A Five Star Airline Gives you MuniandiVilas (Third Rated ) Service – A Night mare in Qatar Airlines to JFK.

About 35 of us had a painful travel in the So Called 5 Star Airlines from Chennai to JFK (US) on 10th July 2011 The flight at Chennai took off at an hour late of the Scheduled departure, And we were Still 30 minutes before the Gate to take-up our flight to JFK at Qatar International Airport. The Airlines Staff purposefully blocked our way though we were early after a Great Sprint. where as those guy s who were in First Class they were taken by special vehicle to board the JFK flight When we approached the Airlines Staff they were tactfully mum for 30 minutes only to facilitate the takeoff of the JFK Flight which is over booked and had eleventh hour Travelers from Influential Families , After a Great Gap an Afro Asian Lady Staff of Qatar Airlines says, listen now your flight has gone, you don’t have any other option, the only option is to fly tomorrow. On hearing this many raised their voice that they have urgent business on Monday and who will bear the brunt ?. The Airlines Staff dint bother to listen to poor passengers and only she was busy doing her work in the computers. After the lapse of 2hours a snacks pass was given and after 1 hour there after they gave the boarding passes for the next day travel and led us to outside the Airport to See the Desert.
The Five Star Airlines make a fortune by purposefully delaying the Incoming flights when the long haul flights are over booked, so that they can easily make a Quick buck at least 1000 USD per ticket and one can imagine what would have been their revenue on this ill fated day for the Economy Passengers . On the other hand the Airline will spend less than 100 USD per passenger for the so called Stay for a day In the desert country with snack pass, logistics to the So called three star accommodation and back to the Airport the next day with the unwarranted rescheduled Travel to JFK. The IATA AND THE OMBUDSMAN SHOULD TAKE STRINGENT ACTION ON SUCH ERRING AND GREEDY AIRLINES Who keep their Economy Passenger with Babies and Business commitments in lurch and Dark. The Indian Civil Aviation should strongly condemn such act and Attitude of the Erring Airlines who keep the Economy Passengers in dark for hours in the Airports without even a Single Star Comfort and responsible Airline Staff who can talk to the passengers politely and console them for their Act of Greed. We don’t understand that on which ground this Airlines was awarded 5 Star Status which cannot handle their customers with comfort. There should be a mechanism to compensate the passengers who were purposefully / accidentally delayed by the Airlines, If such norms are in place then the Airlines will not resort to such unhealthy practices. After a days delay when we were about to board the flights we were in Security hold Area, I found 4 passengers who is the part of our 35 member contingency who lost their flight previous day were sitting to board the flight to JFK were asked to get up and sit some where else for the reason some Sheik family wish to sit in those seats, This is once again an insult to the man kind by Qatar Airlines. If the Sheik Family wants to sit let them sit any where in the Security Hold Area? Why should the Five Star Airline Discriminate and Disturb the passengers? Which 5 star Hotel Discriminates their customer in the hospitality Industry? Why cant the Sheik family be provided with the 7 star comfort instead of displacing the already aggrieved passengers ? Is it the known standard of 5 star Hospitality? Though I have travelled several Airlines for over 3 decades to travel all seven continents including an Uruguay Air force Aircraft C 130 Hercules to Antarctica, I never faced such embarrassment under the hands of any Airlines for no fault of us, except the Qatar Airlines!!!
During the Travel when ever we activate the Hosts Light for want of H2 O the Hostess don’t even respond or ask the passenger what they wanted. After this travel now Iam having Severe dehydration next time I will not Opt or travel in Qatar Airways, According to me they take Passengers to Ride.

क १३० हेर्चुलुस कार्गो काररीएर

अंतर्तिचा ट्रिप वास मदे थ्रौघ उरुगुए एयर फाॅर्स क १३० हेर्चुलुस फ्लिघ्त वेयर यू डोंट हवे एयर होस्टेस टो सर्वे यू फ़ूड एंड ड्रिंक्स यू विल हवे ५ पिलोट्स टो नाविगते थे फ्लिघ्त एंड ३ बोइलेर सुइट क्लादेद डेक्क हंड्स व्हो विल बे ड्रिंकिंग एंड याटिंग ठिर फ़ूड एंड वे नीद टो टेक अ पच्केद फ़ूड फॉर यौर सेल्वेस। अ ग्रेट एक्सपेरिएंस टो लैंड ओं इसे अत ५८ डिग्री centigrade

एक्स्होटिक अंतर्त्क्टिचा

Rotary in Antarctica (South Pole) with Make Dream Real Flag
Yes When you tell that you want to go to Antarctica no travel agent is really ready to take you to Antarctica because , one issue is that, it is rarest of the rare enquiry and the other is not much aspirants to travel to Antarctica ,usually big travel companies need bus load full of people for foreign tours . or a pre-designed tour only to 5 continents will be entertained by the regular travel companies. “Any travel agent in India will flatly refuse when he or she hears ‘Antarctica’.
Knowing the complicity of traveling to poles, I did a homework on my own, by browsing the net and got some information on this Adventure Trip to Antarctica by both Sea and Air travel, then I zeroed in on a Adventure Tour Operator and started communicating after which I decided the countries to which I should travel before touching Antarctica, Finally I applied visa for Chile and Brazil for the last leg to Antarctica from a wonderful Town called Punta Arenas. (Austral) the meaning in Spanish is the Last part of the World . (Please Note: While applying for visa enclose your financial statements, Antarctica adventure trip booking vouchers, Confirmed Air tickets, and Hotel Bookings to convince the visa officers to issue visa easily without raising any query to you and thus delaying he issuance of visa. Visa Forms are available on the net).
En-route our Trip to Antarctica we had couple of Rotary meetings and fellowship @ Rotary Club of Austral (Punta Arenas, Chile) This Club meets in their own property, All Six days they have leased the property for a Restaurant and one day they conduct their weekly meetings. (This will help our Clubs to earn revenue and minimize the cost of Meeting) Here we exchanged our Club Flags and they offered to become our Sister Club and also ready to organize Video Conferencing of our Regular Meetings which we are currently working on.
My desire is to complete all the continents which includes less-explored places and those with a rich biosphere. Actually we were a group of 25 to travel out with a Rock Band from United States who wanted to break the Guinness Book of world record by performing their concerts in all the 7 Continents, due to bad weather our Take-off to Antarctica could not happen in the first four days of our waiting in Punta Arenas , hence they opted out form the trip and finally our group was reduced to 16 members from Japan, Canada, US, Ukraine and France, and only two Indian – Rotarians from Rotary Club of Meenambakkam and Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning College mates from Chennai.
We have to stay in the Chilean town of Punta Arenas, the southern-most city in the world and the last leg of the journey before reaching Antarctica was our longest stop in our 12-day journey.
Tourists usually camp here, waiting for the weather to be ‘manageable’ before we set foot on Antarctica. “We camped in this South American region for six days until weather conditions allowed us to take the next flight to the continent.”
Finally, a three-and-a-half hour journey on C130 Hercules of the Uruguay Air Force, The Take-off itself was thrill full because the aircraft was tilted towards right from the Airport to almost 45 degree this instrument is specially designed for landing on short, icy airstrips, landed us at the Antarctic airport of Frei Base. “It was like stepping on clouds. The place was snowing and we were freezing at -30 degree Celsius, with high velocity winds blowing,” We covered only a few kilometers of the continent – as much as the weather would permit. Though the climate was icy cold as it can get, we were met with warmth by air force officials at the base. The Landing was really a thrill with great sound and the unevenness of Ice runway made us feel that the aircraft is broken into pieces, but not really so. On coming out from the unfenced ice capped airstrip we saw surprisingly our Rotary International Logo Tower (Made out of Cast Aluminum )covered with ice and instantaneously we felt more warm in the icy zone that we are still in the civilized place, and really got the sense of security on Seeing Rotary In Antarctica. No Antarctica Explorer can miss this Tower when he visits Antarctica by Air.
King George’s Islandm this place has a population of 39. There is Chilean Air Force station, and a Chinese and a Russian lab. Chinese are planning to make some buildings, may be couple of years down the line, one can see many buildings here. They have some temporary inhabitants.” At Antarctica Clouds scurrying in the steel blue-grey sky, icebergs floating on the sea, dolphins swimming in glee and close-up shots of leopard seals, Ice Petrel, Albetross and Black Seagull These are pictures which run like a novel for me and Rtn. Prabal Mall. Then we hoisted our Rotary and Dream Real Flag in Antarctica which was a real great contented experience which I trust most of our Rotarians can experience in Antartica during such activities. We did get an opportunity to sail by Zodiac Boat (Which is made out of rubber and filled with air) to a Penguin Cliff, where more than 3000 Penguins breed, the Cliff is fully filled with lined up Penguins, which scene is a real feast to your eyes.
Before leaving Antartica you need to get your Passport Stamped with the seal of Antarctica and the Stamp of C 130 Hercules Air Craft image which is the real souvenir one can acquire in South Pole.
There is a lot more about cool
Antarctica, which we are planning to write a book on Traveling to all the Seven Continents and help adventure seekers. The Budget for this Cool proposition is around 4.5 lakhs.
The author may be contacted by mail rtnsridhar@gmail.com
Rtn. P. Sridhar -President 2008-9
Rotary Club of Meenambakkam, Chennai, India

त्रवेल्लिंग टू पोल्स

Since childhood, I always had a passion to travel to various places within and outside India by covering all the continents. I had finished covering five out of the seven continents when last year an idea struck me: Why not cover Arctic first and then Antarctic?
So, I took this adventure trip to the Arctic from Chennai. I first flew to Copenhagen via Helsinki. The next morning, I took Air Green Land where I landed at Kangerlussaq Airport (north Greenland). The travel time between Copenhagen and Kangerlussaq is 4 ½ hours. We have to fly over Iceland. The time difference between Copenhagen and Greenland is four hours (minus). As most of you are aware, Greenland is the largest island in the world.
Kangerlussaq is the only airport in north Greenland (Arctic region) which can facilitate landing and take-off of bigger aircraft like Airbus etc. This airport was developed in 1960 by US Defence. The population of Kangerlussaq is 400 and 50 per cent of them are employed by the airport authorities. A 3-star hotel is attached to the Kangerlussaq Airport called, Hotel Kangerlussaq. Greenland is the only Arctic Island in the world.
During World War-II, a northern air route was desperately needed to ferry planes from the US to Britain. Denmark was then occupied by Germany and the Americans were responsible for the defence of Greenland. A survey of Greenland found two locations suitable for an airfield. The location selected was Stromfjord in September 1941 and work began with the code name Blue West Eight. In 1992, the airport was handed over by the Americans to the Home Rule Government. Technically Greenland is administered by Denmark.
Ice cap visit:
From the airport we took a specially designed vehicle to ice cap which is around 40 km east of the airport; en route we saw a herd of musk ox, reindeer, Arctic ranger, and also a few falcons and ravens. There were also debris of an air crash which was still not removed and kept for tourists to take back home some pieces of aluminum.
The last polar bear sighted was reportedly killed by two American soldiers in Kangerlussaq with the help of an iron rod in 1960 and after that no polar bear has been sighted in Kangerlussaq.
According to the Greenland adventure tour operator, I am the second Indian to explore Arctic Greenland on an exploration trip to the eastern Ice Cap for about 2 km. And I am definitely the first Chennaivasi to do so.
From east of Kangerlussaq, for a 500 km stretch, one can find ice and only ice spread and covered - great ice-hills and ice valleys. Most of my co-tourists asked whether I had come alone from India. They were surprised to know that I had come alone. A Swede asked me the same question twice.
This trip took roughly around eight hours, including the trekking.
Nature and universal ritual
The Arctic is roughly around 2.2 million sq km, out of which only 5,00,000 km is without ice cap. The ice cap was formed millions of years ago and the depth is about 3,500 mtrs. In the same belt, around 2.4 million years ago, there were forest zones. Because of which now people are exploring for black gold (crude oil) and some mineral deposits.
In the ice one can find ponds, lakes and rivers too. Huge ranges of ice fjords can move up to 40 mtrs per day. When air escapes from ice fjords, you get a thunderous sound followed by pushing and falling of icebergs into the sea. Titanic was hit by and iceberg produced from Sermermiut (which means Southern Ice Cap in Greenlander’s language).
During June-August, tourists throng the place to see the ice cap melting, and only during this season you can see some shrubs and plants growing for a very short time. Our guide told us, “Now you can see a forest of Greenland,” and then showed us a small patch of shrubs wherein you can find some grass cotton flowers, Arctic blue herbal flowers, Niviarsiaq - a beautiful purple flower (which in Greenlandic language means young unmarried maiden).
These fauna and flora can be seen only during summer. There are no trees in Greenland.
The seagulls are almost double the size of the Australian ones and this is due to the abundant availability of fish and sea food. During summer, the sun never sets, which is why it is called the ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’ and in the winter, it is the other way round, where you cannot see the sun.
One can find 320 degrees of light in the spectrum of the horizon in Arctic Greenland.
When wind blows, the iceberg’s profile and contour change drastically, and likewise, when the lighting changes, the colour of the iceberg and ice fjords change. In Illulisat, the ice fjords produce 20 million tonnes of ice every day and push the same into the Atlantic Ocean in various sizes of icebergs and particles, which is the water consumption of one year of New York City.
The Arctic has 10 per cent of the world’s fresh water stock. An iceberg which was pushed from Illulisat ice fjord into the Atlantic Ocean was the one that hit Titanic.
In general, the Arctic is a place of God-made beauty and you cannot find such a beautiful place in any part of the world. Every square inch of the Arctic land is so beautiful and is an architecture fully made by the Almighty. If you were to visit this place once in your lifetime, the memory will stay in your mind forever. You can also experience pin-drop silence in most parts of the Arctic, in which silence one can experience a pleasant sound which relaxes your body, mind and soul.
During winter, which is from November 1 to January 13, you will not see daylight here. After a dark winter, the first and fresh sun is witnessed by locals on January 13. Surprising, isn’t it? On January 13, the Illulisat people go to the mountains to have the first glimpse of new sun every year and on January 14, the sun can be seen in the plains.
We, Indians celebrate Bhogi on the same day, and on 14th Jan we celebrate Pongal/Sankranti and pray to the Sun God. And the Egyptians too revered the same Sun God: They did not even cover their temples with roofs in order to invite the Sun God into their temples. This is a clear example that Vedic life originated from the Arctic along with the food cycle.
According to Vedic life, the origin of living being has evolved and originated from the Arctic and from where the entire world spread, with all kinds of living beings, including human beings. Hence, the first food chain was formed in the Arctic.
In the Arctic, the low temperature is not really intense and harmful as it is suppose to be when you go by the reading of the temperature. For eg., in Copenhagen, 2 degrees Celsius is more intense than minus 25 degrees of the Arctic; this is due to the moisture content in the air in Copenhagen. In the Arctic, the air is dry and hence it is not harsh though the temperature is minus 25 degrees.
So, if we travel to the Arctic, it is not as scary (the cold) as we might assume. If we carry some good thermal wear, it is sufficient to go and enjoy the beauty of the Arctic northern Greenland. Why I stress on northern Greenland is because the Arctic Circle is in northern Greenland and not southern Greenland such as Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and other places. The highest population in Greenland is in Nuuk, which is 17,000. The third highest population is in Illulisat.
Illulisat: The next morning, we took a Dash 7 aircraft of Air Green Land and landed in Illulisat which is further north of Greenland, after 1½ hours of travel. Illulisat means iceberg in Greenlander’s language. Illulisat is the third largest town in Greenland the port in Illulisat is called Jakobshaven (in Greenlandic ‘haven’ means ‘port’).
This port was found in1741. A Zion church was constructed during 1779 in Illulisat. Here the population is around 4,500, of which 1,000 people work for the shrimp and fish processing plant at the Port of Illulisat. Fishing is the only major economic work in Illulisat. Everyday a fisherman is assured of 500 kg catch for which the government pays 6 Danish Kroner per kg. The fish is then sold at Denmark @ 110 Kroner per kg. Denmark gives 3 billion Kroner per year to Greenland to meet the deficit budget of this country.
The Government of Greenland and Denmark is ready to offer free of cost huge fishing trawlers to the locals, but the locals refrain from taking such grants fearing some riders which means they need to work extra hours, which they don’t desire to do so. Greenland is planning to open a university in Nuuk or Kangerlussaq, As of now, they don’t have any colleges or institutions to educate engineering graduates, or heath education. Most doctors and engineers travel from Denmark to Greenland to carry out their vocation mostly on a part-time basis. One cannot find a thief in Illulisat, the reason is he/she will be caught before they can escape.
Sermermiut:
You can find an abandoned settlement in this place called Sermermut. This settlement is around 4,000 years old. Close to this place you have a place called Bitches Gorge. In this place, the older generation would go and commit suicide to pave way for the availability of food for the younger generation. This shows that they had shortage of food (Bitches Gorge is a 100 per cent translation from Danish language.)
In 2004, Sermermiut was identified as a world heritage location by UNESCO. Here the houses were built with rock and the main structure used for stability is the whale’s spine. Whale skin was used to for the roof to prevent rainwater from entering the house and also to act as a good insulation, and thus avoiding atmospheric temperature inside the house. The entrance to the house has a drift below, which is designed in such a way as to prevent cold air from coming in. Seeing the intelligence of the people of olden days, suddenly a phrase popped up in my mind: “When everything is there, man does nothing. When nothing is there, man does everything.” Which is also a moral for our younger generation.
Disco Bay: This is once again a lovely place and is a feast to the eyes. The seawater in Illulisat (Disco Bay) is not frozen. In Ilullisat, each and every iceberg and ice fjord changes colour according to the lighting of the sun and the same iceberg looks different during such changes. Here, the locals believe that the Sun really does not melt the ice it is only the air which is trapped in ice which is released and in the process a thunderous sound comes and pushes the icebergs into the sea. An iceberg can be to the size of up to 310 ft in height above the sea level and width will be more than a few thousand feet.
Midnight sailing: Midnight sailing in-between the icebergs in a boat cruise gives a unique play of colours, which one loves to do again and again. During night sailing, the sun is still active with good lumens which is a fantastic and unusual experience. It will be too cold while sailing the temperature goes down to minus 38 degrees Celsius.
Helicopter trip to the glaciers: Illulisat Glacier is the most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere. It is 7 km wide and moves at a pace of 3,000 millimeter per hour. Here it is really a feast to your eyes to see such infinite amount of ice. The pilot takes you in very low altitude to disturb the thousands of birds below and it is really a spectacular view from a birds eye view. Along the glacier’s edge, the helicopter lands on the mountain for 30 minutes where one can enjoy the fantastic scenery created by God.
Food: On specific arrangements, you can get Indian food in the Arctic in some places. Otherwise, Greenlandic food is not edible, as most of their food is either uncooked or partially cooked. They eat raw sliced musk oxen meat, whale meat, reindeer meat, seal meat. All these meats are red in colour.
Whales: Hunting for whales started by European whalers in the 16th century. The introduction of bigger and stronger ships made it possible to sail to Greenland and hunt for the whales. Whale oil was used for lighting, lubrication and tanning purposes. The whalers were interested in bow head whales. They are a little slow moving and just one bow head whale will provide 20–30 tonnes of oil. One can imagine what the tonnage of meat will be. Now hunting this category of whale is banned. Only a few categories of whales are allowed for hunting. Whale meat is red in colour. Here the fishing harbour never stinks as badly as in other places. This is due to the ambient temperature which keeps the products fresh, and never lets them decay. The dead ones are as fresh as green salad.
Legal system in Greenland:
Greenland is the only place in the world to legally permit whale hunting and consumption by human beings. The legal system is very much lenient as a murder convict gets only three years imprisonment. The judge here is an unqualified person, the court is a small room which is like a tea stall. The appeals court for any case is in Nuuk where there is the Supreme Court of Greenland. If a criminal is incorrigible even after such mild convictions, he/she is sent to mainland (Denmark) for correctional treatment. In general, Greenlanders are loving and friendly people and very helpful.
Apart from the above trips, you have so many other adventure, pleasure, pilgrimage and relaxing trips to the Arctic. The author can be contacted by email: pyromat@satyam.net.in or by his phone: +91 44 24890009 or 24890710.
P Sridhar
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Published on Sept 26th, 2007
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