Hello,
I hired a Tempo Traveller by Red Bus Hire. It was a family(my in-laws, elder brothers family and 2 friends who came from Chennai only for this) trip to Munnar from Bangalore. I had many discussions with Red Bug agent about cost, road tax etc. I was getting a cheaper package from a local travel agent but only because Red bus is the reliable brand, I made the advance payment. I confirm with traveler agent( Preetham Heights) that the vehicle should be in good condition.
The driver was on time and as journey started at 6 in morning, we left Bangalore at around 7. The driver was driving at around 60 -70 kmph.
On the way, I was asked to give 1500 rupees for Tamil Nadu state tax. I checked the receipt of the tax submitted. It was 1120 rupees only. I asked the driver about the rest amount, he said rest is given to RTO officer as the bribe.
I was wondering why Red Bus is charging service tax on the bribe given to RTO officer.
We reached RTO office near Coimbatore to give Kerala State tax at around 6 in evening. There I was asked 5500 rupees for Kerala state tax. Again I checked the receipt for submitted tax which was 4000 rupees. The driver told rest 1500 rupees is given to RTO officer as the bribe.
We took a U-turn from RTO office and after riding for around 2 hours, the vehicle stopped. The engine was not starting after many attempts. We got down from the vehicle and tried to push the vehicle and start it but the engine did not to start.
We were around 170 kms away from Munnar and 15 km away from Pollachi. I contacted the travel agent(Preetham Heights), he told me to wait for driver otherwise he will send a backup vehicle from Munnar to pick us up. We waited for 1 more hour on the road in dark in the middle of nowhere.
Driver found some mechanic nearby and the mechanic fixed it in 5 minutes. We started again around 8:30 pm. We entered the Annamalai Tiger reserve. After around 5 kms, the vehicle again stopped. It didn’t start after many attempts and this time we were inside of a Tiger reserve area. We didn’t know what to do next. There was no network signal, we couldn’t go outside and it was all dark and silent.
I got some very weak network signal inside the vehicle and called the travel agent and told him the issue and our location. He said he will send his backup vehicle immediately. We were waiting in the bus for around 1 n-half hour. Meanwhile, we all were continuously checking for network signal but could not get any.
Luckily we spotted one govt bus was passing by. We immediately stopped that bus and with our all luggage, we boarded the bus. Our driver also boarded with us leaving the vehicle there. The bus was full of drunk people. Everybody was drunk. It was full of the horrible smell of alcohol. Me with all my family, manage to stand in middle space as there was no any empty seat. I suspect the driver and conductor were drunk too because of the driving style.
We reached Munnar around 1 am in morning, the driver got down before town area. He took 2000 rupees for repairing the vehicle. Near Munnar bus stand, we all got down. It was raining heavily. I contacted the travel agent informed him that we have reached Munnar. He told us that he was trying to call us since last 2 3 hours to get our location and send the backup vehicle. But now the driver of the backup vehicle would have slept. So we talked to some auto guys who were there at the bus stand. They charged us 1000 rupees and dropped us to our resort as it was 16 kms far from the city.
We checked in the resort at around 2 30 in morning.
We woke up around 10 in morning and try to inquire about driver and vehicle. Both numbers were not reachable. Even we were getting very weak signal at the resort as it was at some remote location from Munnar city. We hired two small vehicles(Jeep) offered by resort people and covered some 2 3 tourist places in the day time. They charged us 6000 rupees. In the evening we contacted our driver. We got to know that he was waiting for us in another resort since afternoon. We guided him to our resort.
In the morning, we checked out from resort around 9 and on the way to Bangalore we covered 2 3 places.
We reached Bangalore around 11 30 in the night.
I don’t think these basxxrd realize that how difficult it is to get a day or two off from work and take our family to some trip. And then you are forced to see the suffer and pain on their faces for hours helplessly. What I gave my family was all these humiliation and torture on the name of a good time in nice weather which cost me more than 50K. The total cost of transporting only was around 30000 rupees.