Travel blues

Going on a vacation? Wow! Lovely! You are sure to have a lot of fun. Sunny beaches, lush mountains, heritage sites, or rolling meadows and green forests, a holiday to any one of these is just what the doctor ordered to beat the stress of regular life. Sit back and relax or go adventuring, its your call. You are going to have a great time, right?

Wrong! Because you need to stay somewhere and what you see is hardly what you get in holiday stays. Pardon me for cribbing, but all those rosy pictures painted by websites and travel brochures usually are just that - rosy pictures.

Lets do a reality check of all the marketing hype around places to stay:

• "Serene, calm, cozy resort in the midst of lush green forests that are abundant with flora and fauna" usually turns out to be a bunch of huts in the middle of nowhere, devoid of any amenities, where spending a night tackling power-cuts and mosquito bites turns out to more of an adventure than the forest trail 
• "3-star facilities with spa, gym and pool, multi-cuisine restaurant, spacious rooms with all modern amenities" looks great on websites. In reality, you find the restaurant serves only Punjabi and Indo-Chinese food, and most of the items are unavailable. The room AC is erratic, the room itself is cramped with furniture, with hardly space to move about. The spa and gym are, well, closed for renovation.
• Home-stays promise "great experience of warmth and hospitality, in the comfort alike that of home", but what you get are dirty linen and inedible food.
• Beach and mountain resorts have only a few rooms offering views (of course, that is only natural, these are 3-D structures after all), and these are always booked. So you find yourself waking to the sight of a kitchen garden or if you are lucky, the backside of the resort. 

But you are on holiday, right? So whatever would not be acceptable otherwise, you swallow easily and happily, because you are determined to have a good time.

And isn't that what the holiday spirit is all about? So, bon voyage!