Friday, December 20, 2013

SIKKIM-BEST IN TRAVEL 2014:LONELY PLANET


 If you’re feeling jaded by the heat and hassles of IndiaSikkim is the perfect antidote. It’s clean (plastic bags are banned) and the mountain air is fresh. Best of all the people are among India’s most friendly, with a charming manner that’s unobtrusive and slightly shy. To really savour some true Sikkimese atmosphere, visit a village tongba-bar for some local millet beer: it’s a bit like warm Japanese sake. Plunging mountain valleys are lushly forested, interspersed occasionally with rice terraces and groves of flowering rhododendrons. Tibetan-style Buddhist monasteries (gompas) add splashes of vermilion to the green ridgetops and are approached through atmospheric avenues of colourful prayer flags set on long bamboo poles.

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/sikkim#ixzz2o4zL5EJJ

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Indian Train food:Now you can Complain if ....


Now you can call up a toll free number from anywhere in the country to complain about the quality of the food served on trains. Railways has pressed into service its nationwide, centralised call centre dedicated to food-related matters, which will attend to complaints in "real-time", which means immediately.
The number, 1800-111-321, will be operational all days between 7 am and 10 pm. The moment it receives any complaint from a passenger about food quality, quantity overcharging etc, it will contact the catering manager of the vendor on board the train to fix it during the course of the journey.
"We have also formed local squads to carry out surprise checks on trains for catering and cleanliness-related issues to see that the system is working perfectly," said Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.
Railways may also come up with its first food-testing laboratory so that complaints of quality and hygiene can be checked.
Railways has decided to extend the catering contracts of all vendors serving food on premium trains like Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Durontos for another four months, during which the ministry will firm up new contracts to be awarded with revised guidelines. The new contracts will be for five years extendable for another five subject to performance.
As per the revised norms, the number of trains each catering company can serve may be reduced further and this time, every catering vendor will have to operate out of modern, state-of-the-art base kitchens from major stations. The aim is to come up with around 250 such base kitchens across India. The base kitchens might take a year to come up.(Indian Express)