Our family booked a package tour to Singapore-Malaysia in gnstours Ravipuram cochin (www.gnstours.com). Eventhough the cost is a bit higher compared to other operators, their itenary seems to be good. So we booked for our family of 5. We were accompanied by an arrogant and ignorant tour manager George Tytus who just donot know what disembarkation was. Our tour team consists of 12 elderly people and the rest 7 were below the age of 30. Let me get into how be behaves with the elderly people.
The first three days everything went quite smoothly, on the fourth day we should have reached Singapore from Genting in Malaysia by around noon. According to the itenary we would take the lunch from Singapore. But the tour manager made the arrangement in such a way that we start from Genting very late. (He admitted later that it was adviced from the head office. The head office in Cochin is managed by a lady called Nalini I suppose.). And we were travelling through the expressway to Singapore by bus (I think the expressway is called NorthSouthExpressway) and we see no signs of Singapore even at 12:30pm. So an old retired ONGC engineer asked the tour manager about the lunch. This guy shouted at him saying, why on hell is he bothered about food. The old man was a diabetic patient and he needs to take food at right times. But our tour manager was not apologetic, and he passed a command which hurts all who had earned money in a hard way. All in our group was hungry but the tour manager was not at all bothered and donot want to tell at what time we could get lunch. When all of us started discussing about this, suddenly he vanished from his seat and hide himself in the last seat of the bus where nobody was sitting, and he made sure that he can't be seen unless we step right near to his seat. Everyone insisted him to know what time we would be serverd the lunch. Finally he consulted with the coach driver and informed us that as it take more time in the malaysia-singapore border, we would take lunch at the next wayside cafeteria. And he said we have pay for the food as they are supposed to provide us food only from Singapore (Did I say that the package we paid for included food also). Everybody became very restless with his statement. The main problem we were facing is the ringit (malaysian currency) we had after shopping in Malaysia was changed to Singapore dollar, as we need not need any more ringts because the food and snack will be provided by the tour operator. When we enquired the driver about any money exchange in can be found on the way, he politely said it can't found anywhere till you reach Singapore. But still the tour manager's stand was clear; if anybody has any ringts leftover, they can have food; the rest he don't know. Everybody in the coach started to compel him to call to his head office, and finally the head office paved way for our hunger. After several phone calls to the head office the tour manager said that you can eat anything upto 10 ringits, if the amout come above that he is not responsible. But we tourists donot konw what kind of hotel will be available there, how much it costs for a lunch or what kind of food is available there. Many people thought atleast they can have one cup of tea or coffee. To avoid furthermore questions from us, he again vanished to the last seat and hide his head down under. Great what a responsible tour manager!!!. To add insult to injury, a husband took food for 12 ringits and his wife took for 4 ringits, our great tour operator declined to pay the bill as one bill is above the limit of what he adviced. Again we interefed and got the things right. If he insists that he will pay only 10 ringit instead of 12, then the husband would be arrested. Is this the tour manager wanted? What kind of a tour company is this. And after the payment of their bill, I heard a very nasty comment on that couple made by him and enjoyed by one of his cronies and bus driver. That couple had been in dignified post their whole life and retired from a very respectable company. It made some of us feel like a beggar after paying exhobitant amout for the tour.
After lunch, some from our group enquired about the time taken to reach Singapore, to our surprise he don't have any clue. We got it from the bus driver and proceeded to the much waited destination. Once we reached Singapore, the missed the road to reach the hotel and we travelled from one end of the Singapore to the other 2 times. Again the tour manager vanished, nice manger !!! When we reached the hotel the time was 5:45 pm. Which mean the full day we spent travelling, and later in the evening there is no program at all, which turns out to be no sightseeing or visit for a full 24 hours.
I had again several bad experiences with George Tytus, but I donot want to mention it as it is just between me and him. What I mentioned here is his and his company's behaviour which affected all of us. This tour operating company is good if the money you pay is not hard earned, or you can go with them if you do not bother to examine what you get from the money you pay.
