[G20Rider]

What does an Air India Boeing 787 dream liner, Vande Bharat and Force Urbania have in common? Well, nothing other than the fact that these were my primary means of transport during the recent South Indian road trip (South Tamilnadu to be accurate).

Amsterdam to Kochi (via Delhi) - Air India

We flew Air India from Amsterdam to Kochi via Delhi in July 2024 (Summer vacation in Europe). We heard so many horror stories about delays and bad service of Air India in the proceeding months of our travel that we went with a rather low set of expectations. Maybe because of that, we came out more or less satisfied.

Ready to board in Amsterdam airport. No matter what, sight of an Air India aeroplane in foreign soil always evokes an emotional feeling in most Indians heart.


The Delhi to Amsterdam stretch was done by Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This fleet of Air India is about 7 years old and the interior has never been refurbished. That means you get broken seats, non-working infotainment system, broken mirror in toilets etc. Only saving grace was the leg room that was good for an economy class seat along with a generous luggage allowance.
The cabin crew was also quite unenthusiastic about the service. Most of them looked grumpy without a tint of smile on their face.

Seats are old and worn out. Waiting for the delayed and much needed refurbishment. But the leg space is good


Infotainment didn't work, there was 3M tapes all over the place



Delhi to Kochi was a much better experience. It was a younger Airbus A320 which was well maintained and most importantly the staff was young and friendly. Most had an energetic smile on them, like they are genuinely happy to be doing their job.

Inside the A320, much more cheerful and cleaner



Although a single ticket, thanks to the laws of India, it requires a passenger arriving from outside India to complete the immigration, collect the checked in luggage at the first port of entry and re check-in for the second leg of the journey. Thankfully Delhi airport was not very crowded and the transfer process took less than 30mins. Middle Eastern airlines provided a far more seamless experience. While this is not in control of Air India, Indian government should really consider doing something to make this more seamless if we intend to make India an aviation hub for connecting traffic and compete with the middle eastern carriers)

Overall I would say the experience was just about acceptable. We and our bags arrived on time at destination which is the single most important factor. While I understand the problems with age of airplanes and that the Tata's are doing their best to get newer ones in air as well as refurbish the existing ones, I don’t understand why things like staff attitudes or day to day operational details like hand soap in toilets (that was 90% water) or cleanliness cannot be improved. In the current circumstances, only reason I would choose Air India over Middle Eastern careers is only if there was a substantial difference in the cost of tickets (as was the case this time). I hope in few years time, Air India will improve with newer aircraft (or refurbished ones) joining their fleet. Once we landed in Kochi, India we had 4 days to relax before we embark on a 7 day long road trip across Tamilnadu.

The road trip

A friend had invited us for his son’s first birthday in Chennai and the dates overlapped with the dates we were in India. So we decided to go.
My FIL expressed his desire to visit the famous Madurai Meenakshi temple. We thought it might be a good idea to make it a road trip so we can do both in one go.I was also interested because I haven’t visited south Tamil Nadu at all despite having lived in Coimbatore + Chennai for almost 7 years for college as well as early career.

And the planning started. And as with most plans it quickly snowballed. Palani as well as Tanjavur was added to the list. Then I added Chettinadu region as well as Trichy. Chettinadu as I’m a big of the cuisine as well as curious about Chettiars community. This came from when the time I lived in Singapore and Chettiars feature prominently in their early history as the financiers of the nascent trading post established by British back then. Trichy was added as I wanted to try Vande Bharat train and there was one connecting Trichy to Chennai. Trichy was close to Tanjavur. Now we are 8 people and a 1500+ kms trip.

Next question was choice of transport. Initially I wanted to do it by train as I was concerned about the safety aspect of a long road trip with my kid. Soon it became apparent that while Indian railway works well for a point to point journey, it’s ill suited for a multi hop journey. Travel times were too long and timings simply inconvenient. Only other option was to go by road and I wanted a safe comfortable vehicle. Turns out there is a large gap in the Indian market for people carriers below the 15+ seater mini buses. Innova and likes according at least to me is not a comfortable long distance tourer for groups. It can either carry 5 people and their luggage on a long distance or 7 people without any luggage for small to medium distances. Wish we had options like the VW Transporter, Mercedes V class or Ford Transit in the market. Real small space efficient vans. And then someone suggested Force Urbania. I’ve had seen and read about it in various auto forums and has always been keen about it. It’s quite an improvement over the regular traveler and reminded me of the Mercedes Sprinter vans popular in Europe. It can seat 18 if I remember correctly so obviously was a bit of an overkill for us. But again due to the aforementioned gap as well as me being super conservative about safety (becoming a dad really turns your perspective around) We decided to choose it. And I also wanted to experience the vehicle.

Plan was set, vehicle is ready and itinerary looked as below

Day 1- Thrissur To Palani drive, roam around in the town in evening
Day 2- Visit Palani temple in morning, drive to Madurai, visit places of interest in Madurai
Day 3- Visit Madurai Meenakshi temple, drive to Kanadukathan in Chettinadu region, stay in a Chettinadu mansion
Day 4- Walk around heritage town, see some palaces, weaver etc. Drive to Thanjavur, visit Brihadeshwara temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Day 5- Drive to trichy. No specific plans there.
Day 6- In laws and parents travel back to Kerala / Me and family proceed to Chennai by Vande Bharat
Day 7- Visit friends in Chennai, Indigo back to Kochi

The vehicle - Force Urbania

I always felt that the Urbania is a handsome vehicle from the photos. And the design only grew over me when I saw it in real.
And boy was he such a head turner especially in Tamilnadu. We had countless number of times when people came over to check on the vehicle and youngsters on bikes giving us thumbs up. We were given royal treatment in almost every restaurant and hotels we visited. Maybe its the handsome face or maybe its the fake 3 pointer star on its nose. I would like to believe its the looks.

Handsome looking vehicle with a very smart looking front and side. This was brand new and had clocked just over 6000KMS.


The rear looks a bit plain compared to the front, nevertheless its clean and attractive


Excellent ingress with wide opening sliding doors for passenger section. I always hated the tilting front seats of the old force travellers. Floor height is low enough to be not a big inconvenience to the elders


Dash is molded plastic and quite hard wearing. Appropriate for this vehicle. Infotainment system has wired apple car play/andorid auto, although it did not work very reliably. Sometimes the system went to screensaver mode while navigation was on. And the tiny screen was not easiest to look at in sunny days. Had a reverse camera, which is a must have.


Front passenger seat


Interiors - spacious and well designed. Large windows are great and add to the sense of airiness.


The single seats of the left side felt a tad bit narrower. Im not sure if its the perception or they are actually narrow.


Every passenger gets adjustable vents and reading lights


My girl getting comfortable in the rides. I would have preferred for her to sit in any other seats which had another seat in front of it, but you cant argue beyond a limit with a toddler.


Every seat had lap belts and we were evidently the first one to use it since it was still neatly plastic wrapped from factory. One major flaw is that these belts are not retractable. That means they all gonna dangle down on floor once the wrapping is removed.

The last row - Used as our luggage space
The chosen vehicle is configured to be people carrier not a long distance tourer. It had seats till the last row. Another option had the last row removed and converted as luggage space, but that one quoted a much higher cost. It was not a problem for us as we were only 8 and the last row was used as our luggage space. It also gave us the flexibility by giving us access to luggage while on the road.


The vehicle was driven by a very experienced chap. He had proved his mettle by driving the cut throat and dangerous thrissur-calicut private buses of Kerala. In his own words, those days were hugely stressful. He had also worked as driver for executives in middle eastern countries driving the likes of Toyota Alphard. So I believe he can be a good judge of the vehicle. From his own words, Urbania is effortless to drive, almost car like. He compared it to the regular traveller which according to him had the issues of break fade in ghat roads as well as the vehicle nose diving at sudden breaks. Urbania had none of that issues.
Overall it was an excellent ride. I feel the Urbania is among the best (if not the best) tourer vans currently on sale in India. NVH is brilliant with barely any engine or suspension noise filtering in. Ride was quite sorted. It never felt harsh at slow speeds nor wavy at high speeds. Speed is limited from factory to 80KMPH. I feel it a bit too conservative especially considering the vastly improving highways in India. A 100KMPH limit would have been more appropriate especially on highways like these that are abundant in Tamilnadu.

Places worth mentioning

Palani and Madurai was typical temple towns. Very crowded and not the most cleanest of streets. I didn't click any picture in both places. Madurai Meenakshi temple as expected was stunning inside, but it was located quite deep inside a bustling old city. That means its impossible to experience the full grandeur of the complex from ground. Excellent drone shot videos available in Youtube is the best way to fully visualize the massive complex. We also gulped down on the madurai special Jigarthanda and I loved it

Its the Chettinadu region that was the highlight for me in the whole trip. We stayed at Chettinadu Mansion in Kanadukathan, a Town Panchayat in the Karaikudi. Its was built in 1902 and well preserved in all its glory.





You can see the industriousness and vision of the Chettiar community just from the fact that these villages has been well planned in a perfect grid format 100+ of year ago. Something we still struggle to do in India.



We had to visit a doctor for a minor thing and we checked out the government hospital of Kanadukathan. It has built and donated by the famous Annamalai Chettiar and we can see how it was built as a statement.
And as I've always come to expect from Tamilnadu, the reception and service in the government hospital were warm and efficient. We were quickly attended to and properly cared for.
[/ATTACH]


The whole village also stands as a testament to the famous words "Change is the only constant". Many of the huge mansions are in an abandoned state and the whole village lives in the shadow of its glorious past.
Statue of a Chettiar in the banks of Singapore River, in front of the Asian Civilisations Museum


The Brihadeshwara temple of Thanjavur is a another highlight. Its stunning and beautiful.

Lighting at night has been executed quite beautifully. It really highlights the marvellous architecture. Overall the whole complex is maintained tastefully (which sadly cannot be said about a lot of equally grand and old temple complexes we visited in the trip)


Another notable place was the Maratha palace in Thanjavur. I was not even aware of the fact of this part of the history where a kingdom from Deccan ruled a part of Tamilnadu. The palace itself is not very well maintained but one can clearly see the strange mix of architecture.

[G20Rider]

Vande Bharat Express

I have been following this train from as early as 2018 when it was released as Train18 by Mr Sudhanshu Mani and the team at ICF. It was a refreshing change from the hulking locomotive pulled types of IR and signalled India's belated entry into the modern train sets era. So I was keen to try one.

We took the Trichy to Chennai VB which covered the approx 330kms in 4 hours with just two stops in between. Most of the times, train cruised at 109KMPH speed (110KMPH sections). Tickets for 2 adults and a kid cost around INR3250 and that included a meals. I found the price to be fair considering the service provided. And passengers seems to agree, train was full.

The old vs new. Generations apart


Excellent seats even in the normal chair cars. Having in seat service and constant presence of service personnel made it feel like a contained and managed environment versus the unmanaged chaotic environment of classic Indian trains.


Toilet. Was acceptably clean except for super wet with water all over the floor. A big improvement compared to the toilets in old rakes


The big windows finally allows one to enjoy the beautiful views to the fullest during train rides.


I knew IR operates the broad gauge vs the standard gauge that is more common abroad. But the extra width became so much obvious when I got in an IR train after a big time gap. Its wideeee!


Versus typical European trains which are visibly narrower. First one is Trenitalia high speed service from Milan to Venice and second is a slower Eurocity train between Berlin and Prague.


Overall I felt the train itself is a giant leap for the Indian railways, although something that is at least 15 years late. The fact that we were able to design and manufacture it in the country make it more special. Having said that, its not yet a world class train. There are a lot of rough edges in the interiors and train itself didn't feel the most stable. At the lowly 110KMPH, train wobbles quite a bit and a water bottle had a tough time standing up and tipped over a couple of times. Granted the smoothness of a train depends majorly on the track quality itself, maybe it will perform better on better tracks. Even then I got a distinct feeling that the train in the current form may not be the smoothest in its stated 160KMPH top speed (Yes I've seen the video of water cup at 180KMPH in a VB, but its just my feeling).
Nevertheless VB rakes are a step in the right direction and I hope IR continues to invest in better trains, tracks and most importantly safety.

Special mention - Chennai

Chennai has a special place in my heart. Its the city where I had my first job back in 2012. First place where I lived fully on my own terms. I had soo many special moments in that city and I consider the roughly 3.5 years spent there as among the best days of my life. Now Im back there for a short 2 days visit and the first impression was that things hasn't changed much.
Biggest change is the new metro as well as availability of Ubers and Ola cabs (not a thing back in 2012-15). Made life much more easier. One thing that has improved is the airport. It used to be a dumpster back in the days with no proper pick up area and broken roads in front of the airport. It was so bad in fact, there wasn't much of difference between Chennai airport and Chennai Central pick up and drop area. Now things has improved, a proper pickup area is available and roads has been fixed with good marking. And there is good connectivity thanks to the direct link to metro station. Airport security was not very efficient though.

While I was aware of the metro, a surprising element was the presence of a full fledged mall attached to the airport metro. Great to kill those extra hours before a late flight.


It has a direct link to the terminal too.


Finally we took an Indigo back home. and nothing much to write about Indigo, It just works without any frills. I must say I was amazed on the number of direct connections between Chennai and Kochi these days (Contrasting back to my days in Chennai), India aviation indeed has grown.

Has Indigo practically taken over the domestic aviation?

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[SithDefender]

Originally Posted by G20Rider

Overall it was an excellent ride. I feel the Urbania is among the best (if not the best) tourer vans currently on sale in India.

Thank you for sharing. I was always intrigued by the Urbania and found it to be a handsome option. It is becoming quite popular especially amongst foreign clientele. I just wish the dashboard was also as modern-looking as the exteriors.

Originally Posted by G20Rider

Vande Bharat Express

I knew IR operates the broad gauge vs the standard gauge that is more common abroad. But the extra width became so much obvious when I got in an IR train after a big time gap. ... Versus typical European trains which are visibly narrower. First one is Trenitalia high speed service from Milan to Venice and second is a slower Eurocity train between Berlin and Prague.

Wow, our VB train now looks more spacious than the Europeans!

[Akash5653]

My father owns a fleet of Innova and hycross. But, recently there has been a lot of awareness about the urbania. Clients are not interested in tempo travellers anymore due to it's crude nature. We hope to add this in our fleet next year

[Ltinsane]

Force Urbania are comfortable, powerful and fine-looking vehicles. They are ideal to fill the gap between SUVs/Minivan and Minibus which is a growing market. I just wish the drivers stop driving them rashly.

[Vinod_nair]

Excellent picturesque voyage, the pictures are perfect, and your story telling narration is good.

Could you please share the costs of your travel, and food aren't you a foodie? (All Mallus are)

[callvvijay]

Originally Posted by G20Rider

....... snip...........

Although a single ticket, thanks to the laws of India, it requires a passenger arriving from outside India to complete the immigration, collect the checked in luggage at the first port of entry and re check-in for the second leg of the journey.

........snip.....

I haven't read your travelogue fully yet. Will do it. But, this particular line caught my attention.

Isn't this the norm almost all across the globe? What is specific to Indian law here?

For instance, if I travel from India (DEL) to Seattle (SEA) with my port of entry to the US being SFO, I would be required to clear immigration, collect checked-in baggage, clear customs and re-check the baggage in SFO. This procedure seems quite standard worldwide.

Am I missing something here?

Cheers!

[G20Rider]

Originally Posted by callvvijay

Isn't this the norm almost all across the globe? What is specific to Indian law here?
Cheers!

I always thought the norm is airside luggage transfer in case of single ticket travel where luggage is automatically transferred to the connecting flight. I have only done connections where both legs were international (via Middle East, Singapore etc) and my luggage was always transferred automatically. Even when one flies into Amsterdam and then connect to a domestic European destination, AFAIK luggage is automatically transferred (never did such a connection myself but that’s what the Amsterdam airport’s website states)

But good news is Delhi will also introduce airside luggage transfer soon!

https://www.indianeagle.com/travelbe...gage-transfer/

[G20Rider]

Originally Posted by Vinod_nair

Could you please share the costs of your travel, and food aren't you a foodie? (All Mallus are)

Of course experimenting local food is an integral part of any trip of me. Infact my road trips can usually be defined simply as- drive eat repeat .
I believe Tamilnadu have the world’s best breakfast spread (Dosas, Idly, Poori, Pongal etc). And we were sure to experience it in all its glory. South Tamilnadu has a distinct non-vegetarian cuisine too. Most notable among things we tried was Mutton Chukka, Kari dosa, Kola Urandai and Dindigul Biriyani. Overall I was more impressed by the vegetarian spread.

But I’ve no track of expenses for food. Different people from the group paid at different times and nobody kept note.

Major expenses were

1. Renting the Urbania that cost around INR 45,000
2. The hotels that costs around INR 50,000 for the week (We choose hotels with average costs of around 2K per room per night and we needed atleast 3 rooms). Only the Chettinadu mansion was more expensive than the average and it was justified for the experience.
3. Indigo flight that costs INR 15,000
4. Vande Bharat train that costs INR 3,246

[neon115]

Originally Posted by callvvijay

I haven't read your travelogue fully yet. Will do it. But, this particular line caught my attention.

Isn't this the norm almost all across the globe? What is specific to Indian law here?

For instance, if I travel from India (DEL) to Seattle (SEA) with my port of entry to the US being SFO, I would be required to clear immigration, collect checked-in baggage, clear customs and re-check the baggage in SFO. This procedure seems quite standard worldwide.

Am I missing something here?

Cheers!

Most airports/countries will transfer your luggage airside to domestic flights. You need to clear customs at the port of entry, your luggage will be available at final destination.

Some airports will ask you to identify the luggage but still transfer it (Eg. Toronto Pearson), some airports will hold your luggage at customs counter if it they detect some undeclared items.