Ask the expert “How NOT to ______________”

February 18th 2008 in Adventure, travel

Ask me “How NOT to _________”. Fill in the blanks yourself and I bet, I will have a valid self-experienced answer for that. This episode is “How NOT to plan a trip”. In Europe, especially in Finland the only long holiday is the Easter. It has been a tradition for me to hit the road on those 4 days, what ever cost it may come. Last 2 Easter had been in Newyork and a tip to toe roaming in Italy. So what could be for this Easter? The first and foremost thing in making such trip is getting the right minded people who are in sync with rest of the team. Else I am sure the fun is spoiled just bcos of that 1 odd man out there. Nothing to blame that odd person because that is what they are and choosing them is our fault. Leave aside those family people and too much savings minded people. Instead of going a trip with them I will go to HELL or will come to office on those vacations also. Since everyone is different so does the taste to travel. Some like art and architecture, some exotic places, some nature, some adventure, and most of the time I end up seeing Indian crowd who are “PHOTO SICK”. Ya, just standing in front of each and everything, take a picture; send back “this taken here and that taken there”. I really don’t know what’s the happiness they get in that and I think they are the people who think, when they say “I went to Paris” is not believed by others until they show a photo of them standing in front of Eiffel tower. I agree there should be some photos but not all, that’s my point. I have seen many of the guys here taking photo in front of each and every Ferrari, SLR, or Lamborghini and captioning it as “Me and MY Benz”. WTF. Go, get a life you losers. I think I am getting deviated. Let me get back to track :-).

As usual there should be someone to take lead in deciding the place first and the most important thing is that person must be quiet influential to convince others about there selection :-). Ok this time it was my turn to take lead. People onboard are me, Vivek, Mani, Bhas and family, Vijay and family. The one good thing about this planning a trip is you don’t have to worry much about where to start. So in our case, answer to where to start is Hel(l)sinki. But all confusion and comedy starts in selecting where to go. On a majority, our group like road trip more, would like to cover just the important things in the place and the rest in minimalistic way. Since Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Denmark are already over, my option to departure turns down to Prague or Warsaw or Budapest or Vienna or Berlin so that we could make a round trip on the road.

One more thing is, this flight ticket deals. Either you can book your tickets on an existing deal and go for a trip around that place or decide upon a place and hunt for good ticket deals. We prefer barbaric hunting for deals :-). The total kilometer covered is directly proportional to the no of drivers and the mental guts of the drivers to stay awake. In our Norway trip we hit around 2800Km. Anyway, I am not in the driver category at least for now. I wanna drive only Benz and when I buy my car I will get my license.

So these are some of the plans I came up with. Vivek was more interested in Warsaw but then I was suggesting personally the Venice to Munich, as driving through that route would be a splendid experience and then the plan to Amsterdam, the main reason being duty free shopping. Yes you get everything so damn cheap in Schiphol duty free airport. As Vivek and Mani would be leaving next month to India for good thought that would be good enuf to make this trip. And for the plan told by Bhas don’t laugh, WE are very much capable of doing it :-).

My First Preference

 

In case shopping is also a priority…

 

Vivek want WARSAW in plan

 

The Great BHAS plan…

So all said and done I dropped a mail to all and awaited for the input. Because based on the plan, then only I have to start the ticket hunting. But we are one set of lazy fellows who never ever bother to reply even if its a mail from Aishwarya or so it be Keira Knightley. A week gone and there was no word about the trip or plan. Damn it. They made me the perfect fool I should say :-). Ok, now I know where the problem is. I cut of the family guys and started a 3 men society to plan a trip.

I don’t know what makes others envy. But for me if there is someone who travel more than me and involved in adventures more than me and if he/she is one among our gang, that’s it. In the same sense I have Vivek in our gang for 2 or 3 reason to envy. He did rally car racing in Lapland which I cant do at this point, the reason being I don’t have License (But people say i don’t know driving first. DONT BELIEVE). Secondly he went to Iceland when I was roaming around the streets of Chennai and Banglore in my vacation last December. He showed me the Northern light’s photos he took which really made me envy.

Last Friday we had the topic of planning the trip again. I suggested “why not Iceland again?” Mani and Vivek were ok with that but the only concern being the weather. March is still winter in Iceland and seems many of the roads leading to interior part remain closed. Yesterday me and Vivek had been to play snooker and as usal came back by early morning 2’o clock. All of a sudden we just decided “Let’s book the ticket dude” and started searching for any deals for Europe mainland. He he he he he.. What we spoke about Iceland, forget it. But the irony is the tickets which I saw almost a week and half back were now sky rocketed to 840Euro. In any standard that’s too much. I would rather prefer to hitchhike. So all plans came to stand still and then we went to sleep happily.

TWIST IN THE TALE:

First mail of the day. “Manager on sick leave and all meeting cancelled” Good. That mail made my Monday morning. It was around 12 noon and after browsing the BBC, DIGG, WIRED blah blah I was very tired :-). Just like that opened www.finnair.fi and searched for Helsinki to Budapest. Bingo. It’s 320Euro. Though in our standard its costly (ya because from Helsinki to Mumbai return cost only 400Euro) I felt this is the best as of now. Called Vivek said booking the ticket and here we go. The itenary as follow.

                           ELECTRONIC TICKET

                      PASSENGER ITINERARY/RECEIPT

 FINNAIR                              DATE: 18 FEBRUARY 2008

 CUSTOMER CARE CENTER                 SALES AGENT: 0001

 01053 FINNAIR                        NAME: SRINIVASAN/ARUN MR(ADT)

 IATA     : 194 91850

 TELEPHONE: +358 203 140200

 ISSUING AIRLINE                        : FINNAIR

 BUSINESS IDENTITY CODE                 : 0108023-3

 TICKET NUMBER                          : ETKT 105 2444647261

 BOOKING REF : 1A/2JXC35

 FROM/TO          FLIGHT CL DATE  DEP   FARE BASIS   NVB   NVA    BAG ST

 HELSINKI         AY5643 N  20MAR 1645  NTOURFI       21MAR 21MAR 20K OK

 TERMINAL:2       FLIGHT OPERATED BY MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES

 BUDAPEST         ARRIVAL TIME 1810

 TERMINAL:2A

 BUDAPEST         AY5644 N  24MAR 1845  NTOURFI       24MAR 24MAR 20K OK

 TERMINAL:2A      FLIGHT OPERATED BY MALEV HUNGARIAN AIRLINES

 HELSINKI         ARRIVAL TIME 2210

 TERMINAL:2

As of now (17:28) the plan looks like this. This too will sure change. Any major change will update latter.

At this point!

Hope you got some insight “How to plan a trip” The funda is “Keep your options open. Who knows what choice you could end up. You want to be a tourist or traveler? WE are the TRAVELERS”.

MAJOR UPDATE: Time 18:16… he he he he he.. It happens and especially it happens always with me :-). I was speaking to one of my friend who was also interested in the trip. In the mean time some where i heard “Fire in the mountain run run run”. Is Hungary into European Union or not. Last time we had to cancel our trip just bcos of this reason. Thank god it is now.

“Please be advised that current Schengen Visas which are valid longer than 21 December 2007 are accepted for entry to the Republic of Hungary.Holders of a valid Finnish residence permit can travel without restrictions throughout the Schengen territory (including Hungary) for a maximum period of 90 days within a half year period (180 days)”

Feb 18th, Time 20:00hrs, Place: some coffee shop.

Bhas heading the meet. The head count for trip increased to 8 Vivek and Bhas coming up with rough driving program plan