Double Tree by Hilton welcomes you in Gurgaon

Photo: Double Tree by Hilton

"An oasis of calm amidst the chaos of the city" is what a friend said about Double Tree by Hilton when I told him I had just been to the inauguration of the hotel. I could not agree more about this brand new property to open its gates in one of the fastest growing cities of India. Situated at the cusp of Golf Course Road and Golf Course Extension Road in Gugaon, Double Tree by Hilton is a landmark amongst the high-rises of the area.

Photo: Double Tree by Hilton

Owned by Mr. Sunil Bedi and Karan Bedi of JMD group of builders, Double Tree by Hilton is a brand that is synonymous with elegant style and immaculate service. The inauguration of the hotel was a classy affair. Subtle yet fancy enough to make an élan to the neighborhood about their arrival. The venue of the event sparkled with both business and personal guests as the owners mingled with everyone giving them the much appreciated personal attention.        

Keeping the evening simple, the highlight of the event was the painter Vikas Nayak who has a knack for making magnificent on-the-spot paintings and those too in mind-boggling angles. He started of by drawing Sachin Tendulkar upside down and then did a four piece puzzle like painting of the Double Tree, Gurgaon in mere five minutes.

Photo: Double Tree by Hilton

Following the speech by the owners, dinner was served. I have always believed that the true test of any hotel is the quality of the food when made for a large group of people. While the culinary arts is admired in all forms, if anyone can feed close to 400 people at one time and put a smile on their face, it's a guarantee that when you visit the restaurant on a less crowded day, you will undoubtedly receive scrumptious food. Double Tree stood by its reputation as I could see people go for their second and third helpings (including myself) tasting the wide variety of finger-licking food, especially the deserts.

Photo: Double Tree by Hilton

Inauguration over, food and drinks test passed, the future holds a important period for Double Tree by Hilton. The time to come will be essential as the team behind the hotel makes a mark in the city in what is an every growing competitive market. With passionate owners and the Hilton brand working together, it is my belief that Double Tree by Hilton is here to stay and stand tall amongst its competitors, giving them a run for their money.

   

Traveling with Children

Growing up, one of the biggest resentments I had against my parents was the fact that they took me around the world at a very young age. By the time I turned 7 I had been on two round-the-world trips. Unfortunately, today I hardly remember anything from those trips. I have photographs, but they don't bring about any recollections of the times spent traveling. I do have faint memories; of getting lost in a theme park in Canada, of getting scared in Disneyland, of the air-steward who wanted to "buy" me off my parents on a flight to Hawaii. But, I hardly remember the places, the people, or anything else for that matter.

All along my parents have stood by the notion that although I might not remember the travels, the fun I had at that very moment was worth the trips. And, it wasn't till I had my own child, and took her on her very first trip to Hong Kong Disneyland at the age of 1 did I understand what my parents had told me all through my adult life, and how right they were all along.

I know for a fact that Saanvi, my daughter, will remember nothing of the trips we have had over the last few years (She is 4 now). She already doesn't remember her first birthday that we celebrated in Hong Kong or the second one that we had in Singapore. But, the fun she had on these trips cannot be replicated. What is encouraging though is the fact that she has learnt a lot during these trips. She knows what a passport is and why we need a visa. She is aware of airplanes and even the fact that there are different airlines. Even small modalities of travel and being in another country, experiencing another culture, have all had a positive impression on her mind and if nothing else has made her a lot more confident and inquisitive about happenings around the world.

So, how important is traveling with children? Watching my daughter grow over the last 4 years, years that have been full of travels around the world, I feel that the knowledge that a child accumulates while being away from home is far more important than whether he/she will remember the trip a few decades down the line.

Now, travels with children don’t have to be overseas all the time. The excitement of searching for a tiger on a recent trip to Corbett National Park was at par with the excitement my daughter felt on seeing a cruise ship up close for the very first time. It's about making them experience the world from the very beginning. It's about enjoying the moment, living the moment. And trust me, the smile on any child's face, at any age, makes any trip worth the while.

So, if you are waiting to take your child out on his/her very first trip, don't hold back. All you need is a little spark of adventure (yes, traveling with kids, at any age, is an adventure), and the will to carry a suitcase full of diapers.

Bon Voyage!

Failure to Travel - Lessons Learnt

Some of you might have read my recent post with regards to getting back a promised refund from a well known travel agency. I have since removed that post because it served its purpose and we now have the refund. As I mentioned in that post, the aim of this blog is not to criticize any one agency, but at times drastic measures have to be taken. I also believe that every organization has bad apples in its basket, and what it does with those bad apples is completely up to them. So while my problem originated from one of the companies employees, it was also solved because of another employee of the same company sitting half way across the world, and obviously the fact that I wrote a blog about it.

While I have removed the previous blog, I did gather a few tips from the whole ordeal and I figured that I should share them with you so that maybe you don't have to go through what I did;

GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING - These are the golden words you should live by when you are booking your dream holiday. If the tour operator says he/she will give you an extra excursion, GET IT IN WRITING. When the same agency sweet talks you and promises you a cash-back or a discount, GET IT IN WRITING. When they tell you that your deposit amount is refundable, GET IT IN WRITING. Never ever take anyone's word for anything. In the last three months I have had to fight three different travel operators to get my money back over three different scenarios. The only reason I managed to get my money back was because in most cases I had everything in writing.

NO SAY, NO PAY - Make sure you have EVERYTHING IN WRITING before you even pay a single dime to the tour operator. I might be generalizing, and that's not really my aim, but in a lot of cases once you have paid the initial deposit the attitude of the operator changes. So no matter what they say, always have your facts right and in writing before you hand over any money.

KEEP EVERYTHING TILL THE VERY END - Always keep all the correspondence you have with a tour operator/hotel till the very end of your trip and then a few days. Recently I was charged by a hotel that I had cancelled five months back (and had a cancellation confirmation as well). Had I not kept the emails, it would have been tiresome getting them to refund the money. But since I did have everything, a few phone calls and an honest review on Trip Advisor about the wrongful charges got me the refund back in a week’s time. 

THE COST OF REFUND - One of the most common practices employed by travel agencies/hotels/airlines is that if you pay a little extra and in case your trip is cancelled, they will refund your initial deposit. Now, in most cases it works fine, but always GET IT IN WRITING that you can cancel the trip for any reason. Some agencies have a small print to this in which certain excuses to cancel the trip are not accepted, so all the while you think that you can cancel it at anytime, whereas you really need a specific agency accepted reason to cancel the trip.

THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA - Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs; the world is simply a few clicks away. Use the social media for your benefit. Tell the world about any wrongdoings. The worst thing for any travel agency/hotel/tour operator is bad publicity, so use it wisely and make the most of the wonderful gift called the Internet.

CONTACT EVERYONE - The funniest thing about the whole episode trying to get my refund back was that I got more help from the UK division of the company than I did from the Indian (where the trip was booked). Since I am not naming the company, I would like to thank Laura and the Head of Customer Care UK of the company to have helped me get the matter sorted out quickly. So, the point is that contact everyone because you never know who might eventually come to your rescue.

GET THEIR CONTACT DETAILS - One of the biggest problems I have faced is trying to get the contact information (Fax, Email, and Phone) of a company head so that I can directly inform him/her of any bad customer service being provided. Now, this might not be the most honest way of getting information, but at times in desperation I have had to tell the secretary or customer care that I am calling from some "famous" organization and want to invite the head of the company for an event, thus I require his/her contact information. Guess what? Works like a charm.

And now a couple of requests to the Tour Operators, if you are reading this...

GET RID OF THE BAD APPLES - It disheartened me that the customer service provided in India is literally down the dumps. This seems to be true across all professions. All that the Indian companies want is money in their hands, and then they are nowhere to be found when it comes to providing the promised service. What these very companies don't understand that is that these very employees who don't know basic manners of talking to customers will at the end of the month go home with their salary. Whether the customer purchases anything or not makes no difference to their livelihood. But the companies by being amazingly ignorant towards such happenings are eventually the ones who loose out. So, do yourself a favor and get rid of these bad apples.

CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT - This used to be at one time the motto of every organization that provided any kind of service to the public. Now it seems it is the exact opposite. Learn to respect your customer and trust me the profits you will see because of that will be ten fold.

So, after all this, I feel bad for any individual who might not have the luxury of being as social media conscious as I am or for that matter for not having a blog. I do appreciate the words of wisdom and encouragement I got from the general public when I posted about my fight to get the refund. I know it helped. So it seems that the times are changing. The power is once again coming back into the hands of the customers. Make the most of it, and make sure you fight to get what is rightfully yours.  

  

Myth of the Tiger (Corbett National Park)

The signs are all there. The smell at a particular spot as you drive by in the Jeep safari. The guide suddenly asking the Jeep to stop followed by 5 minutes of intense quietness and eventually nothingness. The abundance of pug marks everywhere, including outside the gate of our resort. Tiger scrap lying around nonchalantly on the ground. The talks by the guides and the hotel staff of sightings that have happened, just the other day, or better yet, just the night before. It's all very interesting. It's all very exciting. It's all very entertaining. But, is it true?

The Tiger has become a myth in places like Corbett National Park. During my recent four day visit, at a time when there should have been abundant animal sightings, all I spotted was the aptly named Spotted Deer and variety of birds. I did see a lot of pug marks. I also skipped over a lot of tiger and elephant scrap during my nature walks. But, in the end, I came back disappointed… at first.

In my heart I hope that these thoughts of people making up stories to attract tourists are false. I really want the sightings to be true. I really want to believe that a Tiger walked so close to our resort gate at night. But, there is a small, slight, doubt that is lingering in the back of my mind. One of the primary reasons for this doubt is that everyone, and I mean everyone, seems to have the same experience as I mentioned above. Almost everyone sees the pug marks, but not the tiger. The whole jeep stopping incidence happens with almost all jeeps. In fact the only tiger and elephant sightings that happened during our stay happened with guests who were friends of the owner.

I know I am being over critical and maybe even a tad jealous. It is after all a National Park and not a zoo. The entire reason for going to Corbett is to experience wildlife in its natural habitat. Whether the animals grace you with their presence is completely up to them. It's a gamble that each visitor takes. Some hit the jackpot, while others return home with photographs of monkeys and deer and leaves and flowers. If the whole thing is a facade, then I do find it hard to believe that there are people all over Corbett going around stamping pug marks across the park, or even dropping animal scrap everywhere. If they are, I think they deserve a standing ovation for doing this day in and day out.

In all honesty let’s face some facts. A Jeep safari lasts roughly two hours during which if you are like my four-year-old daughter, you will take a good 30 minute nap. If you are amongst the chosen few, eventually at some point you will get a peek at a tiger (or a herd of elephants). If you do happen to see one, there is a good chance you will forget about the other hour and a half that you spent wandering around the Park. The entire trip will boil down to those few minutes of actually seeing the Tiger. But, if you did not see anything, then the doubts and stories suddenly begin to sound true.         

So, is a trip to a National Park really worth it? YES! Being one with nature should never be about spotting a Tiger or any one animal. It's about having a new experience. It's about appreciating why nature is so important for us and our ecosystem. It's about finding out why something dreaded like Termites are extremely important for the preservation of forests. It's also about enjoying the beauty of nature; the amazing sunsets, the loud buzzing of the bees at the start of their mating season (fascinating yet scary), the different bird calls, even the crumpling sound of dry leaves as one walks through the jungle.

As I talk about this Myth of the Tiger with people, I get conflicting opinions. There are those who believe the pug marks are man made while others fall into the romance of the jungle and like me want to believe that the sightings are true. I probably will find it hard to go one way or another till the time I actually come across a Tiger in the wild. Unfortunately how that encounter will conclude I do not know. But, if you hear about me going to a National Park and never read another post from me, know this; I met a Tiger and while it did not end well for me the Tiger had one hell of a feast that night. 


For more photographs from the trip, please click here.