South India trip ...

What are some of the things R2Is do once they are back? Visit all over India! Every weekend was pretty much a travel weekend when you are outside of India and you try to do the same here. Not surprisingly, we have seen much more outside of India than what we have seen here. 

Once you travel in India, it amazes how travel friendly things have been made outside of India. We have ways to go before we can get there but as we experienced during this week-long trip, things are changing. You do have access to nicer hotels, much cleaner restaurants, much more improved highways etc. Sadly, most of the towns are still dirty, congested and don't seem to change :-(

Some pics from the south India trip. Special mention of Nirmala Travels, using which we traveled - highly recommended for this type of trip, even with kids. When you travel in group, you don't get much time for shopping etc but they manage to cover so many places and know the places inside out. If you do it by yourself, it would easily take a day/place (South India trip is heavy on temples) - language is an issue, long queues in temples, getting around, food etc can become a challenge. Hence, these folks are worth the money. Something you should consider even if you are visiting for a vacation. Routine was - early wake-up, early to bed! Unfortunately, these places are not 'camera friendly' since cameras are not allowed in most of the places.

We visited Vellore Golden temple, Kanchipuram, Trichi, Maduri, Rameshwaram, Tanjavore, Kanyakumari, Kaladi (Kerala), Thiruvanathapuram(Kerala) in 7 days.  

Rock Ganesha - Tanjavur

Brahadeeshwara Temple, Tanjavur

Meenskshi Temple, Madurai

Majestic Pillars and roof paintings

Sound pillars

Looks like any US highway, isn't it? Highway that runs along eastern corridor

Sunrise in Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari Vivekananda Memorial

Kaladi where Adi Shankara was born

Only in Kerala!

Wish you all a happy Independence day ...

Service in India is improving ...

We are used to here stories about bad customer service in India, on a daily basis. Especially after experiencing the service level in the western world (even though queues are quite long in Walmart for returning items!), you don't expect much and use the 'buyer be aware' approach always.

And, you vent about it in web sites when you get bad service and you are helpless. So, it is very rare that you post about the good service that you got. Experienced such a case recently and it was a good feeling.

Brought a showcase from Nesta furniture after a long search. Hint: if you are doing R2I and have a good showcase that you want to keep, by all means do, it is worth it -- a teak showcase can offset you by Rs. 40,000 - 50,000, that is $900 for you!. Custom made ones are even more expensive. It is hard to get simpler/cheaper ones in the regular furniture stores. 




You can get crockery showcase type ones but we were looking for a simpler one, for the living room. This is also called bar unit.


We went for the showcase at Nesta - the model looked good and sturdy. Was delivered the next day. However, when they opened the package, glass door was broken. So, assemblers put the work on halt (yes, you don't do the assembly here, like the Ikea's of the world) and said they will come back with a new one. So, the headache started. They did come back the next day, assembled it again with new door glass. But, the hinges were different and the door was shaky since hinges were fitted in incorrect place. You might be thinking - yes, that is the Indian service but...

When checked again, saw that the corner of the glass was cracked. Without much of replacement, called the store - to my surprise, the person said they will do something about it. I said I will visit the store next day and I did. Made sure I take the pictures as well(and ready for hard talk!). To my surprise, they asked me whether I am happy with the one in the store. Since it was exactly the same as the one we were looking for, I said 'yes'. It was delivered with 3 days, assembled and we had exactly what we wanted!

Unlike other stores, Nesta people were ready for the replacement, just over the phone. I liked that. And, I am making sure I am posting on that in a public forum. Hope to have more such experiences in the coming days ...