AFVOA Newletters of Year 2013

Page 38 of 61 TRAVELOGUE TOUR OF GUJARAT by Major General KS Chattaraman Preamble We are the 1956- 60 batch of Engineering College Students from Alagappa Chettiar College of Engineering and Technology (ACCET), Karaikudi, Ramnad district, Tamil Nadu. After untiring efforts, we have been able to locate many of our batch mates and their families. Those of us in Chennai and around, about 25 couples meet once in three months in a hotel for fellowship. We have a few dedicated members who meticulously organize annual tours to interesting places. The duration of such tours extend to about 7 to 10 days and our participation with families in the annual tours is very encouraging. We had been to Puducherry, Konkan, Kerala, Andamans, Sri Lanka and so on. This year we visited Gujarat in February. A short description of our tour to Gujarat is presented in the succeeding paragraphs. Attendance and Administration We were 25 members. The planning commenced 4 months in advance. We interacted with Gujarat Tourism authorities in Chennai and chalked out a tentative schedule limiting to 11 days in all. We were concerned about average age of participants which is between 70 and 75 years and was careful in not overstraining them. We booked our air tickets as a group with Spicejet from Chennai to Ahmadabad and back and obtained maximum benefit in fares. The tour was scheduled from 19 Feb to 01 Mar 2013. We restricted our trip to Western Gujarat (South of Kutch). Our move within Gujarat was in an AC Coach, 38 seater, belonging to Gujarat Tourism We had the same Driver, Assistant and a Guide throughout. Mostly we moved on Express Highway and the condition of the roads was superb matching any autobahn in Europe. We did not feel the tiredness of long travel in bus. Weather throughout was dry and very favourable and the temperature was 20 to 24 degrees Celsius in the morning and evening hours. The cost of the tour per member worked out as Rs 38,000/- which included air tickets, hotel accommodation, transport and food. Our accommodation was in 3 star Hotels or in good resorts in air-conditioned double rooms as arranged by Gujarat Tourism Bus Tour Route and Stay From To Distance (kms) Stay Ahmadabad - Gandhinagar. 15 Gujarat Tourism, TORAN Hotel. Ahmadabad - Junegat 240 ---- Junegat - Sasangir 80 Sasangir Jungle Lodge, Sasangir