Aug 23, 2007 07:13 PM
10285 Views
There are a lot of reviews that describe the greatness of Kodaikanal. The hill station is really great. But unfortunately the place is full of swindlers. I have traveled to several places in India and abroad. This has been one of my worst experiences.
Me and my wife went to Kodai from Bangalore in July'07 for 3 day/2 night trip. We booked thru Sai travels, Jayanagar. They booked tickets in Sharma travels for our trip from Bangalore to Kodaikanal. Stay was arranged in'Kodai International' thru another travel agent called Raja Travels in Kodaikanal. For the return trip they said I would have to book bus tickets as soon I got down at Kodaikanal.
Our travel woes started right with Sharma travels - it was supposed to a hitech bus, but it turned out to be one of the most pathetic buses in its class. The seats were torn, the push back was not working right etc. Within half an hour of sitting in the bus(there were only 15 passengers), my body started itching. At about 2 AM the bus stopped for a break and the driver put on lights. We noticed at least 4 bugs running around in the seats freely! All the itching was because of the bugs! Then we looked for some alternative seat and to my horror found that almost every seat had bugs moving around freely. My co passenger then said that he had changed seats because he got bitten by bugs in his earlier seat!
We finally reached Kodaikanal. As soon as we got down, 'Murugan' a travel agent for M.P travels approached us and said he could book for the return tickets and also arrange for the local sightseeing. Read further how he managed to partially cheat us.When I told I did not want Sharma again, he convinced us this was only a spare bus and on the day of my return it would be a much better bus. Thus he convinced me to book in Sharma itself and promised to change it over to KSRTC in case I wanted to change it on my returning day. So I booked seat number 11 and 12 in Sharma!
Kodaikanal has a standard 3 day tour package 1 for local sight seeing, 2nd for waterfalls/trekking and 3rd for forest tours.'Murugan' suggested we do either 1 or 2 and must take the forest tour for Rs 1700. I told him I will decide after talking to the hotel guys. He offered to drop us to the hotel free and he did that. When I enquired at the hotel, they said the forest tour has been closed for an year for renovation and warned the travel agent was only trying to cheat us! I finally got the local sight seeing arranged thru the hotel travel desk itself, which was a decent experience.
My hotel was booked(and paid) for a'Delux room' thru Raja travels. But Raja had told the hotel guys to give me a'Superior room' which is 1 class less than Delux! I had to talk to Raja travels and tell him that I had booked for a delux room and it was written in my copy of the contract sheet! He had no option, but to agree for a delux room.
During the sightseeing, at one spot a photographer said he could take our picture and deliver at the time of boarding the return bus. He took four photos in his digital camera. We reviewed the photos, got one deleted and told him clearly we wanted only 2. He sure delivered the photos(poor quality) but 3 instead of 2! It was his tactics to sell us more than we wanted. I firmly said I wanted only 2 photos for which he started fighting with me and said I need to buy all 3 since it was a waste for him!
Like I said, my return trip was booked 2 days in advance in Sharma - seat 11 and 12. When I discussed this with my hotel travel agent, he said Sharma was one of the worst buses that came to Kodaikanal. He said he would try to change it to something in KSRTC or KPN. But when he called up MP travels to check my seat numbers, they said the seat numbers were 25, 26 and not 11, 12! This was the heights I thought. My travel agent said he could put me onto to a posh tempo traveler instead which I agreed. On the way to Bangalore, I realized one of my co-passengers was actually promised a seat in KSRTC Rajahamsa, but was put on this tempo traveler! He was told the tempo traveler was just a pickup van from the travel agent office to the KSRTC bus stop!
Moral of the long story: 1. Buy your own tickets in KSRTC Rajahamsa, both to and fro. 2. Book local sight seeing thru your hotel travel desk and more importantly, pay only after the trip is completed. 3. There are several more ways these acting'nice guys' will attempt to cheat you. Keep an open eye and do not try to be a nice guy or fall for people acting to be nice.
Note: The waterfall/trekking tour is much much better than the sight seeing tour. But somehow this is not promoted well by the travel agents.
