Konkan, Taj Vivanta (Mumbai, India)

On one of my business trips, I had the privilege of staying at Taj Vivanta President, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai.

During this stay I got to try all the restaurants there, as after work I did not had enough energies to walk to nearest restaurants. However, on my other stays in the same hotel I tried "Status" near Maken Towers and Moshes on Cuffe Parade. I will write about them later.

Yes, of course I have been to Leopold Cafe multiple times and it is not that great.

Coming back to Konkan; when one of my colleagues suggested that this was an award winning restaurant, we decided to have our dinner there. I was skeptical because I am vegetarian and coastal food does not give many options to us vegetarians.

Well the decor was like an eat out on a beach village in India.
I didn't like the mango drink that we ordered or anything else. Even the non vegetarians did not like their dishes. Even though they belonged to coastal regions and had coastal food frequently.

Good things to write about were highly obliging and courteous staff who tried a lot to make us comfortable. However, food may be good but was not to my tastes. May be they went a little bit too authentic, everything had too much of raw eilaichi. Which was a turn off.

Contrary to this Thai Pavilion which is another renowned restaurant at this Taj Property has good food. I loved eating there. I will write more about it later.

Hometel, Chandigarh (India)

Hometel Chandigarh is a wonderful relief from privately owned single hotels that dote the city. It is a typical budget hotel with all the necessary amenities and hygiene maintained.

Land use is optimum and car parking is available on the site unlike most of the Sarovar properties.

The rooms are decently sized and functional (IKEA types). We mainly used the hotel as a stopover while travelling to Shimla or Dharamshala and at times while visiting Chandigarh for attending a marriage.

Downsides of the hotel are:

1. The food is terrible and one of the worst breakfast spreads that I have seen. However, room service is OK.

2. The hotel is built on one of the industrial plots. Hence, it is surrounded by lot of factories and at the back side there is place where lot of horses are kept for load carrying. The stench is unbearable.

Italiano, Cyber Hub (Gurgaon, India)

Italiano is one of the numerous restaurants that have come up in Cyber Hub. At the moment it is the hottest spot in NCR. I went to Italiano for working lunch.

At first the restaurant appears small to you but once settled in it is okay.
One cannot overhear the conversation on the another table until and unless they are real loud.

Five cheese Pizza was awesome and the service levels were acceptable. The staff is not the best but effective enough to get the right order on the table. This are really needs some improvement.

Bill for 5 people was approx 3500INR.

Whispering Pines, Mashobra (Club Mahindra)

Shimla is one of the favorite haunts for the people living in the plains of Haryana and Punjab and be it winter or summers people find a reason to visit Shimla..

The biggest draw for me is the fine 8 lane highway up to Chandigarh and then the stretch from Chandigarh to Kalka which was a pain, is now 4 Lanes / 6 Lanes toll highway and cuts down the travel time drastically.

Yes, and how can I forget all those eating joints on the way.

Shimla is now very commercialized and to enjoy nature one needs to go farther from Shimla.
Being, a Club Mahindra member we chose the property. Like, any other Club Mahindra property the staff and the food is great.

It is at an ideal location and from the rooms you can see most pristine views of the mighty Himalayas.
The property also boasts of a great SPA at nominal costs.

However, from a great experience on my first visit. Things have gone downhill for the property.

1. The linen quality is really bad. They are old and torn and you have to ask for replacement every time.

2. Heating at the property is turned off at 6 AM (In winters - Dec/Jan/etc.) and then the vents in the room start throwing air at outside temperature and the room is super chilled by 6:15 AM. The only way to avoid it is to get up at 5:59 AM and switch off the central heating FAN. Especially, with young children this can be fatal if they get sick and whole trip might be ruined.

If they can come up with such a stupid thing, I did not even bother discussing it with the property manager or Club Mahindra. Because, if you talk to stupid only nonsense will come back to you.

3. Last time I visited I do not know why the Main Gate was blocked by a water tanker (Shouldn't they be using the service gate at the back). Well, the made gesture to bring the vehicle in but the space was too small and I had to back the vehicle. This was in the middle of the night with heavy snow. There was nobody to guide me and as expected I hit a huge stone with the back bumper of my vehicle.

The reception staff was unapologetic that the main gate was blocked and very completely immune to that fact there was no guard at the gate to guide customer vehicles.

4. There is no stand by bartender. So, when the bartender goes for dinner one needs to wait for good 45 mins.

Well having discussed above four points I have decided never to visit the property again, even though we had really great time there in the past.

Visit at your own risk.

Club Mahindra, Nawalgarh

Club Mahindra’s property at a non-descript place like Nawalgarh attracted our attention as it was totally unheard of. Upon checking with Club Mahindra we came to know that the property is still under development and may or may not look like as per the pictures.

We took the risk and planned our one week trip to Nawalgarh.

There were two ways to do reach our destination and they were:

1. Go to Jaipur to Sikar to Nawalgarh

2. Or try something new and turn towards kothputali and take the lesser travelled road.

We took option 2 and got to see great views. However, the only drawbacks were:

1. There were no good places to eat on the way and hence we survived on chips and coke that we     

        carried with us.

2. It took us longer than usual and the staff at the property was worried and kept calling us again and 

        again to make sure that we reach before dark.

3. Due to potholed road I had to frequently press the brakes. This heated up the discs and we had to stop        for a while so that they can cool down.

Upon reaching we were mesmerized by the remoteness and shocked by the first room given to us. The room was right in front of the pool. Ideal location, some would say. However, the pool was being built and there was cement, bricks, etc. everywhere.

We asked for another room and were given a room on the ground floor of the haveli. We asked for a change as it was right next to the hotel lawns and was too noisy. Upon our request they agreed to give us another room on the top floor the next day.

To our surprise we were given the room post dinner.

What we loved at the property:

1. NO TV. Yes there are no TVs at the property and the manager of the resort came and explained to us 

        the reason personally. We were skeptical at first and it was eerily quiet on first night. But this was the             best part of the stay.

2. Organic food. The vegetables are grown right at the back of the property without fertilizers and 

        pesticides.

3. Being woken up by the peacocks. Yes every morning you see so many peacocks and one is woken’ 

        up by their noise. Excellent way to be woken up.

Activities that can be done

1. Pottery class

2. Horse riding

3. Play badminton / cricket in the evening

4. Visit the haveli towns nearby

5. Visit Kathu Shyam and Balaji

Overall a nice property to stay. This is not your regular hotel but worth the experience.

Club Mahindra, Nawalgarh

One of the Haveli's

Le Meridien, Jaipur

After staying at Trident Jaipur I was tempted to stay at "Le Meridian", Jaipur. Finally they were offering a good deal when we were planning our annual trip to Rajasthan.

It was then that I decided to stay at the property for a night, as a stopover between our destination and Delhi. The deal was 9K INR (Room, Breakfast and one SPA session for a couple).

What I remember from the trip is:

1. Sitting by the pool procrastinating and sipping fresh lime juice.
2. Relaxing in the SPA
3. Feeling small in huge rooms with high ceiling
4. Wine on the first floor of the restaurant

The property is grand and rooms are of good size with good sized bathrooms. Had a great stay at the hotel and enjoyed it. The restaurant serves awesome food. Chef and waiting staff is well versed with what’s on offer and what's liked by the people.

Few little problems that we faced were:

1. The staff expects tips at every step you take.
2. English is terrible even with the reception staff
3. The cue by the billiards/pool table was broken and even after repeated complaints it was not fixed. (Again a staff issue)
4. They need to do something with pigeons sitting out in the balconies. Basically one cannot open the balconies because of the mess created by pigeons.
 

Choosing seats while flying

Being in a job which involves lot of air travel, I have developed my own preferences while flying. This may or may not work for you and are solely my views.

1. First few rows are the bumpiest as they face the turbulence first.

2. The last few rows swing and bump like a see saw.

3. The most stable rows are on the wing although the engine noise is noticeable.

4. Seats near to toilets are the worst because of Odor, People Hanging around to go to the loo, etc.

5. Aisle seats are good for easy access, but if you suffer from motion sickness they are the worst seats.

Few Tips for the Nervous Flyers

1. Develop a habit such as Writing, Watching Movies, Listening to Music, Reading Books, etc. Basically anything that will divert your attention.

2. Try to take up window seat as you feel more in control because you can see around and make out what is happening around you.

3. Take up seats in emergency exit rows so that mentally you feel secure.