How It Started..
It was sometime in the beginning of November 2022 that my better half Geetha & myself came across this relatively unheard group - 50 Plus Voyagers. The reference of the group came from one of Geetha's colleague who had super annuated from her service sometime back.
We checked the website of this 50 plus voyagers. Going by the website, this seemed to be a reasonably decent group which specializes in arranging group trip for people over 50 years of age. The website mentioned : Small Group Big Memories, Leisurely paced personalized holidays, senior friendly accommodation & transport, Tour Manager experienced in taking care of elderly. The company's tagline was "Life begins at 50", I liked it!
Though Geetha & yours truly - in our mid fifties - do not necessarily see ourselves as senior citizens yet, the concept of group tour for 50 plus appealed to us. The page that first caught our attention was "Odisha - Sun, Sand & Sea".
Both of us had not visited Odisha yet, either professionally in the course of our career or personally for vacationing. The website showcased several other tours to other destinations, but what we saw first was the Odisha trip. The schedule of the Odisha tour was from 11 to 17 December 2022, a period that is relatively relaxed for me (as a working professional) and domestically for Geetha who was enjoying a well deserved retired life. She was the global head - supply chain - of a billion dollar Indian multinational pharmaceutical company (after slogging for 3 decades) when Geetha decided to call it a day in November 2019.
At the dinner table discussion when the topic of Odisha trip came up, the other family members encouraged us to explore this further & sign up for the same. The rate seemed reasonable. Our family has always traveled the old fashioned way, planning the transport, booking the hotels, talking to friends & relatives about the place we intend to visit, etc. We had traveled with a professionally set up group only once before this & had enjoyed the same.
We showed our interest by filling the form in the website. Next day the company sent a detailed email. The email included - tour schedule, places covered, package rate, early bird discount(!), inclusions and exclusions, booking process, payment process, bank account details, cancellation policy, etc.
We paid the booking amount & sent the KYC documents by email. The pick up was from Bhubaneshwar Railway Station or airport. We made the flight bookings in the flights recommended by the company. On receiving a mail from the company requiring us to pay the balance amount we paid the same & started looking forward for the trip. The email confirming the receipt of the balance amount included a message that the company would send a mail one week before the tour informing about the packing checklist, detailed itinerary and general guidelines.
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