mobiblog

Did you know, in the last six months Mumbaikars forgot 32,970 cell phones in taxis and cent per cent of these were returned to the passengers.

According to the Taxi Survey 2006-2007 conducted across 11 major cities around the world by Pointsec Mobile Technologies; thousands of cell phones, hundreds of handheld devices, USB drives, and laptops are forgotten in taxis every day.

So, if at all you forget your cell phone, forget it in a Mumbai taxi, and you would be assured of getting it back. Taxis are a safe place to lose your cell phones in Mumbai.

Related Link:
- Taxi Fares in Mumbai (Bombay)

Hope you haven't forgotten your cell phone in a Mumbai taxi!

But, don't worry, even if you have, you aren't the only one. You have 32,970 others for company and they've got their cell phones back.

Image courtesy: SearchIndia.com

When in Rome do as the Romans do. How far is Rome from India? From early next year it would take only seven-and-a-half hours to fly direct from Delhi to Rome.

Italian leisure airline Eurofly would be starting Delhi to Rome (Fiumicino Airport) DEL-FCO direct flights, thrice a week, from 15 Jan. 2007.

Find airfares from Delhi to Rome on Mobissimo India.

Take your next vacation in Rome amidst the splendours of Colosseum, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain, Capitoline Museums, Vatican Museums, Palazzo Venezia and more.

Get Airfares to Italy
Find airfares to ROM, LIN, NAP, TRN, and more on Mobissimo
http://www.mobissimo.in/

As the Indian aviation industry grows at an average of over 20% per year, the demand for people skilled in aviation management is likely to increase. At present, India does not have an educational institute that imparts training in the financial and marketing aspects of aviation management and grooms managerial talent for the airline industry.

The government is planning to set up an academy for aviation management in India. The proposed academy, likely to start by '07 near Delhi, will offer a one-and-a-half-year post-graduate diploma course in Aviation Management, which is expected to fill managerial talent gap in the Indian aviation industry.

Aerospace management schools like UK-based Cranfield University Aerospace; Germany-based Lufthansa Technical Training, and France-based ENAC School of Architecture, Civil, and Environmental engineering may collaborate with an Indian management school for setting up this aviation academy.

Read more about the proposed aviation management academy near Delhi.

Find local airfares on Mobissimo India
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from domestic low-cost airlines
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Haven't you felt tired, listless, sleepy, and unenthusiastic after a long flight across multiple time zones? That's because of jet lag, a physical condition caused by crossing time zones during flight that disturbs your body rhythm and leaves it 'out of sync' with the local time at the current destination.

Here are some tips that may help you to avoid jet lag during long flights across multiple time zones.

- A few days before your trip, start changing your sleep patterns to match the schedule you will need to keep at your destination.

- Reset your watch to the time of your destination at the beginning of the flight. This may help you adjust faster to the time zone you would be visiting.

- Drink plenty of water—before, during, and after your flight—to prevent dehydration that leads to jet lag.

- Don't smoke or take unnecessary medication while in flight. Avoid sleeping pills.

- Avoid drinking alcohol or soft drinks, tea, or coffee in excess. Both alcohol and caffeine increase dehydration.

- Sleep on the plane if it is night at your destination.

- Stay awake during your flight if it is daytime at your destination.

- Exercise on the flight while you’re awake. Stretch your back, arms, and leg muscles; walk up and down the aisles when the seat belt sign is turned off. Walking prevents stagnation of blood circulation and swelling of the feet and legs.

- Eat light. High-protein meals are likely to keep you awake, foods high in carbohydrates stimulate sleep, and fatty foods may make you feel sluggish.

- Sleep well before the flight and during long flights.

- Make yourself comfortable during long flights. Wear loose clothing and swap your shoes for socks to feel cozy in your seat.

- If you're going westward over three or more time zones—for example, from Mumbai to New York City, then get bright natural light early in the evening as this will help you to adapt to New York time. Take a walk in the afternoon or evening in Mumbai, sleep on the flight when it's night in New York, i.e. for a 3am flight from Mumbai go to sleep say 7 hours after takeoff. Wear eyeshades on the plane to get some sleep.

- Depending on the length of the flight, sleep until the breakfast time of your place of destination.

- If you're going eastward, that is from London to Mumbai, then try and return to Mumbai at around mid-day, to get the brightest light of the day.

- Once you get off the plane, try to stay awake for the rest of the day, and go to sleep at the current bedtime.

The best cure for jet lag is to be a frequent flyer so that the moment the flight takes off, you're off to sleep, and the minute it lands at the destination, you're fit and fine and raring to go. Afterall practice makes everything perfect, isn't it?

So which destination would you be taking off for this December? Have you searched for airfares to that destination on Mobissimo India? Your next vacation may be cheaper than what you think it is. Mobissimo wishes you happy and safe travelling.

Read more on avoiding Jet Lag from BBC Health, eHow, About, and TravelSmart.

Weekend Getaways from Mumbai

- Lonavala, Khandala, Karla and Bhaja Caves

Popular hill stations in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra that were made famous by the Aamir Khan-Rani Mukherjee starrer Ghulam that had the super-hit Bombay street-lingo song, "Aati kya Khandala" (Are you coming to Khandala?). The hill stations of Lonavla and Khandala about a 2-hour drive (110-km) from Mumbai are best to visit during the monsoons to enjoy the ride on the 6-lane expressway with greenery, mountains, and waterfalls for company. Even this time of the year, the onset of winter, is a nice time to visit Lonavla, Khandala, Bhushi Dam (a 25-minute drive) from Lonavla, and Karla Caves (10-km from Lonavla).

- Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar, and Pratapgad fort

The hill stations of Panchgani (266-km from Mumbai) and Mahabaleshwar (20-km from Panchgani) offer an ideal getaway for a couple of days with opportunities for sight-seeing and shopping. If you go to Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar don't forget to taste Strawberry and Mulberry jam and related food products that are available in most shops. Pratapgad, 25-km from Mahabaleshwar, offers a picturesque view of the countryside. Be enthusiastic and fresh to climb the 400 odd steps to enjoy the view from atop Pratapgad fort.

- Pune

Pune is about a three-and-a-half to four-hour hour drive from Mumbai (190-km) on the 6-lane Mumbai-Pune expressway. Pune is an ideal weekend retreat for Mumbaikars (Bombayites) that are looking to eat, party, and enjoy the restaurants, multiplexes, shopping malls, and popular hangouts of Pune.

If you're in Pune don't forget to spend a Saturday evening taking a walk on M.G. Road, which is now a 'Walking Plaza' from 4pm to 10pm on weekdays without any vehicular traffic. Also visit the various eating joints on F.C. Road.

~ Places to visit at M.G. Road in Pune

# Marz-o-rin for chutney sandwiches and chocolate shakes
# Kayani bakery for special Kayani bread, Shrewsberry biscuits, and Mawa cakes
# Barista coffee shop at the beginning of M.G.Road, opposite Hotel Aurora Towers
# The paanipuriwala near Hanuman Temple on Centre Street, a 5-minute walk from M.G. Road
# WestEnd theatre for a movie with friends, although its charm has dwindled with Inox multiplex a couple of kms. from M.G. Road.
# Hotel Ramakrishna and Coffee House for pure vegetarian food on Moledina Road near M.G. Road
# If you're interested in reading, then the pavement book-seller near Coffee Shop. Lots of good bargains to get from there.
# Kakde Mall, a new shopping mall, opposite Coffee House on Moledina Road, a 5-minute walk from M.G. Road.
# Leather lounge on Main Street (that's another name for M.G. Road)
# Aqua lounge at Hotel Aurora Towers
# The Place, near WestEnd theatre, for sizzlers
# Thousand Oaks for a pitcher or two on East Street

~ Places to visit at Koregaon Park, Pune

# The numerous restaurants that offer a variety of cuisine from Punjabi, Mughlai, Hyderabadi, Gujarati, and fast food to Chinese and Mexican. There's Gold Adlabs multiplex a kilometre from Koregaon Park with Kalyani restaurant opposite Gold Adlabs for pure vegetarian food.
# Osho Ashram and Nalla Park

~ Places to visit at Fergusson College Road (F.C. Road, Pune)

# The numerous South Indian restaurants on F.C. Road. Roopali, Vaishali, Deepali, Amrapali, Lalit Mahal.
# The Punjabi eating joints Chaitanya, Manmeet's Chaat, and Horn OK Please
# Wadeshwar for an evening out with friends
# Barista coffee shop on F.C. Road
# Corn Club near Agriculture College Signal for a variety of American Corn dishes
# Hotel Shravan opposite Police Grounds for a family dinner
# F.C. Road is a nice place to hang out with friends

~ Places to visit at Dhole Patil Road in Pune

# It's a student hang out with lots of options for eating
# Chaitanya's Punjabi food
# Madhuban restaurant
# Bombay Brasserie and Mainland China for those looking for good food at any price. These are among the costliest eating places in Pune.
# If you go to Dhole Patil Road in the afternoons then you may try the Buffet Lunch at Hotel Sun-n-Sand on Bund Garden Road, which is a kilometre from Dhole Patil Road.

- Nasik and Vineyards near Nasik

Get a spectacular view of the vineyards and the lakes and hills surrounding the vineyards near Nasik. Visit Trimbakeshwar Jyotirling located at a distance of 30-km from Nasik. Visit Saputara hill station in Gujarat. It is located at a distance of 80-km from Nasik, which is the nearest railway station to reach it. Mumbai to Saputara in Gujarat is a 185-km drive.

- Surat

If you're looking for a weekend to gorge then Surat—the city of textiles, diamonds, and food (6 hours by train from Bombay Central) is the place to be in. Enjoy Surti specialities like Undhiyu, Locho, Raswala Khaman, Ghari, Fafda, Jalebi, and Handvoh. Try the Gujarati Thali for Rs. 85/- at Hotel Kansar near R.T.O. Ring Road in Surat, Gujarat.

- Goa

A visit to India is incomplete without feeling the beauty and old world charm of Goa. Enjoy evenings on popular beaches like Calangute, Anjuna, and Aguada. Spare time to eat authentic Goan cuisine in Panjim, then dance and party the night away. Goa is 580-km from Mumbai by road. Search for flights from Mumbai to Goa on Mobissimo India.


Photographs of Sightseeing in Goa. Follow links below to see pictures and wallpapers of popular tourist spots in Goa.

- Photographs of fabulous views from Pilot Point near Mormugao Port in Vasco, Goa.
- Views from Dona Paula near Panaji in Goa.
- Photos taken atop Chapora Fort near Vagator Beach in Goa.
- Beautiful views of Mandovi river and Lighthouse at Aguada Fort near Panaji in Goa.
- Photos of an evening boat cruise on Mandovi river in Panaji (Panjim), Goa.
- Photographs of sunset boat cruise on Mandovi river in Panaji, Goa.
- Sunset views at Colva Beach in South Goa.
- Colours of the morning sky at Colva Beach, near Madgaon (6-km), in South Goa.
- Evening photos of Benaulim Beach near Colva in South Goa.
- Ships at Mormugao Port near Vasco-da-Gama in Goa.
- Views from Sinquerim Beach near Aguada Fort in Goa.
- Views of the rocky Anjuna Beach in Goa.
- Download wallpapers of palm trees and rocky cliffs at Vagator Beach near Panaji in Goa.
- Ancestral Goa: Photo of Portuguese House at Loutolim near Madgaon in South Goa.

Related Reading and Maps:
- Tips on getting variety in travel photographs.
- View photographs and articles of Goa.
- Read a list of airport codes of India to search and compare airfares to book flights to various destinations with Mobissimo India.
- See street level road maps of Indian cities on Google Maps.
- Street level road map of Panaji (Panjim), capital of Goa.


- Matheran

Matheran is a popular hill station near Mumbai. Alight at Neral railway station on the Mumbai-Pune railway route and take the 2-hour toy train journey from Neral to Matheran. Matheran is an unspoilt place as vehicles are not allowed on the hill station. The adventurous types may trek from Neral to Matheran. Either walk to visit tourist spots or use horses, which are the preferred means travelling in Matheran.

- Ganapatipule

Ideal for a 3-day holiday. About 380-km from Mumbai by road. Enjoy a quiet, peaceful vacation among the beaches of Ganpatipule in Ratnagiri district of Konkan in south-west Maharashtra. You may find time to try Malvani cuisine and visit the forts and religious places close by.

- Alibaug

A 3-hour drive from Mumbai. Spend a quiet weekend nestled among the fort, beach, and hills of Alibaug in Konkan.

- Shirdi

Shirdi, synonymous with Shirdi ke Sai Baba, is a pilgrimage center and one of India's most popular religious places. It is located off Pune-Nasik highway, about 275-km by road from Mumbai. Devotees throng Shirdi on all weekdays, but Thursdays are the most crowded.

Now it's easier to reach popular tourist destinations like Dalhousie, Dharamshala, McLeodganj, and Kangra Valley in Himachal Pradesh with Air Deccan's direct Delhi to Pathankot flight. Pathankot in Punjab is the gateway to the states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. It is an ideal location for a stopover before proceeding to religious places and popular tourist destinations in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

With this Delhi to Pathankot (DEL-IXP) flight Air Deccan becomes the first airline to bring civil aviation to this important junction for tourism in North India. Pathankot is Air Deccan's 61st airport in India and the 12th unconnected city that opens up to civil aviation in the country. Read more about the inaugural Delhi-Pathankot flight of Air Deccan.

Find competitive domestic airfares from all Low-Cost Airlines on Mobissimo India.

Low cost airlines grabbed almost 40 per cent share of the domestic Indian airline market in the third quarter (Jul-Sep) of 2006.

According to data (PDF) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Jet Airways continued to lead with a market share of 30.4 per cent, followed by Indian Airlines with 21.6 per cent, and Air Deccan with 19.3 per cent.

India - Domestic Airlines - Market Share - Jul to Sep 2006.

Market share of Low Cost Airlines:
Air Deccan 19.3%, Air Sahara 8.8%, SpiceJet 6.9%, GoAir 2.5%, IndiGo 0.9%, and Paramount Airways 0.8%.

Continue reading about domestic Indian airline market share for the third quarter of this calendar year.

Your next vacation to the U.S. is not six months away, if that's what you were thinking based on getting a date for the visa interview.

There's good news for people looking to travel to the U.S. on business or leisure. No longer would you have to wait from two to six months to get an appointment for a Visa interview. Now you can schedule an appointment for a Non-immigrant visa to the U.S. at the U.S. Embassy or U.S. Consulates within a week. There's also a 30% cut in the cost of getting a Visa, as the U.S. Government has cut $50 (approx. Rs. 2233/-) reciprocal issuance fee for all non-immigrant visas for Indian citizens with immediate effect, as per information provided by the U.S. Consulate in India.

This reduction in visa fees is a welcome move that would encourage leisure travel from India to the U.S. and travel operators may think of including new destinations in their package tours to America.

So if you're in a mood to vacation in America, log on to www.vfs-usa.co.in, schedule an appointment for a U.S. visa, find round-trip airfares from India to America on Mobissimo India, pick and choose your budget, book tickets, and enjoy your vacation.

Related links and more information:
- Procedure to schedule a Visa interview at U.S. Consulate in Mumbai
- Addresses of VFS Application Centres in India
- Visit the Web site http://www.vfs-usa.co.in/ to schedule a Visa interview within one week.
- Procedure to apply for a non-immigrant U.S. Visa from India
- Apply for a Non-immigrant U.S. Visa.
- Read current U.S. Visa appointment news in Gujarati and Marathi. (PDFs, filesize: 195KB each).
- U.S. Consulate in Mumbai
- U.S. Embassy in Delhi
- U.S. Consulate in Kolkata
- U.S. Consulate in Chennai
- Related news in Business Standard.

Variety in culture, cities, languages, traditions, beliefs, climate, people, and food is what makes India special. Travelling across the country one can't miss the aroma wafting from its kitchens; be they dhabas, open air eateries with the night sky for company, on highways; restaurants in cities, roadside stalls serving street food, or home-cooked food.

Visiting India and not eating Indian food isn't possible. The variety of recipes that one gets to relish from region to region is a food lover's delight.

From the saffron-laced aroma of Kashmiri food to meat, butter, and cream varieties in Mughlai and Punjabi up north to the sweet delicacies and farsans in Rajasthani and Gujarati; the mild to spicy range in Maharashtrian food in the West; Bengali favourites like macher jhol (fish curry), sweet sandesh and roshogulla; and the South Indian delights of sambar, rasam, idlis, vadas, and dosas.

Spices are an integral part of Indian cooking. An Indian cook can create a canvas of delicious recipes with a subtle blending of spices like cardamom, asafoetida, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, and coriander.

These links make for informative and interesting reading.

- Indian cuisine
- View a list of books on cooking Indian recipes

Mobissimo searches the following Indian Web sites and brings you the most competitive airfares for domestic travel within India:

- Air Deccan
- Air India
- AirIndia Express
- Jet Airways
- Air Sahara
- Kingfisher Airlines
- GoAir
- SpiceJet

- MakeMyTrip
- Travelguru

So you would say, "That's cool, but what's in it for me? I can always visit these Web sites, I know their URLs. Why should I search from Mobissimo?"

You advantage here would be that instead of going to all these Web sites to check for airfares you can get the best airfares from all of these Web sites through a single click on Mobissimo, as its meta-search technology displays airfares from all above sites.

Use Mobissimo search to your advantage and experience a better, faster, and easier way of finding the most competitive domestic airfares in India.

Instead of surfing ten Web sites to find one airfare that best suits your budget and travel plans, why not use one click on Mobissimo India search to find airfares from all of them and get the most competitive offers on a single page within a minute? Isn't it? Then you can pick and choose the one that you want to buy. It's simple. Try it.

Airbus A340-600, the world's longest commercial plane.
Image courtesy: WideBodyAircraft.nl

Britain's Virgin Atlantic Airways will operate the world's longest commercial plane, the Airbus A340-600, on the Delhi-London sector.

At 247 feet (75.3 metres) and fitted with a Rolls Royce Trent 500 engine, the Airbus A340-600 is longer than any other commercial plane.

Read more about Airbus A340-600 flying in India.