busy, with 2 people handling 1000s of pieces of lost baggage. At 8AM, I was back at the counter. I was told that their system showed that Radhika's bags were checked in on the Continental flight to Bombay (the one which Amma and Appa did not get tickets on), but they were not able to locate the bags in the mess - and that we should take our chances at Bombay airport. Fortunately, this Continental flight was scheduled to arrive around the same time as Radhika's Air India, and I decided that waiting further would serve no purpose and headed for Randolph as well. The terrible service the moment something went wrong brought home the downside of the airline industry's push for cost efficiencies - there is absolutely no buffer left in the system. Of course, that was the reason why we were paying barely 20% more in Indian Rupees for our tickets too and from North America than Lali Athai had paid when she flew to the US in 1992  (despite oil prices having risen 8 fold, and INR inflation averaging 10% p.a. in this period)

I had intended to take a nap on reaching Randolph but it was almost 1030 by the time I got there, and we needed to leave for JFK by 12 noon. A quick shower, a coffee, and some breakfast, plus all the adrenaline from the need to get Radhika et al onto the Air India flight, meant that I did not really feel drained despite not having slept for almost 30 hours. Sunder decided to drop us at JFK. We made good time till we were close to Manhattan, but then got stuck in a jam at the George Washington Bridge (despite it being a Sunday afternoon with fine weather). Clearly, the infrastructure for getting in and out of Manhattan by car needs drastic improvement! Fortunately, the jam ended as soon as we crossed the bridge, and we were able to make fairly good time to JFK. Nevertheless it was 2 PM when we reached the Air India check in counter.

As the Lufthansa agent had anticipated, the Air India flight was overbooked. We were holding confirmed tickets, but they had been issued by Lufthansa. And to our dismay, the Air India check in counter agent told us that the flight was overbooked even while counting people holding tickets issued by Air India itself, and that it would be only after 4 PM, when check in was scheduled to close, that they would let us know if Radhika et al could board the flight. Fortunately, there were only 2 people holding LH tickets who had reached before us - within another 30 minutes, there were another 20 people in the same boat. While Radhika et al waited near the Air India counter, I went across to the Lufthansa terminal (frankly, JFK is far, far superior to Newark as an airport), and was able to get a standby booking on a Newark - Frankfurt - Bombay flight the next day for Radhika and team. The next hour seemed interminably long - but finally we were called forward, and fortunately, all four made it onto the flight. In a sense it was good that Radhika and team had not got a Lufthansa ticket - they were going to reach Bombay earlier than I would, and also benefit from better food and the inflight entertainment system on the flight (including Chotta Bhim for Avinash).

After dropping the others at the Air India counter, I headed for the Lufthansa lounge, where I typed out Part 4 of this blog during the 3 hour wait for my flight. I boarded my flight to Frankfurt at 815 PM, and was fast asleep within seconds of hitting my seat. All I remember of the JFK Frankfurt flight is briefly waking up to put the bed down, and then being woken up when it was time to land in Frankfurt. I usually try to adjust to my arrival time zone during long flights, but it was clearly not possible on this occasion.

On arriving at Bombay, I was relieved to find that Radhika et al had reached home without a hitch, and that they had managed to retrieve Radhika's bags which had arrived on the Continental flight.

There was to be just one more adventure on this trip. Amma and Appa were of course still in New York. They reached Newark airport without a hitch, and check in for their non stop flight to Bombay was smooth. After boarding, the plane started taxiing on time, but had to return to the gate due to some malfunction. Fortunately, this was resolved before the FDTL of the crew expired, and they were able to head out to Bombay, arriving about 3 hours later than scheduled.

Our marathon trip to the US and Canada was done and dusted, and fortunately, we had no issues except on our return journey. It certainly would not have been possible, or as much fun without the advice, hospitality and company of all our friends and relatives - Jayashri, Sundar,  Nana, Divya, Jagan Peripa, Syamala Perima, Mytili, Heather, Ram, Amrita, Anand, Jyoti, Prashant, Rachna, Shrikant, Jaya, Vijay  et al. I am sure that Appa's prayers also played some role in ensuring that this complicated exercise in un-packaged tourism went off smoothly.

We returned carrying fond memories and having learnt at least one lesson - never trust the transport infrastructure - viz. airlines, trains or airports to ensure that you make your connections - always stay over for a day at your final stop before taking a direct flight home. Radhika and I should have known this - we had almost missed our flight from Milan to Bombay (viz Zurich) in 2006 due to a train strike in Italy, and had ended up missing our connection this time.

Until next time...

Canada and USA Trip 2011 - Part 5 - Day 16 to 18

Day 16 - June 12, 2011

We had purchased a three day Disney Pass, thinking that either Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom might take more than one day to cover. However, as we had managed to cover both those parks in a day each, we decided to use the remaining day to visit the Hollywood Studios Park. When we woke up on the morning of June 12, we were however dismayed to find that Avinash was running a temperature (About 102 degrees). We were well prepared for such an eventuality, and gave Avinash some Crocin (Paracetmol) and cold compress, which brought his temperature down a bit. Radhika and I decided that we would stay at home in the villa, while Appa, Amma, Renu and Appu would go to Hollywood Studios. Radhika and I were quite tired too, and we ended up napping for most of the day. Avinash's temperature waxed and waned through the day but by that evening, when I set out to pick up our "Hollywood Stars", he seemed to be much better. A description of what happened at Hollywood Studios would of course need to be provided by either Renu or Appu.

Day 17 - June 13, 2011

The next morning, Avinash's temperature was back. We continued with the paracetmol treatment, and this time, everybody stayed at home. By the evening, Avinash seemed fine. We were quite bored having been at the villa for two whole days, and hence Radhika, Avinash, Renu, Appa and I decided to go out to look at a nearby Lakefront. There was a small park there, where Avinash had a good time, playing on the swings and slides. This turned out to have been a mistake, as the fever returned by the time we got back home. By this time, we were quite worried - we had an all day trip the next morning from Orlando to Morgantown, and were wondering what to do.

Day 18 - June 14, 2011

At about 4 am on June 14, Radhika woke to find that Avinash was still running a high fever. We were panic stricken. We phoned our paediatrician, Dr. Cyrus Contractor, in Bombay (the great thing about Indian doctors is that they are happy to speak to us on their phones, and give us advice). He felt that Avinash was most likely suffering from a mild viral fever, which should get better with time, but suggested that we show him to a doctor locally to be sure. Our stock of Crocin was also almost over. We didn't know anybody in Orlando - this brought out the disadvantage of staying in a villa instead of a hotel where there would be someone to help. We turned to the only people we could think off - viz. Lata in the UK, Jayashri in New Jersey and Jagan Peripa. We wanted to check if they knew any paediatrician in Central Florida. None of them had a local contact, though Jayashri did give us the brands for the standard US children's OTC medicines. We looked up doctors on the Internet, and found that there was a clinic fairly close to our villa, which opened at about 8 am. I went across to the nearby Wal-mart to restock our medicines.

At exactly 8 am, Radhika, Avinash and I were outside the clinic. Avinash's fever had reduced considerably by this point in time. When I walked into the clinic, the first thing they wanted to know was our insurance details. The contrast with our doctors in India, who would look at treating the patient before anything else, was stark. I provided the details to them, but they wanted to get a fax from the insurance company confirming willingness to pay before anything else. I asked them what the cost would be and agreed to pay by my credit card and think about insurance later. They told us that the initial consultation with a doctor would cost USD 350, and that this did not include the costs of any tests that may be needed. We were happy to pay, but were advised that the doctors would not be available for 90 minutes at least.

At this, Radhika and I stepped out to discuss the situation. Appa and Amma's flight to Pittsburg via DC was at 1230, and we had planned to leave the villa by 10 am or 1030 at the latest. (especially as we needed to build a buffer for any potential confusion while driving back). Avi's temperature was almost normal now. If we waited to see the doctor, and he was either delayed even very slightly or if he suggested some tests, we would miss our flights. We decided to gamble, and head for Morgantown without seeing the doctor.

We headed back to the villa, to finish packing, and started loading our luggage in the Grand Caravan. Fortunately, Avi seemed ok. Our ride back to the airport was relatively uneventful. The only hiccup was that there was a unmanned coin operated toll booth with a red signal on our way, where the signal refused to change even after we deposited the toll. We drove through the red light (there was no barrier), and explained the situation at the next toll booth which was manned. We were provided a number that we could call and explain the situation. Before we knew it, we were back at Orlando International. While Radhika et al helped Appa and Amma check in, I went along with Renu to return the car. The process of car returns at the airport was also ultra efficient, taking only about 10 minutes (including the time needed to drive around from the departures level back to the arrivals area and the rental car parking lot).  

We were relieved to find that both Appa / Amma and our flights were on time. They were flying to Pittsburg via DC, while the rest of us were flying by a direct flight, albeit with a stop of Charlotte. The five of us had a leisurely lunch at the airport, since our flight was only at 2 PM. Our flight took off exactly on time, and landed at Charlotte on time as well. Just before we landed, we were told that there was going to be a change of aircraft for the Charlotte to Pittsburg leg, and that we would have to deplane. This seemed surprising. When we got off, we realized that they had diverted the plane we were on to some other destination, and that we would have to wait for a flight. Our flight kept getting delayed 30 minutes at a time. They finally announced boarding at around 6 PM (I think), but boarding took inordinately long and the plane taxied out to a remote parking bay, before taking off almost an hour later. We finally reached Pittsburg over two hours late, and it was already dark by that time.

Jagan Peripa and Syamala Perima had driven down from Morgantown and had caught up with Amma and Appa. Fortunately, our luggage arrived quickly, and collecting my rental Camry did not take much time either. After double checking to ensure that the destination was programmed correctly on my Garmin, we headed out. The road to Morgantown was a beautifully surfaced, undulating expressway, with a number of curves, on which I could maintain a fairly high speed. After having driven  for about an hour, we realized that we needed some water, and hence pulled off from the expressway. We managed to get some water quickly, but while trying to get back to the highway, I missed a turn, and had to drive for almost 30 minutes through narrow roads where some road work was on before getting back to the highway. We finally reached Morgantown quite late at night, having taken about 2 hours to cover over 100 miles.

Our original plan was that the 7 of us would share a suite at a nearby hotel, since Ram, Amrita and Sloka were supposed to have been at Jagan Peripa's house. However, Ram and Amrita had been delayed and were to reach  Morgantown only on the 16th. When we went to our hotel, we found that the suite was smaller than we had expected, and 7 people would not fit in it. We tried to see if another room was available, but the hotel was full up. After quickly consulting with Peripa and Perima, Radhika, Avinash and I headed back to their house. After an extraordinarily long day, it was almost 1 am by the time we were finally off to sleep.

The good news was the Avinash's fever, which had been worrying us so much that morning, had not recurred.