From the azure blue sky, white powdery sand and blue sparkling water to action-packed ruise on the Mediterranean right down to the adventures up north, the choices are limitless for those seeking to get away from it all
IT’S that time of the year again when the routine in every household is topsy-turvy, when the kids sleep till the wee hours of the morning and well past midday; when you are battling the summer heat with long hours of power breakdowns and water shortages, and the cook wants to visit his village. It does not help matters when the various TV channels you flick through, on any given day, tease your imagination by showing seductive stretches of superb white sand, abundance of wind, and incredibly clear blue-green water, or beckoning you from right out of the silver screen are snow-capped peaks and verdant forests. Inwardly, you know you’ve had a hectic, exhaustive and mind-boggling season of workload and deserve a much-longed for break to get revitalized — just the kind they are showing on the screen.
Perhaps the most frequently asked question of travel operators these days is where to go? For a lot of people the criteria usually are: somewhere where living costs are digestible, nice beaches, yet somewhere new. If you are a frequent traveller, a tip here: give the globe a good spin, stop it with your finger and travel wherever your place your finger. But with travel restrictions to so many countries, no-go conflict areas, terrorism and natural disasters, the choice can be limiting.
So where do Karachiites head for in hordes and packs to beat the heat? What are the more popular summer destinations for a family vacation? Are destinations any different this summer or are potential travellers still following the well-trodden beaten path — heading for the Far East? Or is it abroad or inward to the mountains?
“If you ask me, Karachiites don’t have that adventurous streak in them to go up to the mountains,” says a travel agent. According to him, people in Karachi, generally like leisurely holidays where they can stay comfortably at good hotels, have good food and while away their time, doing absolutely nothing ... or enjoying nightlife, and where they don’t have to really exert their minds or bodies. Somehow, the Northern Areas of Pakistan with their rugged mountains, some of the highest peaks which remain eternally snow-capped and the verdant valleys with their own peculiar culture and which can surpass the beauty of the mountainous regions do not appeal to them. “The highest they would venture to would be Nathaigali,” he adds disparagingly.
Syed Asad, counter superviser at Travel World, views the situation slightly differently. “It’s not all that cheap, by air, to travel to Islamabad, and then further up north. So, if you are paying for the airfare plus the accommodation, say for a family of four, which comes to almost the same, or maybe a little more, international travel is still more attractive. It has a snob value attached to it as well, we have to admit, even if it is Thailand. It also helps to have a passport that shows you’ve travelled abroad when you apply for visa to the UK or the US as opposed to a blank passport.”
He explains that by paying slightly more, you can really have your money’s worth by going to Thailand. And if the Far East is expensive, there is always Dubai.
But what about the heat? “Who cares about the heat?” is the reply from most tour operators. “In Dubai everything is air-conditioned. You step out of your air-conditioned hotel and into a taxi and then to a mall, everywhere the temperatures are maintained. You get the best of the two worlds — familiarity of your culture — food to suit your taste, the same faces, the same language,” says Asad.
Shujaat Hussain Burfat, Manager Tours and Contracting, Sindbad Travels (Pvt) Ltd., adds a whole list of why Dubai is such a popular destination. “Most attractions are family-oriented — shopping, low airfare, affordable accommodation. Being a Muslim destination is also a plus point, and best of all it’s just two-hours away from Karachi. People like to visit the famous Burj Al Arab hotel on Jumeriah beach, go on a desert safari or a dhow cruise. And if accompanied by children then Wild Wadi water park is a must.”
Another travel agent explains that after 9/11 traffic towards the West slowed down even for people who regularly trotted that side of the globe. “The cumbersome process of visa has drifted people away from that side, much to their loss. The Schengen visa that took four days now takes at least 20 working days irrespective of your status, or how many times you’ve travelled before. Visa to the US means that you go through the humiliation of finger-printing.”
On the contrary, says Asad, “Processing visas for the Far East is so much simpler. You can get visas for a lot of countries — Bangkok, Singapore,Malaysia and Indonesia — all within a span of 20-22 days. While visa for the UK is comparatively easier this year, as they now have the drop-box facility for people who have travelled to the UK before, but for first-time visa seekers it may take three to four weeks. It also means during that period you cannot apply for visa to any other place thus going to the UK and Europe means planning at least two to three months in advance.”
Many potential travellers find the pre-travel planning a hassle, especially for a family where both the spouses are working and have no time to surf the Net and look for discount offers, or doing the rounds of consulates to get requirements for visa processing. “It’s quite cumbersome and takes away quite a bit of the fun of planning a vacation. It starts with first making sure your passports are valid, have enough pages and God help you if you or your children’s passports are not in place. It means going through the harrowing experience of the Awami Markaz ordeal for the machine-readable ones. It also means if your kids are under 18, you will first have to get their B-Forms done electronically,” says a would-be-traveller.
“I would also advise people to go to the consulates for visa application forms and read the visa rules themselves and not take those given by travel agents (TA) as every year the forms change as well as requirements and many a time, the TAs don’t always know. I’d filled eight visa forms for Indonesian visas only to be told I need to fill them all over again as I’d filled them on the photocopied forms provided by the TA. And all have to be filled by hand, no photocopying to save time and effort,” says an exasperated traveller.
But sometimes it actually helps to go through a TA. The Malaysian visa form states that you have to fill the form by typing. However, a visit to the consulate will help as hand-written applications forms are accepted, you are told. However, they will inform you that you have to take a date for the interview. “Interview for visa — for Malaysia, which boasts to be truly Asia?” you ask incredulously. “Yes,” pat comes the reply. “The earliest we can give is June 23.” “But I’m booked for June 11,” you say. “No, interviews are necessary,” says the woman behind the counter, enjoying your discomfiture, as if saying ‘serves you right for not seeking our assistance in the first place’. The TA, however, allays all your fears and gets the visa, the ticket and the accommodation in your hand within four days, is the experience of yet another potential traveller.
Are people travelling to the tsunami-hit areas this year? “That has not been a deterrent, surprisingly, except for areas where the hotels have not been rebuilt. You know, our people don’t get scared so easily with natural calamities. That way they are a resilient lot when you compare them to the people in the West who pay heed to the slightest of travel advisories. The general belief is that if something terrible has to happen, it can happen anywhere, right here, if God wills. A four-day/three-night package of Rs33,000 per person to Colombo and Kandy, with accommodation at four and five star hotels offered by Destinations of the World tour operators has been a runaway success. “The cost of services have come down and we’ve taken advantage of that,” they say.
Most Pakistanis when they travel for leisure seek out places where they have people/relatives they know so that if not the fare, they can at least save up on lodging and which can come to quite a bit and don’t try off the beaten tracks. Also the fact that they can rely on someone to show them around or tell them what to see and where to go makes most of us so lazy that we don’t want to read up on places to see and visit from before. However, the Lonely Planet traveller’s guide website states, especially when heading for the uncharted waters, that ‘an informed traveller is a safe traveller’. It also helps to know from before what you want to see and what you can skip and save up on precious time.
Many frequent travellers when asked if they’d opt for pre-paid packages, a fairly recent phenomenon, being promoted by tour operators in Pakistan shook their heads in the negative. “You get stuck with the itinerary” or “they will naturally charge you more than if you can book various excursions yourself” or “they may miss out the weird alleys or places you really want to see and instead take you around the run-of-the-mill”.
But there are others who vouch for the success, saying the trend has really caught on. For instance, one agency has sold about 600 packaged tours to Egypt alone since it started promoting it about six months ago. “People have shown a lot of interest in our Iran package also,” he says, emphasizing that packages can be tailor-made for customers. “If they are unhappy with certain excursions and want to see something else, that can be done. These packages that we offer can always be twisted and turned to suit one’s requirement,” says the agent.
And so the choice is yours really — to be an armchair traveller or to really step out and see the world — whichever side you chose, with or without your family, with friends or, why not, be a solitary traveller and make friends on the way ... go atop mountains, or dive into the sea, by air, by train, by car or even by foot ...
If you are going abroad, do have a look at the minimum costs to spend a night at some of the popular destinations in hotels categorized as three to five stars. These are per person rates on a twin-sharing basis calculated in terms of US dollars:
Destination: 3* 5*
Dubai $30 $58
Colombo $30 $44
Cairo $45 $70
Kuala Lumpur $27 $37
Langkawi $28 $63
Penang $32 $60
Istanbul $22 $40
Courtesy: Sindbad Travels
Danger zone destinations
The following are the latest travel warnings put up on the Lonely Planet website:
• Togo: Election unrest
• Egypt: Foreigners targeted in Cairo attacks and Sinai Peninsula security warning
• Myanmar: Tsunami alert/Should you go to Myanmar?
• Uzbekistan: Unrest in Tashkent
• Guinea Bissau: Proceed with caution
• Bolivia: Protest and unrest
• Senegal: Conflict in Casamance
• Argentina: Economic woes
• Indonesia: Tsunami alert /Heightened terrorism threat
From the azure blue sky, white powdery sand and blue sparkling water to action-packed ruise on the Mediterranean right down to the adventures up north, the choices are limitless for those seeking to get away from it all
On the contrary, says Asad, “Processing visas for the Far East is so much simpler. You can get visas for a lot of countries — Bangkok, Singapore,Malaysia and Indonesia — all within a span of 20-22 days. While visa for the UK is comparatively easier this year, as they now have the drop-box facility for people who have travelled to the UK before, but for first-time visa seekers it may take three to four weeks. It also means during that period you cannot apply for visa to any other place thus going to the UK and Europe means planning at least two to three months in advance.”
