Rajesh travels sucks!!. Review on Host, The - Stephenie Meyer

We three friends decided to hit Tirupthi over the weekend (07/24) and chose the package tour offered by Rajesh travels to make our trip hassle free.We boarded the bus at Jaynagar 9thblock at 7:45 PM and the first impression of the bus was good.

Little did weknow that it will be the only part of the package we will be satisfied about. Thebus stopped some where in Kalasipalyam to get it’s top loaded with stuff to betransported to don’t know where and the whole loading process took 2 hours.

I was cursing myself for ignoring my earlier experience of travelling in aprivate bus where again they had made us wait for almost 2 hours to load it’stop. Whenever you travel in a private bus, ensure that you ask the operatorsabout the exact time it will start from Bangalore;else you will end up wasting time like we did. Anyway the bus headed to AnandRao circle where we were supposed to continue our journey in another bus. We waited for around30 minutes for the bus to arrive and when it finally did we had our first majortryst with reality of Rajesh travels. Around 45-50 people where waiting toboard the bus which was supposed to be an A/C Volvo.

First of all it was not aVolvo and secondly our seat was second from last and the push back button wasnot working for one of our seats and thirdly it was not the bus which wouldtake us all the way to Tirupathi. At Hoskote, there was another bus waiting forus and we were woken up from our sleeps at 12:00 in the midnight to embark the3rd bus enroute to our destination. At around 4:00 AM we reachedTirupathi and the lights switched on and our beloved tour guide welcomed us toTirupathi and started barking out few instructions in a language comprehendibleonly by him.

It was neither Kannada nor Telugu nor Hindi nor English but all ofthem mixed up to make our lives worse. As people started getting down from thebus, we thought it would be in our best interests to do what other people weredoing and decided to get down from the bus taking our entire luggage. We werein for a reprimand from the tour guide and bus driver for picking up theluggage to buy the darshan tickets.

Realization dawned on us; we were at thefoot of Tirumala and bus had stopped so that we could stand in the queue andbuy the darshan tickets. It was a very wrong assumption we had made that thepackage tour included all the arrangements required for a hassle free darshanof lord Venkateshwara. Standing in the first never ending queue of Tirupathiyatra, we learnt that all the tickets to VIP darshan were sold out and all thatwas remaining was free darshan tickets. Wow! What a way to start our day. Afterstanding in the queue for around 120 minutes in the wee hours, we secured thedarshan tickets. Coming up next was "the resort” where we were supposed to freshenup and get ready to go to the temple. “Awful” would be an understatement forthe short accommodation and breakfast we were provided.

Trivia: Huge tourist buses can’tclimb the 7 hills of Tirumala. So after a brief wait of 30 minutes in thescorching sun, we got into an APSRTC bus which would take us to the hill top. Don’tmiss the view of the valley on the way. It is legendary. We reachedthe hill top, submitted all our electronics, footwear and headed straight tothe temple. There were lots of pep talks by our useless tour guide and thistime we tried really hard and understood what we actually wanted to say.

There wewere in the next never ending queue of Tirupathi and this time we were seatedin the queue for around 2.5 hours, . The temple gates were expected to open at12:15 and we were there in front of the gate by 10:00, so we had no option butto wait. When the gates finally opened, there was lot of chaos with peoplepushing each other to get ahead in the queue.

After going through all the queues we reached the main temple and we hada good darshan of the lord and the extraordinary temple. The sight of thealmighty made us forget all the ordeals we faced to reach there. Our rendezvous with queues was notover yet. To get the famous Tirupathi ladoo prasad we had to go through anotherhuge queue and ultimately when we got out of the temple with the prasadam itwas 3:30 PM. Our tour guide gave us the number of the bus that would take usdown hill and vanished into thin air. We sat there all hungry and sick foranother hour in the bus, waiting for it to start. It did start, but at 5:00 PM.6:00 PM was lunch time for us and the place was again the same resort.

Not sureif food was not bad or we were very hungry to distinguish between good and bad food.We hogged whatever was provided and were finally happy that the long day wouldbe soon over. Wait! Our destiny had other plans. The breaks of the bus (again, not the one which brought us to tirupati ) which had to bring us back to Bangalore were jammed andthe search for mechanic was on. Thanks to all the guys who were part of thisunfortunate group who chose Rajesh travels to visit Tirupathi, the bus startedafter they all gave a hand to push the bus and relieve the breaks.We reached Bangalore around 12:15 and were stranded inAnand rao circle as it was the last stop and they didn’t have any provision fordropping people to the places where they picked up from. By god’s grace, wefound an auto driver who agreed to bring us home in the middle of the night andhe didn’t demand unreasonable fee. What a relief it was to reach home after thepathetic package tour.