Karnataka   

Chariot signs off on a golden note

— Photo: M.A. Sriram

Memorable: Tourists at Calangute beach in Goa on their last leg of their seven-day tour on the Golden Chariot on Sunday.

On Board The Golden Chariot: The sign off was perfect and after a hectic seven-day schedule crisscrossing tourist sites stretching from south Karnataka to North Interior Karnataka. Tourists on this state-of-the-art luxury train ended their tour by having a whale of a time on the sun-kissed sands of the famed beaches of Goa and visiting some of the important churches.

“It is a fairly good experience and should go very well with the foreign tourists,” said Vijay Sai Bolla, Managing Director and CEO of Sai Renaissance Hotels at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh and WhiteField, who travelled on the train with his wife, Vijayalakshmi. Incidentally, Mr Bolla and his wife are the first Indian passengers to travel on the luxury train, which completed its first commercial run.

The Anand and Madhura Katti couple, travel writers, who keep travelling around the world, said that the Golden Chariot should augur well for giving the much-needed boost for tourism in Karnataka. “The train would be the talk of the town among the foreign travel agents and the places selected in the circuit is perfect showcasing the rich cultural heritage of Karnataka and also some leisure tourism.”

Mr. Bolla said except for a few hiccups such as the tight schedule and lack of time to visit more places in historic centres such as Hampi and giving more time for foreign tourists to spend in Goa, the trip was excellent, and travelling and hospitality charges collected were meagre compared with the kind of service extended.

“The food and service was excellent,” he said and added that even the other services provided on the train were comparatively cheaper than in a five-star hotel. “More important was the ambience in the luxury coach which was more Indian, which would make this train a success,” said Mr Bolla.

The Kattis said the luxury train was the best in the show now and it should help in bringing more tourists to Karnataka, land of many monuments and important tourist sites

The tiring and energy sapping six-day tour of Karnataka tourist circuit came to an end with the Goa circuit. Although the crowded Calangute Beach was not a perfect spot for the tourists to spend some time in the blue waters of the calm sea, the tourists enjoyed their two hours in the beach with a few taking motorboats to have a glimpse of the dolphins, a few went for parasailing in the boats and others took water boats to go around the sea.

Later, the tourists motored down to the famed Bom Jesus Church which in Portuguese means “Beautiful Jesus Church”, which is a UNESCO heritage site, and a few other churches before visiting a house of a Portuguese family to have the glimpse of the lifestyle of the Portuguese, the former rulers of this tiny State.

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