Bad deal: Your dream holiday can turn into a nightmare if you haven?t read the fine print carefully

Selamat Datang. Welcome to Malaysia. The words reverberated in my mind as flight MH 183 touched the tarmac of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. This was my first visit to the country and I was here on a seven-day whirlwind package tour with my mother. And we were definitely not the only ones. With the arrival of easy-on-the-pocket package deals to the Far East, everyone now wants to be a part of the ?truly Asia? experience.

In Calcutta, we had approached Victoria Travels Private Limited for tour details. And they in turn had handed over the baton to a Kuala Lumpur-based agency. We were told that our contact person there was Martini.

Our troubles began from the second morning as we waited for our half-day-city-tour guide to arrive. Looking around, we realised that we were not the only ones waiting for a guide. The hotel lobby was full of people from different parts of the globe ? all trying to figure out who and where their guide was.

We waited nearly an hour for our guide. Since it was a Sunday, there was no way we could contact the travel agency. Finally, driven by my sixth sense, I approached a young man (named Lee) who had a list in his hand and, well, ?looked? like a guide. I asked him to check if our names figured on his list. They did, but had been struck off. By who, why and how? Lee didn?t know. But we were asked to board the bus anyway. It was after another long wait that we were finally on our way.

Our first stop was the Petronas Twin Towers. Lee had granted us 20 minutes. I noticed that most of our fellow-tourists did not cross the road to take a closer look, but I wanted to do the obvious ? click some snaps inside the Tower premises.

But it wasn?t long before I realised why most people admired the Towers from afar. They did not wish to be left behind ? like we were. We got late by seven minutes (trying to cross a heavy traffic zone is not exactly a cakewalk) and found to our dismay that the bus had left without us. Thankfully, since I had done my homework and knew all about the transport services, we could take a ?teski? back to the hotel.

But I had yet another hurdle to overcome. On the morning of our departure for the trip, Victoria Travels had informed us that our flight timings from Kuala Lumpur to Calcutta had been preponed. Now we had to take an earlier flight from Penang, our last halt, to be able to take the flight back home. Victoria Travels had also stated that our ground operator in Malaysia has been informed about this change and that they will do the needful. But when I asked Martini about this, she was clueless. I had a lot of difficulty in communicating but finally managed to explain what my problem was. And when I contacted Martini from Genting Highlands, she informed that she has already spoken to their Penang branch and they would take the changed flight timings into account.

Though we tried to enjoy the rest of the holiday, it was difficult. On reaching Calcutta, I got in touch with Sunaina Chatterjee, business development manager of Victoria Travels and gave her my feedback about the trip and in return received the assurance that such things will be looked into. She added, ?We will definitely get in touch with the agency in Kuala Lumpur and ask them to explain what went wrong.?

We were not the only ones who had to face such travails on a budget holiday. My fellow traveller Dr S. Singh, a businessman from Calcutta who had gone on a combined trip to Malaysia and Singapore along with his family, had a similar tale. ?There was nobody to pick us up at the airport. It was so frustrating. I kept on calling my operator but to no avail. Finally I had to ?hijack? the pick-up van of another tour operator and get them to drop us at Genting Highlands.? And his tale of woe does not end here. At Kuala Lumpur he had to encounter another problem ? they had no bookings at the hotel where they were supposed to stay. Like me, Singh too hauled up his travel agent, who, on his part, apologised and agreed to refund part of the amount Singh had paid for the trip.

My co-passenger, Dr Solomon Wang, administrator of Assembly of God Church Schools, who also had his share of problems summed up the package tour deal for us ?Cheap does not necessarily mean nice. All tourists should read between the lines.?