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My worst travel nightmare came true last week. Passport? Gone. Camera? Ciao. 500 beautiful photos. See ya. Cash and credit cards? Adios.
Damn.
After a two-week jaunt around India — which was characterized by some fairly tiring travelling, innumerable rickshaw rides (at variously inflated prices) and about 200-million touts — the proverbial hit the fan as we boarded our train at Agra for our final leg back to New Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin Station.
In the bustle of boarding, a train attendant was fussing around the passengers clearing away old bedding, pulling back and drawing curtains, rearranging seats and generally getting in the way. Combined with dozens of passengers climbing on and off, pakora-sellers with trays of the deep-fried snacks and chai-wallahs carrying hot kettles... it was mildly chaotic.
A moment of inattention, a flash of fatigue and fifteen seconds later… the 'attendant' had made off with my camera bag. Although, in fairness it could equally be called my passport bag, credit card bag and 8000 rupee bag... such were the contents that disappeared, never to be seen again.
You can read the full sorry story over here, but as travel disasters go I reckon it ranks fairly well up there. Just below fiery plane crash, and well above severe bout of Delhi belly. Losing your passport and every valuable to your name while stuck on a train in the middle of India? It makes a good story now, but at the time it led to serious sense of humour failure.
Despite ticking off country #30 on this trip I discovered that — no matter how much you've travelled — you can never be too careful. I'd show you some photos of the trip... but alas they're somewhere in the back alleys of Agra.
Damn. |
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Thousands of travellers between Britain, France and Belgium left stranded by the Eurostar rail shutdown will be on the move again Tuesday, according to AFP, but the company says it could take several days to clear the massive backlog.
Eurostar announced it would run a "restricted" service Tuesday after a three-day shutdown hit 75 000 people — but only passengers originally due to travel Saturday or Sunday will be eligible.
The remainder of the backlog will be cleared over the next few days. But with the Christmas holiday looming on Friday, the clock is ticking for travellers wanting to head home or visit friends and family abroad.
For the full story click through to http://travel.iafrica.com/bulletinboard/2126280.htm. |
Sun 13 Dec 2009 |
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Life's a beach...or something |
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I learnt a valuable, and very expensive, lesson last weekend.
Waking up late on Saturday morning my wife and I decided that the perfect way to wash away the post-2010-street-party cobwebs would be to head down to Fish Hoek for a swim. The first swim of summer in fact. Sunny, nice and warm, not too windy; the perfect Cape Town day to hit the beach.
Into a bag went just the bare basics: sunglasses, driver's licence, sun lotion, ice-cream money. No cellphones, wallets or cameras. Down to Fish Hoek, make friends with a fellow sunbather, leave the bag in their care and head into the water.
We swam, we dived, we washed away the cobwebs... out of the water; no bag! Now before you jump to the obvious conclusion, the lady who was looking after it was equally mortified that she hadn’t noticed someone walk by and swipe it, but it’s easy to get distracted on a busy summer beach.
To cut a long story short, our quick trip to the beach ended in an epic excursion involving tow-trucks, police and insurance companies.
Were we too trusting? Perhaps, but years of doing the same on regular summer swims had never given us reason to think we would be caught short. And that, dear readers, is the valuable lesson. Hit the beaches this summer, by all means, but even if you've never had trouble before remember that you simply can’t be too careful.
If you don't have someone you trust to look after your belongings, see if there is a municipal bag lock-up you can use. I also discovered that the local beach constable's office (who were incredibly helpful, by the way) are usually happy to look after car keys and valuables while you’re in the water. If you have a waterproof car key that you can take swimming, lock anything valuable in the boot and just take a towel, water and sunscreen onto the beach.
I've learnt my lesson the hard — and expensive — way. Take the above to heart and hopefully you won't have to do the same this summer. |
Whooooweee.... there's been one helluva fight in the media this week between the Airports Company South Africa and Comair, over ACSA's request for a 133% hike in passenger charges.
ACSA says it's only fair after investors stumped up to fund R17-billion worth of capital expansion, and "we must reward investors". They're also saying airlines are unfairly hiding hefty fuel surcharges under 'airport taxes', which dupes travellers into thinking they're being fleeced by ACSA.
Comair, on the other hand, is saying that ACSA's managed its finances badly, shouldn't be granted the steep increase, and that if it's given it will stifle the domestic travel market. Fair point, but one also gets the feeling Comair is playing a slightly political game, given that ACSA doesn't seem to want to sell it the soon-to-be-defunct Durban Airport.
It's a complex issue which is fraught with agendas and arguments. The best I can offer is for you to read the two stories and decide for yourself: Comair lashes out at 133% hike, and ACSA's rebuttal. |
The travel trade - and most South Africans - love to complain about South African Airways, and often it is richly deserved. However, the airline equally deserves praise for amending its consumer website so that all fares quoted when booking flight tickets through www.flysaa.com will now include the cost of tax and surcharges.
The airline says "this new development was implemented to ensure ticket prices were transparent and complied with international Consumer Protection Acts and Laws which require the travel industry to include taxes and surcharges in the prices quoted for services."
Whether it was a carrot or stick that forced the change, it is to be applauded. Travellers need all the transparency they can get.
When booking on flysaa.com you will now see at a glance what a one-way or return ticket will cost, including: Airport tax, security surcharge, destination airport tax, passenger surcharge, airport tax due at the transfer or stopover airport (if applicable), fuel surcharge and VAT (if applicable).
Well done SAA… let's hope your competitors follow your lead.
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Or just a sign of commercialism heading south? Refuse to shop at Melissa's nowadays: overpriced and average
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