Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,000 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 17 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Today I was really astonished by one of the KFC Outlet’s gesture at a Customer’s reaction.

What Happened?

The Customer had ordered for a “Tower Zinger” & after a while, she came back to the counter inquiring that there was a small cap or a plastic object inside the burger.She was so polite & infact not making any noises about it. The executive at the counter took it inside & gave it to the Manager. There was a bursting noise & the Manager was yelling at his complete team like anything.

KFC’s Reaction:

He did not take much time, he immediately came out & explained her, that it was their mistake, it is a nozzle of the sauce(Might be Mayo), dispenser & apologized for it.The way he was pleasing made even me to believe that he was really concern about the moment.Not sure, if he was truly concerned, but sure that the customer must have felt that “he is taking care of her issues & he is bothered about the same”.He immediately gave her a new Burger & made her comfortable.Customer was enjoying her burger with her friends, there came a person from the kitchen, introduced himself & apologized for the incident. After a while, there was one more guy, who repeated the same thing. All of the these guys, they told their name, their job responsibility & apologized for the bad experience the Customer had. The complete team starting from the person who made the burger till the Manager who handles the complete Outlet came to her table for apology.

Verdict:

Not sure, if this was a good sign or not, but the customer left the door happily & would definitely return back with more of her friends & would share these incidents all over the social network. Though, things went wrong for KFC, they have learnt,sorry, rather they know to,retain their Customer.

All Indian Startups & new bubbling QSRs can make a note of this to retain their Customers.

Kudos KFC!!!

Thought of a measure to express my rating about all Restaurants, I explore,experience, & write about them, To categorize it. It is going to be like this,Below is Hoodibaba’s rating for KFC.

Food- 5/5

Ambience- 3/5

Pricing-3/5

Customer Service-5/5

Over all-16/20

GMRs have really done a good job in building this Airport. Cheers!!!

Currently T3 Airport caters for

1. Kingfisher

2. Jet Airways

3. Air India

I suppose the airport has been benchmarked with the Bangkok International Airport.

The Car parking, Cabs for pick up & drop, Arrivals & departures, Lounge, Food Court, and Boarding pass counters, Domestic terminal & International Terminal keeping them aside, Shopping area & Internet. This post is about the T3 Terminal, its convenience & conveyance via Metro & other facilities they have offered.

Highlights for Appreciation:

1. Metro –itself

2. Local Metro & Airport Metro –Connectivity

3. City Check in (KF/Jet Airways/Air India Only)

4. Travelator

Metro –Itself:

The City growing big & bigger the traffic is growing exponential to it. The Metro is a must & savior for the public. Over & Above, if you have a Metro card, it would still save your time.The Metro card can be availed at any metro station by 100 rs deposit & further charging it.Every time you use a smart card for traveling, you would be charged 10% lesser compared to Counter price for the Metro Token.  The Metro is designed such a nice way, that you can travel with in the city with much convenience, fast & ultimately connected. There are no chairs or resting places. This keeps the crowd keep on moving.

Attention:

Although they had tried to eliminate the possibilities of Crowd gathering for any reason, it’s India & people love waiting & queuing up here. Every bogie has three doors; they should use it for one exit in the middle & the other two for entry on the extreme ends. Now, the awareness on the Old Delhi railway station has increased. The crowd is heavy lining up to board the Metro. This will create havoc, if some necessary action is not taken.

Airport Metro Express:

This Metro is operated by a Private Player (I suppose it is ADAG Reliance). They charge INR 80/- for one passenger to travel from New Delhi Railway station to Airport Terminal T3.I feel this is very much acceptable .The Airport Metro Express & the Local Metro interconnection happens at New Delhi Metro station. Detail…

Attention:

As of now, I couldn’t find anything.

Detail Map

City Check-in:

The City check in is very convenient, you can check-in your luggage in New Delhi Metro Express & you have a 2 hrs break time, for roaming around.

Note: This check in opens only for Flights departure within 6 hrs

80 Rs will be charged, which you will be using for commuting till T3 Airport. The same token will be used for traveling though the Metro.

Attention:

This would be of very convenient if extended for Flights before 24hrs

Further Info/Highlights about T3 Airport:

• World’s 8th Largest Airport

• Asia’s 3rd Largest Airport

• 1118m Travelators

• 78 Passenger baggage belts

• 1.2km end to end lengthy airport.

• 64 Aero bridges for Travelers entry.

• Car Parking- 3 levels

• Travellers Capacity- 34million Travelers/year . Other Asian Countries 12 to 16 million

• Singapore Airport was built in a Time span of 57 months. T3 was built in 33 months only.

Is the Indian Market & Customers ready to enjoy the feast?

Have they started looking at Automobile as their Fashion symbol?

If so, are the TATAs, Hyundai, Maruti & other OEMs ready for the war?

All these queries of my earlier post have started fetching the answers. I had posted about the topic, “Automobiles- “A Fashion Symbol for Indians”, & this had triggered TATAs (ofcourse not) to give a deep thought & implement the idea of positioning one of their products as a Fashion Symbol. This made them to grab a bigger opportunity of sponsoring for a Fashion week.now we have received our first response from TATAs. It seems, they have heard our question & agreed to get into the War.

Tatas have positioned their Manza as the Gold Partner of the Prestigious Wills Lifestyle Fashion week. This is the biggest Fashion event in Asia. This long mega event had 41 shows from ace designers and over 35000 of India”s A-list people visiting the event.

Previous automobile associations were of brands like Audi and Mercedes.

Tatas have tied up with ace designer Rajesh Pratap Singh whose specially designed couture Tata Manza which was put on display throughout the week. The car sported high end leather fitments on the seats, steering wheel and the dashboard. He also created stunning props i.e. two 14 feet trees using Golden Manza scale models as leaves & Wine colour Manza scale models as flowers. Tata Manza”s had an exclusive lounge, a premium car display at the entrance. The lounge had an innovative talking car which took visitors for a surprise.

Now, lets wait & see if the Hyundais & others will look from our point of view.

There is an ad being Aired on the Channels promoting “Fluidic”. I expect this to be Fashion Symbol from Hyundai’s Stable.

Click to view slideshow.
Floating Market:
The name itself sounds different right?Yes, Of course it is something similar to that of the Floating City-Venice,Italy.It is a usual market where the shops are amidst water. There are a lot of tiny shops built on wooden boats & planks.It is a wonderful place to visit.Mark my words, “it is only good to visit & not fit for your extravagant shopping”.Though the items sold here are brought from Bangkok or other neighboring cities,the prices are very much hefty. In-fact there was a guide instructing her travellers to start bargaining from 30% of the price they tell you. The soverigns you get here are nothing special about it.They would be easily available else where.
The place is only to enjoy the experience of Float just like the “Venice-the Floating city or city of Water” & have a Euphoric feel about it. Strictly, not for purchase.

Location:
It is located around ~240kms away from Sukhumvit Soi 13,Bangkok.Hire a taxi in a group which would cost 1000~1500Bath which would be affordable when you split it on per head basis.Or go through any touring agent for which one would pay around 350bath for Floating Market. Here, you would be taken around for a small round in the floating village with a rowing boat.Later,you should hire a motor boat for 50bath exclusively to get inside the market.
But am sure, one must visit this place.

Elephant Village & Snake Park:
These two places fall on the return route to Bangkok. The Elephant ride in the village will cost you around 600 Bath to go around for a 20~25 mins ride into the dense forest,where you cross the river water sitting on the Elephant & this is a real nice experience but again,it would eat into your pockets. I heard that one should get into the interiors of Thai i.e.,away from bangkok  &  would get a better ride for a good bargain.
The Snake park is yet another usual Snake Sanctuary or Snake farm.They keep promoting something called “Cobra show”.This is good to see ,where the snake riders show some mystified tricks in handling the snakes. These snakes are breed,nurtured,pampered & trained by them.Ofcourse You could expect an exemplified performance by the snakes.

If you are short of time,it’s OK to skip the park.

The city is vast in area & crowded with thick population but high in cost of living. The city is very much welcoming the Tourist & visitors from abroad. The infrastructure is so good that the way they have structures their connectivity is an art by itself. It was a day visit of mine. But, the takeaways & memoirs bout the city is everlasting.

Thai people are very good in entertaining the foreigners & help them out for any query or directions to reach their destiny. The sign boards are so clear & connected , that even an Indian(me) or any foreigner would be able to manage in such a place even without knowing the local lingua THAI.

The à la carte options available in Bangkok for your fast transit within the city is
1. Metro Train (MRT)
2. Sky Train( BTS)
3. Express way
4. Local Trains
5. Local Buses( Public/Private owned)
6. Mini Vans(25 bath)
7. Motor Cycle
8. Meter Taxi
9. Tuk tuk
10. Limousines
11. Airport operated free buses
12. Two Rows(pickups)
13. Sky Walk

With this extremely brilliant connectivity, getting lost in BKK is a tough job.

I rather than explaining the nitty-gritty of these options, I intend to write posts on the site seeing places available in Bangkok. We would have posts on the following exciting places.
1. Floating Market, Snake Park & Elephant Ride
2. The Grand Palace
3. Siam Ocean World & Shopping spots
4. Sukhumvit-NANA-Siam

One, must detail to be known is the accessibility to the Airport & we will see in upcoming posts.

The Photon+ is one such a device that Tata’s have provided the market. The words claimed “I carry Speed” is worth saying(in metros esp).

Speed: (3/5)

On avg., in Cities or the Coverage Area I get a Speed of 1.02Mb/s


In other areas I get a Speed of 1.5Mb/s

Both these data are irrespective of the Peak hours.

Network Area : (4/5)
If you are not in a metro, it acts as a normal CDMA only.But, this is comparatively good enough to stay connected. Their network coverage area is wide enough. I personally experience it in Pune, Bangalore, Goa , New Delhi & Chennai. This works good enough unless until you are in a core village.

Economy: (3/5)
The Package they offer are not attractive on the basis of Cost. Comparing with a wired connection this is high in cost. But, for anybody looking for portability & good network coverage the only option available is this. For normal surfing, browsing & Googling the 2Gb package will work good enough. Moving to Online Gaming, Video Streaming or Movie & Songs download you should go for 5Gb & more( personally I don’t recommend- It is very costly). Photon or any mobile broadband provider don’t have a unlimited download Package.

Customer Service: (2.5/5)
The Customer service is not very much appreciable. They need to work a lot in this part. For any queries you are suppose to contact on cs.helpdesk[@]tatatel.co.in along with DC number( Data Card no) & they respond in 2 or 3 days.

Overall : 3/5 for those who prefer portability & Network Coverage area as prime factor for Purchase.

My fervor towards this place sky rocketed as I kept approaching it. This could be sacred to the whole mankind.

Anyone who had seen the movie “Avatar” would correlate the movie to this place. If some one had told me that Stephen spielberg had shot the movie in Hemkund. I would have definitely believed it. This is not a hyperbole.

The place is lush green. No man made environment-disasters.
There are only two modes of Commute,

1. By Walk
2. By Ponies

I would suggest one should experience both of it during the trek.

For the Walkers:

You would have to walk around 13 kms to reach a place called Ghangaria, where you have a small township kinda place. You can find all sorts of Hotels for your food & stay. Both the Valley of Flowers & Hemkund are 6kms away from Ghangaria. The First 3 kms is in common.

The path to this place is hard rock & terribly bad with rugged stones. But the scenic nature loads you with complete zeal & you are not much bothered about the terrains you walk.

While you start from the base you would notice lot of white showers at the top. As you keep climbing over & over you would recollect that how far it was & how nearer you are.

The mountains around paves way for legion waterfall, which flows down through the valleys adding up to the beauty of mother nature. As you move on, you get to cross from one to the other mountains. At this juncture, you walk over that water. You get so close to these furious rivers; this makes you feel so light in front of their magnificence.

Checklist for the Walkers:

1. First & foremost -a walking stick.
2. Torch( by any means if you plan to climb up or down after 5 while the sun set. Preferably don’t do it)
3. Usual trek stuff like Trek Shoes, Jackets, Glucose.
4. If possible carry some cuppamania kind of instant stuff as the cost of everything is very high at that height.
5. Camera with very good Zooming feature.( Trekking without this is a sin)
6. Rain coats if necessary(depending on the season)

For the Ride on Ponies:

1.Keep your Valet full of Cash- They Charge you a 2700/- bucks for up & down to Hemkund.

2.The Ponies are dumb ones- so be ready to bear the pain in your Ar@#e!!! atleast for 3 days.

Lakshman Mandir:

There is a Laksman Temple behind the Gurudhwara at the Top. It is said that both Ram & Lakshman had stayed here praying the Lords & in turn they were blessed with flowers from the sky, Those flowers got scattered to Valley of Flowers.

This Valley of Flowers is such a scenic beauty that one should never miss in his lifetime.

Have added some pics.,

Look at the Slideshow

Hope the slideshow entices you for an “Awesome Trek to Hemkund”

This is the right place to go for a one day outing.
This is tagged as the “Switzerland of India” by Gandhiji. There are a lot of places one could visit. Here is the Kausani,

Places to visit:

1. Himalayan stretch of 350 km. You would be able to see a portion of it.
2. There is the Bageshwar Temple.
Look for the Bhim patthar, for which the people claim that anybody less than 9 or more would not be able to lift the stone. We gathered 9 guys & all of us tried to lift it with single finger of each of us. That was amazing.
3. Visit Rani keth for the Tea plantation beds.
4. There is the Apple Garden, please make sure that you visit it in the right season or els no point in visiting a dry garden.
5. There would be a Kali Devi temple just before the Garden, the history of the Godess is also nice. Worth once a visit,

Verdict:

5/5 : Must See: For those who are looking the Himalayan for the First time.

4/5 : Visit Once: For those who have visited Manali & lot other places where you have seen the snow fall

Wow!!! Made it short & sweet.

Rather than those words being the fact, it is the belief of the Automobile Industries operating in India. These manufacturers have started positioning their product as a Fashion Symbol for Indian Consumers.

Rohit bahl- The Fashion designer from New Delhi who has a clientele ranging from Uma Thurman, Cindy Crawford has been pulled as the brand ambassador for the Mitsuibishi-Outlander.

Atul Kasbekar-The Fashion & media photographer has started promoting the Mahindra’s XYLO. Over & above the Mahindra’s are hosting a Fashion week that is to be held in Chennai. The Company claims that Fashion, Style & Automobiles should go hand in hand.

We expect some more Celebrities from fashion industry to join hands for this strategy.
This shows a clear trend that the Automobile companies are getting set to treat their Customers with a Fashion show piece. The level of their product line is getting a finesse touch.

But, the questions here is,

Is the Indian Market & Customers ready to enjoy the feast? Have they started looking at Automobile as their Fashion symbol?

If so, are the TATAs, Hyundai, Maruti & other OEMs ready for the war?