I am not much of a travel person. I remember going out on a family vacation every year, during my school days, when my father took us to nearby hill-stations like Manali, Simla, Dehradun-Mussourie, Nainital and Ranikhet. It was heavenly for my sister and I as the 4-5 day vacation was a relief from school and homework. But when I grew up, the visits became less frequent. So for almost 7 long years, I never stepped out of Delhi. It was like that till October 2008, when my parents planned for a trip down to Kerala.
Now, I wasn't interested in the vacation as it was hard for me to ask my boss for leaves. There was a lot of pressure at workplace during those months and I was almost certain that my effort to convince my boss would be futile. Another reason was I was somehow not interested in visiting that place, although it carried good word-of-mouth by everyone I knew, who had been there before.
By my parents persisted, and asked me to try applying for leaves at office. They wanted me to accompany them as we had not had a family outing for a long time, and they believed it would be a good change from the complexities that were being dealt at home and workplace. Reluctantly, I said yes and asked my boss for the leaves. Surprisingly, he agreed to grant me a 1-week vacation. I think my good scores and that I had not taken a leave for more than a year and a half worked in my favour. I told this to my parents and they were exhilarated. So the date that was finally decided for our trip was October 12, 2008.
We chose a travel package offered to us by D. Paul's, a famous Travel & Tours agency located in Malviya Nagar, South Delhi. According to the package, we were supposed to pay Rs. 54,000 each. This cost included everything from airline tickets, Hotel Accommodation in four different hotels/resorts, cab travel to different parts of Kerala, any two meals (Complimentary Breakfast and either Lunch or Dinner), and an entire day on a Houseboat in the backwaters. As we considered it a good value-for-money deal, we went ahead with it.
My excitement was mounting with every day, and I always thought of it even while working. My boss read my mind and thought it was affecting my scores, but I couldn't care. After all, this was the first vacation in 7 years that I was about to go on!
Finally the day arrived. We got up a little late, however had to take care of all the necessary preparations before leaving. We had to make sure that we've kept all the necessary items, most important of which were the tickets and our identity proofs to show to the Airport Authorities. When it was ensured that we had not kept anything behind, we, with the help of the Driver, placed our three baggages in the back of the Meru Cab that we had called two hours in advance.
Once we went through the formalities at the airport, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well-maintained the place was. I remember visiting the airport years ago when we had planned a trip to Andaman but this time it was way better. There were a lot of eating joints, the decorum was quite good, and it was quite spacious inside. We spent about an hour or so in eating sandwiches and sipping coffee, just to make sure that we didn't enter the plane with empty stomachs on the first day of our trip!
Like the typical Private Airlines, JetLite, despite boasting of fine service thanks to the efficient Air-Hostesses, didn't include meals as part of the Airline Cost. Moreover, the paid snacks and lunch they served wasn't that good either. We decided not to have anything on the plane, as we had already had a heavy breakfast at home and at the Airport Lounge.
The flight landed at about 5 PM on the Cochin Airport. As it was an October evening, the weather wasn't too bad. There was a sense of humidity in the air, being a coastal area, but it was pleasant. Once we collected our baggages, we waited for the cab to arrive. We didn't have to wait for too long as the driver arrived immediately with his 'Mr Mathur' placard in the waiting area. He looked professional and gentle in his manners and took all our baggages to place them in the cab.
(To be continued)..
