Review: Ajay Modi Yatra (0 km)

Recently I had been on the tour to Kashmir. We were three families (11 members). We chose Ajay Modi's touring service so that life can be easy there. I stay at Ahmedabad, Gujarat,India. But officially our tour was supposed to start from Delhi. We reached to Delhi on 11th November 2012. Next day morning we were supposed to fly to Srinagar. 

Before I share details about the specific areas of tour I would give out the over all feeling of the tour. It was poor to moderate. Tour arrangement was far from what I had expected.

No matter where we plan to go, there are certain areas which one would expect to be satisfactory. Here I discuss my experience with Ajay Modi Yatra services.

Food

Place where breakfast was being prepared.

Overall quality of food was not so good. There are reasons why I am saying this. I am Gujarati and I eat Gujarati food everyday. When I go for the tour to Kashmir I do expect to have the Kashmiri delicacies. I understand that most of the Kasmiri food is non veg but still they can serve us with some sensible variety. It can be okay if they serve Gujju stuff once in a while but all seven days is heights. I was shocked to see Fafda-Jalebi and Sev khamani there in Kashmir. Just to tell you that I had an ice cold fafda. 

It seems they are focusing on quantity rather than quality. There were always myriad of  items to eat, all being gujju. I would rather prefer to have 1 quality Aloo Paratha. I still remember the taste of those parathas that I had on the way to Srinagar Airport. That is what I call the quality food.

Only good item was Khakra with ghee and tea/coffee. They provided us with both the beverages. Further, we requested them to serve us with tea at 7 : 30 am when we get up. They said that we can have it at 9 am with breakfast and not before. So we had to shell around 1200/- just for tea. Usually people need tea when they get up.  

Food was flooded with oil. It was so oily that I felt little nauseated. Hygiene of food was also questionable  At Dal Lake house boat, when we entered the dining area, we were "welcomed" with garbage can full of used dishes and left over food. It was smelling. Dining area had no chairs. We had to stand and eat. Dishes were wet and unclean. Spoons dishes had traces of oil. I think they should have some proper dining hall where one can sit and eat. If you feel that my expectation were too much, I just need to remind you that we had paid for the service and they promised us that I will have excellent experience.

We had the food served by them for 2 days. Later, we shelled out money to get some good food. So we had to spent additional amount which we could have saved, had they provided quality food.

Hotels and related amenities

I would rate it as moderate. We stayed at house boat for 2 days. There was biting cold. Well this was expected. But we did expect them to serve us with heater. The house boat curator said flat no when we asked for it. Next one day we stayed at Hotel Zabarvan. It was an excellent one with good service. We purchased the food from there rather than going to Ajay Modi Rasoi. The service that Zabarvan people provided is the kind of service that I expect in the food area. Just to give you some idea about Zabarvan, service was similar to any quality restaurant like Havmor.

We also had stay at Phalgam at hotel Natraj. We had to stay in cottage there. Again a good place to stay . Experience was good. We were served with heater at Zarbarvan and Natraj. So stay at these places were comfortable and cozy. 

Timings

When we are on vacation we do expect to have some relaxation in timings. They were literally ordering us to reach at specific time. How could they?! 

Overall behavior and hospitality 

I would rate it below poor. They were pathetic in this area. People were rude. I will share one experience with you here. When I and my sister was having dinner on the first day, their manager asked me the name of my house boat. It was "Firdosh". I could not recall this name and took a moment to answer. Manager sarcastically commented "Some people even forget the name of their house boats!". 

Later the owner of house boat (who seem to have some arrangement with Ajay tours) requested us in ordering tone that we should chose to go on shikara ride with them rather than going with some other people.

I think they need to train their people to be polite and calm. They need to understand that "customer is king"

Guidance

There was no guidance from their part. They gave the vehicle with driver. Driver was good nature person. But we can't use that vehicle all the time. We had to hire taxis from certain spots because of the union problems. I cannot blame tour service for this. But at least they could give proper instructions to us and driver. They should have given us a guide to assist us or a map with details about where to go.

When we  were about to leave for Gulmarg from Srinagar, their manager told us to go to Bakshistand. Obviously we expected the driver to know that place. But driver was not even aware about that place. He dropped us at some other taxi stand. The manager gave us directions to go further from Bakshistand. So we were helpless. Manager also told that he would not respond to us once we reach at Bakshistand as he would be in trouble because of horse service union. So we were literally harassed my horse union members. They misbehaved and misguided us.

Nexus

There seems to be a nexus between people there. I do have my own doubts about the integrity of the people who work there for Ajay Modi's service. For example, arrangement between houseboat manager and owner. I do understand that such arrangement are necessary but it should be the advantage of tourist and not for the advantage of hotel owners.

Before you go for Ajay tours do consider my opinion seriously. I don't say its bad. I did have a good time but it did not meet my very basic expectations which any hospitality business should provide. In short, they will make all the booking and travel arrangement for you but if you are looking for quality, you may want to choose some other service.