Budgettravel: International cheap airlines between India Brazil

A brazil india friends family

I haven’t yet been to many exotic and beautiful parts of north and western Brazil, for example breath-taking the Amazonian Rainforest. But what little I have experienced in Brazil in the last six months, based on that, I can very confidently say that Brazil is a thrilling travel destination for tourist and travelers from India.

Most Indian’s who can afford international travel visit Europe and North America. For such travelers and the once who are looking at unique travel experience, Brazil and South America are a great bet. What perhaps is more interesting from a Brazilian and Indian point of view is that according to the recent annual study published by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Brazil and India are the most price competitive tourism destinations in the world.

However, there are some hurdles. An economy class ticket to Sao Paulo, Brazil flights cost nearly 2000 USD. Which is almost double the cost of air tickets to either Europe, North America and Australia. In fact tickets from India to Brazil which route through North America are cheaper than an other connections, either of Europe, Africa or Middle east. Flights from Brazil to India through Europe, Africa or Middle East connections, cost the same as flying from Brazil to East coast of United States ( Los Angles), stopping over for a holiday and then continuing the onward journey to India.

Brazil-India Cheap Air tickets

There are various connections to Brazil and South America from India. The most common is to come through Europe. Usually, you take a flights from Delhi or Mumbai to London, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris or Amsterdam. British Airways, Air France , KLM and Swiss Air. British Airways has the cheapest flight fare to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro from Delhi but has high amount of taxes per ticket. Air France and KLM offer another competitive alternative. Air France flies through Paris while KLM flies through Amsterdam. Air-France and KLM seem to have an alliance in terms of promotion and sales, but their no linking up of flights from and to Brazil from India. Air France offers some good fares from India to Brazil but most of them are restrictive and offer only 3 to 6 months return ticket validity. KLM also offers some attractive rates to Brazil, however on the return flight to India from Sao Paulo, one has to stay about 24 hrs in Amsterdam airport ,as the connecting flight from Amsterdam to Delhi leaves the same time as flight which comes from Sao Paulo to Amsterdam. Another good thing about transit in Amsterdam is that as an Indian you do not need a visa. Other wise in most of the other transit countries in Europe, citizens from least developed countries needs a visa even to stay on the airport for few hours, while taking a connecting flight.

Another budget route is through Dubai and South Africa originating from. India On this route you have primary two airlines i.e. South African Airways and Emirates. From Sao Paulo you can take a South African Airline flight to Johannesburg. From Johannesburg you can take an Emirates flight to Delhi or Mumbai through Dubai.

Recently, taking in view of the falling demand in international air traffic primarily due to US recession, the air regulatory authority in brazil has changed its policy on the minimum international airfares. This means that now airlines do not have to stick to a standard minimum rate for tickets. The change in policy should bring down air ticket prices from Brazil to rest of the world.

Breaking journey is a better budget option

TAM, a Brazilian airline has recently lashed its ticket prices to Europe and especially to London. A few weeks back we bought an one year return flight from Sao Paulo to London for less than 900 USD. This is about 400 USD less than any other airline which have been mentioned above.

London to Delhi flights or from Delhi to London is a very price competitive sector, similar to the Delhi or Mumbai to New York flights. One can easily buy a Air India ticket to London and Delhi at about 450 USD. Flights one way cost about 300 USD. There are other international cheap airline which offer similar competitive rates.

Apart from validity of ticket and ticket date change fees, the other think to closely look for while booking tickets is the baggage allowance. Air India, KLM, Air France offer up to 46 kgs of checked in baggage. Only TAM offers upto 64 kgs of checked in baggage.

If some one is looking at buying low price tickets from Brazil to India and back, then the your bets option is to buy two different tickets. One from Sao Paulo to London and the other from London to Delhi or Mumbai.

Happy India Brazil visits!

Kaki/Caqui Fruit: A tomato fruit wonder

Which one is a tomato and which one is Kaki/Caqui fruit?
On your left is the good old tomato and on your right in the Kaki/Caqui!

Many times in the past while walking swiftly through fruits sections in super market in England. I saw tomatoes being kept in beautifully looking plastic boxes. I often wondered why they were kept in the fruits section and not in the vegetables. May be they are the best quality tomatoes specifically required for certain Italian or English delicacy. The logic of the mind was so convincing that I never stopped to look closely at the labels of these good sized and shaped tomatoes.


Years later, I saw the similar looking tomatoes in Brazil. Where I along with family were staying on a long holiday. This time around I had time in my hands and was much relaxed compared to my stay in England. Perhaps it was my age or I was now a really relaxed person. A person who is more observant of his or her surroundings, less driven by the pace of the mind and more by the freshness of life as such. When every moment of life is new, then why run like a mule towards a pre-determined and imagined goal? Just because every body is running, doesn’t mean that I should run.


Any way, I saw my wife picking some of these tomatoes one evening in a fruit and vegetable shop. Getting close to her, I asked frankly. “Honey, do you need more of these tomatoes, we have a plate full of them back at home?” She smilingly looked at me ,as if to suggest that I was teasing her , and said “Honey these are not tomatoes, these are fruits”. Her words struck like lightening to me. I said “What?”. She said “ Yes, they are very sweat and healthy fruit”. What are they called, I asked. Kaki in English, Caqui in Portuguese and also as Oriental Persimmon. Kaki fruit, sweat and healthy! I was murmuring.



Over the next few hours, I was lost in deep thought. A fruit which just looks like the tomatoes. But is not a tomato. My wife had already started to taste one the Kaki fruit, and lovely offered me to taste. In the starting I was a bit reluctant, to even taste the tomato fruit. “If it looks like a tomato, it must taste and smell as well as a tomato”, I thought. However, I soon noticed that our 2 year son, who I was sure had never tasted Kaki/ Caqui fruit earlier in his life. Seemed to enjoy the flavor. This gave me some courage, and slowly I ventured to taste.


Wow! What is this ? It was as if I had tasted some thing from an another planet. Normally, my taste buds allow me to quickly relate the taste of new food with some thing I had tasted in the past. But having Kaki/Caqui was an eye opener. It was perhaps the first time that I had eaten half dozen pieces of a fruit and not figured out its family and similarities. It was as if , my senses had been numbed by the fruit, or my mind did not have any information from the past which could help make mind maps in the current. For the next couple of weeks, my hands would irresistably reach towards the Kaki/ Caqui fruit.



The Persimmon belong to the same family as the classic Kaki but undergoes different ripening techniques. KAKI, is a fruit which originated in china. It was originally introduced in EUROPE, mainly as an ornamental planet, but it was soon , became popular. Currently, Kaki/Caqui fruit is grown in many different parts of the world. In Asia its grown widely in China, Korea and Japan. In Americas Brazil and Mexico are major producers, while Italy in Europe. Kaki is high in proteins ,vitamin A and high fiber make it a good fruit to be part of children’s diet.


Kaki/Caqui plants in South Brazil


Kaki/Caqui fruit in Brazil are mainly of two varieties. One type is more redish very similar to the color of the tomato, while the other type of Kaki/ Caqui fruit is more yellowish in color. The second kind of Kaki/Caqui fruit has shades of brown color inside, which the local people call as the chocolate. Both of these varieties are similar in size and shape, but the reddish ones tend to be more softer and sweater from inside.


Its been all most a month, since I had the first tasted the Kaki /Caqui fruit. Need less to say to the reader, that in such a short time, I have become highly appreciative of this wonderful fruit to the point that am writing an article on it, for the benefit of other food lovers on this magical place called the mother earth.



In a recent trip to the farm land near my in-laws house, we happened to bump into a nursery. And guess which plant I wanted to see? Am planning to take Kaki/Caqui seeds back home to India and if possible import them for treating the local market. However, no matter how long my affair with the Kaki/Caqui fruit continues, it will always be the remembered as a " tomato fruit ". :)

caminho das indias: A tale of an indian in Brazil

Brazil and South America are a great international travel destination. The vastness of Americas, scarce population, massively sized grace land; stocky horses, unique fruits, sandy beaches, huge water bodies, lonely mountains and awesome Mother Nature create a great exploration map.


The first impression of Brazil for someone coming from India, is that it’s a youthful land and country with palpable freshness in the air. The living history of Brazil can be dated back to couple of hundred years, with the entry of exploratory missions from Europe, inflow of African slaves and later more immigrants from Europe during periods of crises

Language hurdle is the second observation a traveler from India can easily make.

As Brazil was a colony of Portugal from 1500 to 1822, Portuguese is the official language. Portuguese, as an official language is spoken in nine countries mainly in South and East Africa apart from Brazil in South America and Portugal in Europe. However, the hospitable, warm and friendly nature of Brazilians, makes moving around easier for a non-Portuguese and non-Spanish speaking traveler

The oldest buildings and structures in Brazil only date back to a hundred or couple years back. For an Indian who has been born and living in heritage structures that date back to centuries, it was quite a thing to go visit heritage sites and buildings in Brazil. How could I share with my fellow Brazilians that in India when we say heritage or old monuments we are thinking in terms of thousands of years? There is greater homogeneity (language, religion, value system) in Brazil and South America in comparison with India and Asia. Various regional cultural flavors and wonderful festival expression are part of Brazil, yet there seem to be common pulse running through all. Further integration of native culture in to mainstream would certainly make the Brazilian culture more rich and recognizable in the memories of foreign tourist and travelers.

Having no history or very less of it is a great proposition for people and communities who want to achieve new heights of perfection based on knowledge and learning from other continents and civilization. What a relief I felt when I first realized the ethos of this land. As an Indian we are always subject to heavy conditioning, which our centuries old culture and tradition passes on. However, it took me some while to understand that human mind can not live without conditioning and that difference between Asia/India and Brazil is the type, level and nature of conditioning. That, a very different type of conditioning prevailed here too!

Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Florianopolis and Porto Alegre are some of the cities which should be visited in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro stands out as the most attractive urban destination I have come across in recent past. Along with astonishingly shaped mountain peeks and beautifully shaped beaches, Rio de Janeiro has a great spiritual vibe to it, symbolized by the giant statue of Christ, known as Christ the Redeemer ('Cristo Redentor') on top of Corcovado mountain., which is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. In terms of beauty beaches in south Brazil, Florianopolis stands out as the next best city.

Good time e to visit Brazil is in summers which starts from November to March of each year. During summers entire Brazil is on the beach. And if your city is not on the coast then either families go on vacation to nearby costal area or camp at the nearby lagoon, river or waterfalls. Where ever you are during summers, one has to be scantly dressed and by a water source.

The spirit of Brazil is reflected during the carnival and festival time in February each year. The preparations for the carnival start almost 12 months in advance, and the entire nation is shut for a week. The colors, costumes, human bodies, dances, decorations and music add a great twist to the carnival.

I haven’t yet been to many other exotic and beautiful parts of north and western Brazil, for example breath-taking the Amazonia Rainforest. But what little I have seen and experienced in Brazil in the last six months, based on that, I can very confidently say that Brazil is a thrilling travel destination for tourist and travelers from Asia and in particular from India.

Most Indian’s who can afford international travel visit Europe and North America. For such travelers and the once who are looking at unique travel experience, Brazil and South America are a great bet. What perhaps is more interesting from a Brazilian and Indian point of view is that according to the recent annual study published by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Brazil and India are the most price competitive tourism destinations in the world.

Lately, the daily broadcast of a soap opera titled “Caminho das Indias” (meaning The way of India) on prime time television, largely based on Indian culture and characters has created lot of interest among Brazilians. There seems to be great interest to visit the ancient land of pluralist, yoga, caste system and Taj Mahal. Courtesy to the television serial, caste system and life of dailts in India has caught the imagination and attention of many Brazilians. As an Indian national visiting Brazil, I try my best to clarify the doubts about the rigid caste system with a nonbiased perspective. After all I am a big fan of Indian ethos i.e. tolerance, respect for diversity and an incessant yearning for self knowledge/realization rather than the decayed practice of caste system as currently practiced in India.

The youthfulness of Brazil and ancientness of India can complement each other quite nicely in creating an unique route of exchange and mutual development. However, accessibility, cost of travel and language concerns need to be addressed in order to build a strong travel relationship between these two great continents and cultures. Are the international airlines, Tourism Regulatory Bodies and Federal Governments listening?