Monday, May 22, 2006
Journey down South
Its time to pen down another travel tale.
This time I had to visit Valioor (some 30 kms from Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu) for a family function. It was important to attend however, I could not take a week off which would be required to visit the place. The journey to and fro to Tirunelveli from Kalyan is 72 hours by train. With all the trains running to capacity and no chance of getting accomodation I had to take the aerial route.
I got a good deal from Indian (aka Indian Airlines) to Chennai. Reached Chennai at around 10 pm on the 16th May. Spent the night at the airport as I had to catch the 9.10 am (17thMay) Air Deccan flight to Tuticorin. The time spent at the airport was memorable. At 6 am Air Deccan cancelled the Delhi flight without information which led to utter chaos.
The staff at the Air Deccan booth could not manage the agitated crowd. The mob wanted to talk to someone senior but no one was available. The poor counter staff guys had a tough time and were finding it difficult to hide their irritation. It almost came to a free for all situation before better sense prevailed and some wisemen decided to give the staff the time they had asked to arrange for an another flight. One thing which amused me was how situations as these turn meek humble looking common man into ferocious tigers. There were some in the mob who threatened legal action, some said they would inform the press but there were few who did more than talking. One gentleman actually switched off the electric supply and was adamant would not allow anyone to start the same unless there was an additional flight.
Finally they did get a flight and everyone was happy. My flight was delayed by an hour and there was no announcement about the same.
Well, alls well that ends well, I finally managed to reach my destination. It was a 45 min drive from the airport to my village Karungulam. Here I have to write a few words about the airport. Currently, the only flight which operates out of here is Chennai-Tuticorin-Chennai. The small jet which seat about 46 looks cute. The facilities at the airport will improve with more number of flights operating from here.
The function went off well and I had started my return journey on the 18th. I had a flight from Coimbatore to Mumbai and thankfully it departed and arrived on time. I was back in Mumbai after a welcome break.
With that let me close my travel diary for now and open up to write about my next trip.
This time I had to visit Valioor (some 30 kms from Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu) for a family function. It was important to attend however, I could not take a week off which would be required to visit the place. The journey to and fro to Tirunelveli from Kalyan is 72 hours by train. With all the trains running to capacity and no chance of getting accomodation I had to take the aerial route.
I got a good deal from Indian (aka Indian Airlines) to Chennai. Reached Chennai at around 10 pm on the 16th May. Spent the night at the airport as I had to catch the 9.10 am (17thMay) Air Deccan flight to Tuticorin. The time spent at the airport was memorable. At 6 am Air Deccan cancelled the Delhi flight without information which led to utter chaos.
The staff at the Air Deccan booth could not manage the agitated crowd. The mob wanted to talk to someone senior but no one was available. The poor counter staff guys had a tough time and were finding it difficult to hide their irritation. It almost came to a free for all situation before better sense prevailed and some wisemen decided to give the staff the time they had asked to arrange for an another flight. One thing which amused me was how situations as these turn meek humble looking common man into ferocious tigers. There were some in the mob who threatened legal action, some said they would inform the press but there were few who did more than talking. One gentleman actually switched off the electric supply and was adamant would not allow anyone to start the same unless there was an additional flight.
Finally they did get a flight and everyone was happy. My flight was delayed by an hour and there was no announcement about the same.
Well, alls well that ends well, I finally managed to reach my destination. It was a 45 min drive from the airport to my village Karungulam. Here I have to write a few words about the airport. Currently, the only flight which operates out of here is Chennai-Tuticorin-Chennai. The small jet which seat about 46 looks cute. The facilities at the airport will improve with more number of flights operating from here.
The function went off well and I had started my return journey on the 18th. I had a flight from Coimbatore to Mumbai and thankfully it departed and arrived on time. I was back in Mumbai after a welcome break.
With that let me close my travel diary for now and open up to write about my next trip.
Labels: Karungulam, Tirunelveli, Vallioor
