SpiceJet – India’s Low Cost Carrier With Great Service

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Tara

I had originally planned this adventure for sometime in 2015 at which time Sri Lankan Airlines would have been a One World member so I could have gotten the Bangalore – Colombo route for 4500 Avios. Since I brought the trip forward, I would have to buy tickets since I couldn’t use miles for this route.

After checking all the local airlines, SpiceJet came in the cheapest but we would have to transfer in Chennai.

You can easily book this ticket online and pay with a foreign credit card – unlike buses & trains which require you to jump through hoops!

The YQ is way more than the base fare but I couldn’t find a way to fuel dump it!

Since the entire ticket only comes to around $85 I wasn’t going to lose sleep over it!

The one drawback was a 5 hour layover in Chennai from 7pm – 1am and there is nothing near the airport to do at that time of night. The aircraft is a smaller one and our carry-on backpacks barely fit in the overheads which was annoying but no one challenged us or made us gate check them.

The one advantage was that the seats were 2 x 2 so we didn’t have to share a bank of 3 with a stranger. The crew were very friendly and a snack and soft drink were offered to everyone. Of course you can’t compare to Singapore or Cathay Pacific but for a low-cost carrier, I thought they were pretty good! Both legs departed and arrived right on time.

Laying over in Chennai was a pita. There was nothing to do but sit and wait. I did have some Kindle books on my netbook, my husband people-watched and dozed off. They won’t let you check in until 3 hours before the flight. Chennai does have some nice artwork in the terminal.

These little shuttle carts will take you from the arrivals terminal to international departures for free but they do expect a tip.

For once I was hoping for a delay as I really didn’t like arriving in Colombo at 2:20am but the flight was right on time! Since we had only carry-ons we were off the plane in no time waving goodbye to the friendly crew!

A Visit To Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Centre (WRRC), Bangalore

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Tara

During my brief visit to Bangalore, I caught up with a friend who lives there and is very passionate about conservation and wildlife rescue. Avin Deen is also the Indian representative for the World Parrot Trust. Avin picked us up at the Park Plaza in the morning and we had quite a long drive out to Bannerghatta as we hit peak hour traffic but it did give us more time to chat. During our last visit to India, Avin had taken us to SAI Sanctuary and on a birding excursion to Coorg and he was also keen to find out what birds we saw on our recent trip.

WRRC has been rendering the following services to wild animals:

Rescue of wild life from injuries, accidents, illegal wildlife trade and other sources
Rehabilitation
Prevention of cruelty
Humane Education
Information and expertise
Campaigns and legal battles in support of wildlife
Research and surveys on captive elephants.

Most recently, they rescued 21 Alexandrine Parakeet chicks who had been recovered from wildlife poachers and were in the process of rehabilitating them to be returned to the wild. Full story is here. They also have a large number of Rose-Ringed Parakeets. In these photos you can see some parakeets in their aviary as they recover their health.

These birds are actually very lucky as if they had not been rescued they would have had a miserable life in a tiny crowded cage or more likely died from the mistreatment. But thanks to WRRC, they will fly free again someday. WRRC has other birds and animals as well.

Avin Deen & Dr. Roopa Sathish

Ina Tuatai, Tara Tuatai, Dr. Roopa Sathish & Mr Anand

WRRC needs as much help as they can get to continue with their very important work as they are very limited in funds. For more information on how you can help WRRC, become a volunteer or organize a visit if you are visiting Bangalore, please see their website and contact them as below.

Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre

‘Southern Cross’

9-A, Myrtle Lane

Richmond Town

Bangalore 560025

Tel: 91 80 22947300, 22947301

email:wrrcbrc@gmail.com

Gateway City: Bangalore, India

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Tara

I briefly touched upon Bangalore as a gateway to Coorg but this will be a more comprehensive guide. Bangalore is India’s third most populous city and is known as the Silicon Valley of India because of its role as the nation’s leading Information Technology (IT) exporter. But once you get out of the urban jungle into the lush Western Ghats a far more beautiful jungle awaits you!

BANGALORE AIRPORT

Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru is a large modern structure.

But nothing wrong with starting your birding a bit early at the food court! These photos were taken in the domestic terminal.

GETTING THERE

Bangalore (as well as all Indian cities) requires a Central Asian award. There are no direct flights from the USA, Canada or Australia so you will have to travel via Europe or South-east Asia.

STAR ALLIANCE

Thai flies from Bangkok

Lufthansa flies from Frankfurt

Singapore Airlines flies from Singapore

ONE WORLD

Sri Lankan flies from Colombo

Qatar Airways flies from Doha

Malaysian flies from Kuala Lumpur

Dragonair (Cathay Pacific affiliate) flies from Hong Kong

British Airways flies from London

SKYTEAM

Air France flies from Paris

Saudia flies from Damman, Jeddah, Riyadh

NON-ALLIANCE BOOKABLE WITH MILES

Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi (AA partner)

Emirates flies from Dubai (Qantas partner)

Air Mauritius flies from Mauritius (Air France partner)

DOMESTIC

Air India (future Star Alliance), IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways, Jet Lite

WHERE TO STAY WITH HOTEL POINTS

As one may expect, India’s 3rd largest city is well supplied with chain hotels you can book with points. Pay close attention to the location as you can get stuck in traffic for hours!

Best Western – 3 hotels ranging from 12,000 – 16,000 points

Choice – 2 hotels ranging from 8000 – 12,000 points

Club Carlson – Park Plaza – 38,000 points My review

Hilton – Double Tree Suites – 40,000 points

Hyatt – Hyatt Bangalore MG Road – 12,000 points

IHG – Crowne Plaza – 30,000 points

Marriott – 4 hotels ranging from 7500 – 30,000 points

Starwood – 5 hotels ranging from 4000 – 10,000 points

GROUND TRANSPORT

Booking buses and trains in advance can be a challenge for foreign tourists as bot Indian Rail and most bus companies require a mobile phone to set up an account. I have a more detailed post on my experiences with buying bus tickets during my recent trip. Back in 2011, I was able to book trains online with Cleartrip. It seems they changed the procedure so you now have to get an account with IRCTC.

TO & FROM THE AIRPORT

There will be prepaid taxis available at any time your flight comes in. See more information and approximate fares here. You’d be looking at 600-800ish rupees.

There are also Vayu Vajra airport buses but only a very few run through the wee hours when flights tend to come in. See the website for schedules and fares which are very cheap. We ended up jumping on the first one that was going downtown (just after midnight), then getting an auto-rickshaw to our hotel. Local people know the approximate fares for taxis and auto-rickshaws but for tourists it is best to ask someone what they would pay to go someplace and bargain to the best of your ability!

WHAT TO DO & SEE IN BANGALORE

Bannerghatta Wildlife Sanctuary – detailed report coming tomorrow. Located in Bannerghatta National Park.

Lal Bagh

Government Museum

Karnataka Folk Museum

Kempegowda Museum

Shopping areas – Chickpet & MG Road

Hotel Review: Park Plaza, Bangalore

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Tara

The Park Plaza, Bangalore is a very nice hotel in a very inconvenient location. It looks deceptively near the centre on a Google map, but never underestimate the traffic in Bangalore! It took almost an hour to get there in a taxi from Shanthinagar bus stand at 7pm.

Once you do get there, it’s a beautiful hotel with great facilities and views over the city from the pool. Of course my reason to choose this hotel was to use my Club Carlson points. I have a pretty good stash from promos in prior years and after the devaluation last year I am wary of hoarding hotel points. The only thing I didn’t like was the glass vanity area in the bathrom which could be hazardous if one slipped and fell and happened to grab it. I’m not a fan of glass in bathrooms over all anyways.

The view from our rooms wasn’t so great, the view from the pool side was better.

A standard room here costs 38,000 points and as a Club Carlson Visa holder, I could have had an extra night for free but I choose to spend more time birding instead. Even on a point stay, we got a free breakfast buffet and free internet which I was up to 2am using after being off the grid for almost a week! We did check out the spa hoping for a massage but found it too expensive so relegated ourselves to the sauna in the restrooms which was free to guests.

The location is the main downside to this hotel. There is nothing interesting in the area for tourists. The main landmark that taxis will know (if they don’t know the hotel) is the Innovative Complex cinemas. Luckily I have a friend in Bangalore who came to pick us up and take us to a local wildlife sanctuary, otherwise we would have been bored with the area. I think this hotel probably appeals more to business travelers as there are a lot of companies around here and Bangalore is the techie capital of India.

One other thing to note if you are paying your incidentals with a Club Carlson Visa. The hotel bills as “Charishma Hotels”, not Park Plaza or Carlson Rezidor or anything he system recognizes as triggering the extra points for using the card at a Club Carlson property. I did finally get the points as a manual transaction from Club Carlson. Also be aware that you don’t get points for incidentals on award stays. I am used to IHG where you do get points for incidentals and didn’t look at the T&Cs too closely for this program. I would have gotten some points for the dinner we had in the Indian restaurant if it had been a cash & points stay.

Lodge Review: Casa Coorg, India

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Tara

Coorg is actually a very large district between Bangalore & Mangalore called Kodagu. Casa Coorg is located near Virajpet. If you take a bus, get on one that stops at Virajpet. The owners, Bharat & Pearl will tell you how to reach the house from where you get off the bus.

On our previous trip to India, we stayed at Casa Coorg with some local friends. At the time, they were just getting started as a homestay and now they have a complete website, online bookings and details about the area. I only got a few photos of the property but they do have more on their website. The rooms are very comfortable and have a deck overlooking the coffee plantation. The entire area is stunning! People from Bangalore love to come here to escape the hustle & bustle of the city and enjoy the fresh air in teh countryside. Birdwatchers will love the variety of birds to be seen here, they have counted over 40 species on the property. Prices are listed on their website and are quite reasonable. Casa Coorg also has rave reviews on Trip Advisor.

There are some great walks to do in the area. You can see some coffee plantation workers at work, enjoy the peaceful countryside and watch birds!

You can’t ask for nicer and friendlier hosts than Bharat & Pearl! They are both fluent in English and Pearl is a fantastic cook! She will accommodate preferences for non-spicy food. This is an excellent place for both Indian and foreign tourists to stay. They really make you feel like one of the family!

I couldn’t resist the chance to wear a saree, and Pearl was kind enough to help me wrap it around myself!

Review: Transit Hotel, Mysore Road, Bangalore

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Tara

Who else but me would get off a business class Thai Airways flights and spend the night (what was left of it as we arrived at midnight) in a $12 hotel! OK you have to be real, you get what you pay for. Transit Hotel, Mysore Road filled it’s purpose. We paid for a reasonably quiet & clean room to catch a few winks in before the bus trip to Coorg and that is exactly what we got. We had taken the airport bus to the stop nearest the bus station (the driver told us where to get off) and got an auto-rickshaw to the hotel. He asked 300, I offered 120, we settled on 150 and we probably still got ripped off but we were too tired and just wanted to crash out.

It’s the first door on the left, we had to bang on the door and wake up the sleeping receptionist and give him the voucher from Agoda.

Very basic room but it had all the necessities for a stay of 5 hours. A/C, bathroom, tv (which we didn’t need) and it was clean.

I set my iPhone to wake us up at 5am and we walked across the street to the bus station.

It was pretty quiet and the information booth wasn’t open yet. I tried to find a direct bus to Coorg but couldn’t find one so took a luxury bus to Mysore instead. I had been told that Mysore has better connections to Gonikoppal where we would get another bus to our lodge.

Choosing The Best Lodges For India & Sri Lanka

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Tara

Yesterday, I showed you how I put together an itinerary for a birding adventure in southern India & Sri Lanka. Today, I will show you how I chose the accommodation in each place. In all cases (except Bangalore) I was prioritizing lodges that were located in birdy locations as I love being able to sit on a deck and watch birds any time of day! Oh yeah, and we were on a tight budget being a somewhat impromptu trip!

I will be doing detailed reviews with photos on each individual lodge in subsequent posts.

BANGALORE

The first night, we would be arriving around midnight and getting a bus to Coorg early the next morning. Bangalore has horrible traffic jams so I wanted to stay as close as possible to the Mysore Satellite Bus Stand. I used a Google map to zoom in on the bus stand and found the Transit Hotel Mysore Road right across the street. I Googled the name, saw it bookable on Agoda (unfortunately not on Pointshound) and booked an AC room for a whopping $12!

COORG

On a previous visit, I had accompanied some friends to the wonderful SAI Sanctuary and really wanted to stay there. Unfortunately, their staff had left and they couldn’t accommodate us but they booked us at a guest house just down the road called Jungleside Homestay. We made a day visit to SAI to visit our friends and watch birds.

WAYANAD

I had no idea where to stay so I checked on Expedia since I had a $50 credit in my account. I found a nice-looking place called Grassroots Wayanad, checked the photos & reviews on Trip Advisor and decided it sounded like my kind of place. I booked it on Expedia to use the $50 credit.

MUDUMALAI

I was researching the sanctuary online and wanted to stay in their accommodation. However it seems you can only book it with their office in Ooty or at the facility and they had no email. I resorted to Google mapping the area and found the nearest town was called Gudalur. I searched Gudalur on Trip Advisor and found a place called Gouri Farm which sounded good. They weren’t on any booking sites so I emailed them and booked and they agreed to let me pay on arrival since we were there on a weekday.

BANGALORE

We would be arriving in the evening by bus and I have plenty of Club Carlson points so I booked the Park Plaza.

KITHULGALA

I read a few birding trip reports that highly recommended the Kithulgala Resthouse. I wanted to book and pay on arrival so I used Booking.com which was the only booking agency that allowed for this.

SINHARAJA

Unfortunately this visit fell on a weekend and my first & second choices (Martin’s Simple Lodge & Blue Magpie Lodge) were booked up (according to Sri Lankan travel agency Red Dot) and they tried to get me to book a place for $200 a night that looked lovely but was out of our budget. I did some researching online and stumbled across a place called Rock View Motel Kalawana which had room so I grabbed it.

Flights and accommodation booked…………………..the journey yet to begin!

India & Sri Lanka – Birding “On The Fly”

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Tara

I usually plan trips at least a year in advance and book them when the last segment I need is within the 11 month booking window. So hastily throwing together a trip to India & Sri Lanka was totally out of character for me. I had been planning to do this trip in 2015 but when US Airways announced a major rebate promo, I couldn’t resist bringing it forward!

I knew which parrots I was targeting. I never tire of seeing India’s beautiful Malabar Parakeets, Alexandrines and other psittaculas. I was also dying to see the stunning Layard’s Parakeet, Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot and many other bird species.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

I had enough miles to book us in business class on Thai outbound and Singapore return. This is a Central Asian award.

Since Sri Lankan Airlines hasn’t yet joined One World (only 4500 with Avios) and Air India hasn’t yet joined Star Alliance I had to pay for a bridging flight between Bangalore (via Chennai) and Colombo. The cheapest flight was on Spice Jet which I booked on their website.

I spent a day reading reports of bird sightings and put together the itineraries for both countries based on which locations had my desired parrot species and as many other species. In India, I knew I wanted to visit Coorg, Wayanad and Mudumalai.

In Sri Lanka, I knew I wanted to visit Kithulgala & Sinharaja.

With itineraries chosen, next step was to find accommodation…………………….

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