—– Original Message —–
From: Munir Cheryan
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 5:45 AM
Subject: Re: Review of Kerala tour
Dear Joy
First I want to thank you, on behalf of my family, for arranging a truly wonderful tour for us. We enjoyed every single minute of it. Below are some of our comments.1. Bombay arrangements: We were met promptly at the airport on both times (before and after our kerala tour) by Saleem and we were well taken care of. He appeared promptly for our transfers to the airport. The vehicle (Qualis) was also satisfactory.The hotels in Bombay were good. The Hyatt airport is a typical Hyatt hotel. The Marine Plaza is a good hotel, with good service and with a good location on Marine Drive and near the shopping and tourist areas. We actually prefer it to the Oberoi and Hilton which were nearby and which we visited. The Marine Plaza was a good choice on your part.2. The Kerala tour was one of the best we have been on (and I have been to 35 countries in my life and taken tours almost everywhere). We appreciate very much that they provided us with a more comfortable vehicle (Tempo Traveller) because 7 days in a Qualis would not have been very comfortable.Outstanding also was the driver, Mr. Durga Ram. He was a careful and considerate driver, and did not drive too fast or take any risks. We are nominating him for “Driver of the Year” and we will specifically ask for him when we do our tour of South India’s temples in the near future.It was fortunate that my wife spoke fluent tamil, so we could converse well with him and thus made it enjoyable for us.The CGH earth hotels are excellent and unique. We are thankful we did not stay in a typical 5-star western-style hotel. The service and food was very good in all CGH hotels.You may be interested to know that, in Ernakulam, I found the house that I was born in and spent the first few years of my life! I also found the first pre-school that I attended!The Club Mahindra at Munnar was also very good. They attempt to have many activities so that no one is bored. My daughters took full advantage of these activities here as well as at the Spice Village in Periyar and Coconut Lagoon in Kumarakom. Service in all hotels was good.The one exception to all of the above is the Ashtamundi Resort in Kollam. I suggest that you no longer book anyone at this Resort. It appears it is not maintained well, it was the only hotel on our trip where the rooms had an excessive number of insects, the rooms had not been dusted and the road to the hotel from the National Highway was very bad. Please avoid booking any tourists, especially from abroad and especially if it is only overnight. Perhaps those who stay for the ayurvedic activities for longer periods may find it acceptable. It is better to travel directly from Alleppey or Kottayam to Kovalam than to break journey stay at this resort.The Sea Face hotel in Kovalam was good, with good service, pleasant staff at the desk and restaurants, although it was only a 3-star hotel. It’s location was much better than Le Meridien. We could not do everything we planned on those three days in Kovalam, such as the trip to Kanyakumari because of the tsunami, but we enjoyed the rest at Kovalam.The houseboat trip was also very enjoyable. In fact, the lunch on the houseboat was the best-tasting meal we had on the whole trip!If we had to do it again, I would add an extra day each at the Spice Village and Coconut Lagoon, and eliminate the stay at Kollam and stay only two nights at Kovalam.So you can see we had a wonderful time, and we owe a good deal of it to you for arranging the tour. We will certainly recommend you to all our friends and we will count on you when we need travel services in India again.
Sincerely,
Munir Cheryan
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