The Great Escape

Sounds like the “The Great Train Robbery”, eh ?

No, it is just the name of the Water Theme Park that my family visited yesterday. We took a day off to actualise the dream of getting to a water park in this summer time, and we made it finally ! Though we have been to Essel World before, it has been quite a long while.

After studying the options available, we chose The Great Escape, thinking that it sounded and looked cool from the website info’ provided. Visit “The Great Escape” and take a look for yourself !

From the location map on the site, I “intelligently” estimated that it would take around 1:30 hours to reach. But I underestimated the intelligence of two sets of folks - drivers in general, and direction-givers. The former community generally does not believe in taking advice from the car owners, or even studying the printout of the map provided. They think that they know Mumbai and its environs far better than the firangs who are inhabiting Mumbai. So, why take directions ? The latter set of “direction-givers” on the road, starting from security guards, to auto drivers, to general folks on the road who are minding their own business, take relish in displaying their “grand” knowledge of how to reach anywhere in Mumbai and its neighbourhood. They assume that anyway the drivers or the owners don’t know the way around, and so what is wrong in giving what could possibly be the right directions in their minds ?!

While I “discussed” the map with my driver for sure, he seemed to be disinterested. I mentioned some of the words from the map, like “Ghodbunder”, “Dahisar Checknaka”, et al. He beamed and said he knew the route ! We started off at 8:45 AM, and on the way happened to see the advertisement of “Suraj Water Park” in the newspaper supplement (“Suraj Water Park Thane” ). As were discussing, the driver overheard us and exclaimed that he knew that Park. We just ignored and continued our journey.

Well, we should have considered his assertion more vigourously. On the Western Expressway leading to Ahmedabad, my driver turned off at the Thane - Ghodbunder Road, towards Thane. I should have challenged him, but reaction times, so to say, were poor. We had some scenic travel along this road, which curves around hilly areas, and then finally landed up at Suraj Water Park in Thane ! Was it a surprise ?

However, as astute consumers and decision makers of repute, we instructed the driver to continue the journey towards Parol, via the Parol - Bhiwandi Road, again very intelligently “looking” at the map printout from the The Great Escape website. That was a blunder which would eventually cost us another 1:15 hours of stupid travel and quite a bit of heart-burn !

It was very obvious that the driver did not know the route. He must have checked with 6 different “direction-givers” enroute, after that point - mostly vague directions hinting at the possible right way to Parol. From Thane, we must have travelled over 40 Kms through rough terrain, villages, no-man’s land, and all kinds of roads, we almost lost hope of finding The Great Escape. It was 11:20 AM, by the time we saw an innocuous sign board not facing us - my wife asked the driver to slow down, we turned our faces and there, at last, was what we came for. We came along the wrong route, and that’s why I surmise that even the sign boards were pointing in the wrong direction of the travellers ! Amazing, isn’t it ? This place is located in what appeared to be the rural interiors of the Maharashtra State - very dry, hot location in poor surroundings with brick kilns lining the road.

However, finally we arrived, and the water park did exist !

This park does not compare favourably with Essel Water Kingdom. We noticed some safety issues in the water slides. This park also does not have a lot to spend time on - apart from the wave pool, some water slides, and pools where one can laze around. It does not have a “lazy pool” for instance, or some of the more complex slides. The entry rates included the food charges, and most people seemed to be attracted to the food - which was decent.

Clearly, there is a safety issue at The Great Escape, when the illiterate folks in charge of operating the slide, send down people without ensuring that the previous person had exited the slide. This is very dangerous, and I made it a point to seek out and complain to the Admin Manager and the Operations Manager - they took the feedback seriously and called the guys doing such mistakes down, and apologized to me ! I thought it should be the responsibility of the customers to inform the administration of such major safety problems - they might just be thinking that everything is fine till such time that a major incident happened.

Well, nothing to write further - we spent around 3.5 hours and left the park. The attendant at the exit gate was surprised to see us leaving at 3 PM, much earlier than the closing time of 6 PM.

I was pleased to discover that we took exactly 1:30 hours to reach back home, in line with my original estimate ! It goes without saying that we took the WE Highway back ! So, basic intelligence does sometime appear to work !!!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
19th April 2008
Mumbai

Diwali

It is that time of the year, again !

People all over India celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights, over the past couple of days. While people appeared to be cheerful, and billions of text messages were exchanged, I sensed something different this time around. i had expected to see much more exuberance of the rational type ofcourse, since the stock market has done very well, and the real estate prices in Mumbai showed no signs of abating. People have to spend money, you see, and one of the best ways is to splurge it on the family !

To check out the feelings of others, I spoke to couple of friends in Bangalore and Chennai. They confirmed what I thought was different this time - it indeed was a “low key” Diwali. Not much noise, nor crowds. It was surprising !

In fact, when I went down with family to burst crackers during the late evening, it was quiet. We were only with just another family in the smoky celebrations which use sparklers, flower pots, jamin chakra, and atom bombs. We also resorted to rocket attacks, but there were few corresponding response from neighbouring apartment blocks. That used to be the case - tit for tat type almost - previously. Further, there was no action on the streets - there used to be gangs of youngsters who use the powerful multi-blast crackers, which go on for a few minutes non-stop, during which you can’t even talk. That was clearly missing, though I saw some serious action during the late hours of Friday.

We went to visit my relatives in South Mumbai, and that was a long ride from where we live. It took just about an hour - the traffic was thin, and on the day of the Diwali, there was hardly any crowds of people who usually mill around mithai shops and burst crackers on the road. The heavy regulation on crackers must be playing a role in peoples’ minds, I thought, but that was wrong. The cracker sound did catch up in the wee hours of Friday, sometimes non-stop, but I still could not get over the feeling that the celebrations were not in tune with the economic mood of the city.

Nevertheless, it was a Diwali enlightened by people who sent lots of messages all around. It was nice to see customised messages and pictorial ones. Much time was devoted to sending out SMSs to the people on one’s phonebook, and then replying to folks who had managed to send out the messages earlier thanking and reciprocating their wishes !

Ofcourse, the one thing that never goes out of style is the variety of sweets that one can enjoy during Diwali. We got an excellent collection from Hyper City, and supplemented the same with some additional mithais from elsewhere. It was just fabulous and delicious, to say the least.

Apart from this, one also gets new dresses !

Enjoy the rest of Diwali and the Long Weekend folks !

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
10th November 2007
Mumbai

Trains of Austria and Switzerland

Amazing Trains - the trains are definitely not manufactured by ICF !

Wonderful infrastructure at the railway stations - though many of them are old, but very well maintained. The trains have good amenities and restaurant, et al. Service could be better, but you can’t ask for anything better ; the trains are good enough, and the scenery outside is sure to keep you entranced for a long while.

DSC03638, originally uploaded by padmavs.

Austria - Switzerland Trains are great to travel in - very comfortable.

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Great Infrastructure ! Very well maintained !!

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Enjoy the pics !

Have a Wonderful Weekend !!

Vijay Srinivasan
4th August 2007
Mumbai

From Europe

I missed my date with my Blog last weekend, I wanted to tell you folks I will be away on vacation but you know all about time pressures……..!

I am filing this from Luzern after arriving earlier today from Salzburg.

I would be writing more about my journeys when I return to India. In the meanwhile, have a wonderful week,

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
Luzern
29 May 2007

Tour Operators

I have been planning an overseas vacation for sometime now for the family.

We thought we will do this ourselves like what we had done in the past, the most memorable one being the NZ Trip in December 2004. All the trip planning was executed by us, including motel/hotel bookings for that vacation, which still remains as our most successful one ever. In fact, when we took a vote on what will be our next ideal vacation, the vote was unanimous - a self-drive holiday in NZ !

The Indian tour operators that I engaged - all the three of them are top notch in terms of market standing, reputation, and longevity - were pathetic to say the least. None of them could measure up to the complexities required in an “on your own” kind of holiday. All of them promote such holidays at their websites as well as in newspaper ads, but they have barely knowledgeable trip advisors who could talk sensibly and keep up the commitments to revert on time. Time, that inelastic aspect of one’s existence, was badly managed by almost all of them, save one. Though that exception was mis-managed towards the end of making the arrangements by the winning bidder. Service Industry in India has a very long runway - you see that everywhere - be it in retail, banking, airlines, or tour operators.

The best thing to do is again to arrange everything on our own. But time in Mumbai is in serious short supply. Racing like it is Hong Kong…….one has to outsource certain aspects of one’s life to achieve efficiencies of operation. However what is noticed in such outsourcing is the lack of quality in the delivery of the contracted service, and inaccuracies in written materials to the extent that even air tickets are printed wrongly. Pathetic !

The service providers cannot hide behind the excuse of volumes to justify their inefficiencies and inaccuracies. Not acceptable. Not when you are paying premium prices to premium operators to arrange the best experience on your tours.

Well, let me see how the actual vacation pans out. That will help me assess the actual quality of service. In a nutshell, be prepared for poor service. That is the way it is here. Premium or no premium, Platinum or gold or silver - the service levels are delivered poorly by poorly trained executives.

All the Best for a Successful Week ahead folks,

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
20 May 2007
Mumbai

Photos from Goa Trip

I took more than 200 pics in couple of days, and some of these for your viewing pleasure as below -

DSC00870 Sun-Bathing at Caravela Beach Resort , originally uploaded by vjsri99.

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That’s me with a Cashew Feni drink !

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
14th Feb 2007
Mumbai

Enchanting Goa

I took a brief break at Goa with my family this weekend.

It appeared to me that time has stood still in Goan villages. The driver told me that nothing much has changed, except for the holiday resorts mushrooming all over the coastline.

I saw just the beach at the resort where we stayed, which like most other Goan beaches had a fascinating name - Caravela Beach Resort at Varca. The beach was great, with beautiful white sand. Kilometres of unspoilt beauty - if this existed in South East Asia, they would have made a killing in profits, like in Bali and Phuket. But, Goa is not only far better in terms of the beauty of the beaches, it is almost pristine quality - fresh air, fewer number of people, less commercialisation in South Goa atleast with better environment and quieter surroundings.

Anyone who knows the 1960’s Hippy Culture and The Beatles, would have somehow come to learn about Goa. Even today the place bristles with Westerners, mostly Europeans, Isrealites and Russians. There were few Indian tourists, you can count them in the resort I was staying at.

We did some excellent water sports. But the high point was when the entire family was deliberately toppled from the banana boat into the middle of the sea. I knew when it hit me, all of us went down like a tube, struggled quite a bit, came up, and were helped onto the boat again. That was indeed a shocker !

I liked the Cashew Feni drink which is of Goan origin, it was just too strong. I suggest you try it without the Limca, just try it on the rocks. It was amazing, especially when the sun is down and you are in the midst of sea breeze on the shores of one of the most beautiful beaches, potentially in the entire world.

I am going to explore more of Goa in my next trip. The photos from the current trip would be uploaded soon.

In the meanwhile, get ready for a busy and entertaining week ahead, folks !

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
11th Feb 2007
Mumbai