In my recent Travelling post, I wrote that, in contradistinction to beginning a thousand-mile journey simply by making a first step, there are often many hurdles to overcome. In our more recent journey to Mumbai, I learned something else: always have a back-up plan.
This realization came about because Caroline was hungry. There seemed to be little, if any, palatable food available from the hawkers so at a somewhat big train station (it might have even been a junction--at which trains usually stop for at least five minutes), I got off the train to look for a food stand where I could buy Bourbon biscuits. (The chocolate always seems to fill Caroline's stomach for the immediate future.) I walked a ways, saw what appeared to be a food stand, but then heard the train whistle and saw the train slowly moving forward. I hurried toward the entrance, got on, but I was five-six bogies/coaches behind where I needed to be. Moreover, the aisles were narrow and often congested with passengers. Thus it was slow-going to make it back to my seat. Of course, Caroline did not know any of this; she did not know that I did board the train, which was now moving swiftly. Needless to say, she had been worried and was relieved to see me.
The obvious lesson here is to never get off the train. Even if you carry everything (debit/credit cards, cash, mobile, travel documents, copy of train ticket, clothes, etc.) with you, never get off the train. In a best-case scenario, you will most likely have to wait at least another 24 hours before you get another train to your destination. You may be stuck on a train platform by a village, with no one understanding English. Even if you are Indian, you may be stuck on a train platform by a village in a State of which you do not know the language. You may be stuck on a train platform during the cold months and you may not have adequate clothing for sleeping outside. Furthermore, the fewer things you have with you the fewer options you will have. In short, never get off the train.
Having said that, if you do find yourself stranded then there are two (perhaps more) options. You can agree that your travelling companion(s) will pull the chain, signalling that the train should stop. There is, I believe, a INR500 fee for doing this but this is supposedly assessed only if you pull the chain falsely (but you may be charged anyway--although I do not really know as I have absolutely no first or second-hand information about this in practice). Another option is to have a travelling companion come back to get you (although this may take more time and effort to arrange) after alighting at the next stop. Either (or another option) should be agreed upon before embarking. If you are travelling alone then never get off the train.
In short, though, never get off the train. It is better to be hungry and on the train than to be hungry and stranded.
In one of my earliest Travelling posts, I wrote that no matter how many times I board a train and no matter how much I write about it, there are always new things to be learnt and new things to be written about. This journey was no different.
Caroline often says that the trains to Hyderabad have no respect and those to Mumbai do have that. I do not know whether or not this is true to the Indian Railways employees, but I did see a few things on this journey to Mumbai that were better than that to Hyderabad.
Primarily, we saw a few IR employees cleaning the toilets, sweeping the aisles, and then pouring phenol on the floor. This made for a more pleasant ride--at least, for a few hours longer.
On this journey, I became more aware of the "General Compartment". Passengers still have to pay to ride in this but it is much cheaper. There are (according to Caroline) ten seats (which may, or may not, convert to beds) and the rest of the carriage is empty. I do not know how many passengers it can contain but I would think that not much more 100 can fit comfortably. The "Sleeper Class" compartments can fit 72 passengers; it can contain this many because the beds are on top of each other.
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In the General Compartment, passengers would have to sleep next to each other. I suspect that far more than 100 passengers fit into the bogie/carriage as there are always very long queues/lines to it, and it seems to be a first come-first serve policy toward obtaining seats as there is always a mad rush when the carriage opens up.
As always, there are hawkers (although not many selling enough edible food, as Caroline became hungry--see above). Especially at the beginning of the journey, there is usually at least one person selling chains. This leads to yet another good lesson: buy a chain (and have purchased a small lock--I suspect that the hawkers charge far more for the lock than you can buy elsewhere). You can then lock your luggage, usually to the underside of the first seat. As in life, people on the trains are generally honest but if even just 1% are dishonest then that 1% could very well come to your compartment and attempt to steal your things. If you do not have it locked then you will need to sleep with it (usually as a pillow, and with your hand/arm wrapped around the handle) and you will need to carry your luggage with you when you need to go to the toilet. I have never had an experience of theft on the train but it is best to take adequate precautions and the chain is only ten rupees (I believe).
The trains to and from Mumbai may or may not have more "respect" than those of Hyderabad, but the views from the train to Mumbai were slightly more disappointing. To and from Hyderabad, I often see interesting hills and rock formations. To and from Mumbai, however, the land was overwhelmingly flat.
As always, I saw a great deal of evidence of the growth of the railway system. There are the tracks themselves, the concrete blocks that keep them in place, and enormous piles of rock to place between the concrete blocks. I am not certain if this is ideal, though. It is true that a population equivalent to that of the United States now will be added to India by the year 2045. In other words, it is like adding the third-largest country in the world to India's already huge population. They will, of course, require a greater infrastructure. However, although 70% of India's population live in rural areas, cities are growing faster and I believe that this will only accelarate in the future. Thus, I believe that an emphasis on airports is required. It is true that those of Mumbai, Kolkata and the Rape Capital of India have been expanded, but I think that there ought to be more airports in relatively small cities but which are growing. (A more recent news article about an option for the growth of airports.) Having said that, it is nice to see growth at both railways and airports.
The night was extremely chilly (this trip was taken in early January--another good lesson is to bring a good blanket) but the next day was much warmer.
Growing up in the U.S., I often flew kites with my father. The "season" for it always seemed to be in March. In India, it seems to be a year-round activity. Regardless, toward the end of our first day to Mumbai, I saw very many kites stuck in very many trees near the city of Nagpur.
Our return trip was special for two noteworthy items.
1) In at least one other post, I wrote that I was aware that foreigners took trains but that I never saw them. On this trip, I saw not only a foreigner on the platform, and not only did he enter our train, and not only did he enter our bogie/coach/car but also he was in the compartment next to us! Whereas I rarely communicate other than by writing, Caroline is very talkative. She spent her time, however, talking to a young Indian woman (in English) because she wanted to know about the housing situation in the young woman's town (as Caroline is wont to do on the trains). However, she did find out that the foreigner was Scottish.
I suspect that he was an expat. I believe that it is fairly easy and quick to get tickets to relatively close destinations (e.g. Howrah to Darjeeling) but that you need to book tickets at least three weeks in advance for further and more populated destinations. Thus, the Scot must have been in Mumbai at least three weeks before boarding the train to Howrah. Moreover, he seemed to be comfortable in travelling alone so he must have been in India for a long time. If he was an expat then I would have liked to ask him if he was a blogger.
When I began this blog (and certainly five years ago, when I arrived in India), I thought that I was unique. I had never thought of India as being a land of immigrants. Especially through Expat-Blog.com, I learnt that there were very many expats in India and all of them seemed to have her/his own blog! I still like to think of myself as being unique as I try to provide a more global approach in my blog.
2) We had to smuggle Special Head (a small kitten, about whom I shall elaborate in a future post). After we rescued him, Caroline was told that we would need a cage for him so that we could take him on the train. We went to the nearby Crawford Market but the cages were too big and/or too expensive. We decided to take a chance on hiding him and keeping him quiet on the train. This may have been misplaced logic because what attracted Caroline to him was his cries for help.
It may, or may not, have been misplaced logic to expect him to be able to sleep on the train (especially with its rocking and rolling). Stereotypically, cats sleep a great deal but Caroline's former kitten/cat, Tummy Boy was awake almost 24 hours each day; we almost never saw him sleeping. Special Head, we soon found out, loved being underneath a blanket or a dark shirt. The darkness and the warmth seemed to keep him sleeping. For the next 48 hours or so, this approach was successful. Shortly before we arrived at Howrah, however, he woke up and cried incessantly, no matter how much I comforted him. His cries were heard by a few other passengers but, perhaps because of the noise of the train itself, his cries were not too loud and no one seemed to really object. Thus, we were able to bring back a kitten from the other side of the country.
Kolkata has a pre-paid taxi service at not only the airport but also Howrah train station. At the airport, the pre-paid taxis are less expensive than the post-paid taxis but at Howrah, they are more expensive! In the past, Caroline and I would walk further to get taxis that were leaving the area. Oftentimes, they would go by meter; other times they would demand slightly more; and a few times they would demand slightly more than that of the pre-paid taxis (but which was somewhat acceptable in that we did not have to wait in the usually very long queue/line for the pre-paid taxis). One time, as I was travelling by myself, the driver demanded 150 rupees but I told him that I would not pay him more than 100 rupees (especially as that was all I had in my pocket). At my destination, I got out, paid him the 100 rupees, and left.
The obvious lesson here is to never get off the train. Even if you carry everything (debit/credit cards, cash, mobile, travel documents, copy of train ticket, clothes, etc.) with you, never get off the train. In a best-case scenario, you will most likely have to wait at least another 24 hours before you get another train to your destination. You may be stuck on a train platform by a village, with no one understanding English. Even if you are Indian, you may be stuck on a train platform by a village in a State of which you do not know the language. You may be stuck on a train platform during the cold months and you may not have adequate clothing for sleeping outside. Furthermore, the fewer things you have with you the fewer options you will have. In short, never get off the train.
Having said that, if you do find yourself stranded then there are two (perhaps more) options. You can agree that your travelling companion(s) will pull the chain, signalling that the train should stop. There is, I believe, a INR500 fee for doing this but this is supposedly assessed only if you pull the chain falsely (but you may be charged anyway--although I do not really know as I have absolutely no first or second-hand information about this in practice). Another option is to have a travelling companion come back to get you (although this may take more time and effort to arrange) after alighting at the next stop. Either (or another option) should be agreed upon before embarking. If you are travelling alone then never get off the train.
In short, though, never get off the train. It is better to be hungry and on the train than to be hungry and stranded.
In one of my earliest Travelling posts, I wrote that no matter how many times I board a train and no matter how much I write about it, there are always new things to be learnt and new things to be written about. This journey was no different.
Caroline often says that the trains to Hyderabad have no respect and those to Mumbai do have that. I do not know whether or not this is true to the Indian Railways employees, but I did see a few things on this journey to Mumbai that were better than that to Hyderabad.
Primarily, we saw a few IR employees cleaning the toilets, sweeping the aisles, and then pouring phenol on the floor. This made for a more pleasant ride--at least, for a few hours longer.
On this journey, I became more aware of the "General Compartment". Passengers still have to pay to ride in this but it is much cheaper. There are (according to Caroline) ten seats (which may, or may not, convert to beds) and the rest of the carriage is empty. I do not know how many passengers it can contain but I would think that not much more 100 can fit comfortably. The "Sleeper Class" compartments can fit 72 passengers; it can contain this many because the beds are on top of each other.
As always, there are hawkers (although not many selling enough edible food, as Caroline became hungry--see above). Especially at the beginning of the journey, there is usually at least one person selling chains. This leads to yet another good lesson: buy a chain (and have purchased a small lock--I suspect that the hawkers charge far more for the lock than you can buy elsewhere). You can then lock your luggage, usually to the underside of the first seat. As in life, people on the trains are generally honest but if even just 1% are dishonest then that 1% could very well come to your compartment and attempt to steal your things. If you do not have it locked then you will need to sleep with it (usually as a pillow, and with your hand/arm wrapped around the handle) and you will need to carry your luggage with you when you need to go to the toilet. I have never had an experience of theft on the train but it is best to take adequate precautions and the chain is only ten rupees (I believe).
The trains to and from Mumbai may or may not have more "respect" than those of Hyderabad, but the views from the train to Mumbai were slightly more disappointing. To and from Hyderabad, I often see interesting hills and rock formations. To and from Mumbai, however, the land was overwhelmingly flat.
As always, I saw a great deal of evidence of the growth of the railway system. There are the tracks themselves, the concrete blocks that keep them in place, and enormous piles of rock to place between the concrete blocks. I am not certain if this is ideal, though. It is true that a population equivalent to that of the United States now will be added to India by the year 2045. In other words, it is like adding the third-largest country in the world to India's already huge population. They will, of course, require a greater infrastructure. However, although 70% of India's population live in rural areas, cities are growing faster and I believe that this will only accelarate in the future. Thus, I believe that an emphasis on airports is required. It is true that those of Mumbai, Kolkata and the Rape Capital of India have been expanded, but I think that there ought to be more airports in relatively small cities but which are growing. (A more recent news article about an option for the growth of airports.) Having said that, it is nice to see growth at both railways and airports.
The night was extremely chilly (this trip was taken in early January--another good lesson is to bring a good blanket) but the next day was much warmer.
Growing up in the U.S., I often flew kites with my father. The "season" for it always seemed to be in March. In India, it seems to be a year-round activity. Regardless, toward the end of our first day to Mumbai, I saw very many kites stuck in very many trees near the city of Nagpur.
Our return trip was special for two noteworthy items.
1) In at least one other post, I wrote that I was aware that foreigners took trains but that I never saw them. On this trip, I saw not only a foreigner on the platform, and not only did he enter our train, and not only did he enter our bogie/coach/car but also he was in the compartment next to us! Whereas I rarely communicate other than by writing, Caroline is very talkative. She spent her time, however, talking to a young Indian woman (in English) because she wanted to know about the housing situation in the young woman's town (as Caroline is wont to do on the trains). However, she did find out that the foreigner was Scottish.
I suspect that he was an expat. I believe that it is fairly easy and quick to get tickets to relatively close destinations (e.g. Howrah to Darjeeling) but that you need to book tickets at least three weeks in advance for further and more populated destinations. Thus, the Scot must have been in Mumbai at least three weeks before boarding the train to Howrah. Moreover, he seemed to be comfortable in travelling alone so he must have been in India for a long time. If he was an expat then I would have liked to ask him if he was a blogger.
When I began this blog (and certainly five years ago, when I arrived in India), I thought that I was unique. I had never thought of India as being a land of immigrants. Especially through Expat-Blog.com, I learnt that there were very many expats in India and all of them seemed to have her/his own blog! I still like to think of myself as being unique as I try to provide a more global approach in my blog.
2) We had to smuggle Special Head (a small kitten, about whom I shall elaborate in a future post). After we rescued him, Caroline was told that we would need a cage for him so that we could take him on the train. We went to the nearby Crawford Market but the cages were too big and/or too expensive. We decided to take a chance on hiding him and keeping him quiet on the train. This may have been misplaced logic because what attracted Caroline to him was his cries for help.
It may, or may not, have been misplaced logic to expect him to be able to sleep on the train (especially with its rocking and rolling). Stereotypically, cats sleep a great deal but Caroline's former kitten/cat, Tummy Boy was awake almost 24 hours each day; we almost never saw him sleeping. Special Head, we soon found out, loved being underneath a blanket or a dark shirt. The darkness and the warmth seemed to keep him sleeping. For the next 48 hours or so, this approach was successful. Shortly before we arrived at Howrah, however, he woke up and cried incessantly, no matter how much I comforted him. His cries were heard by a few other passengers but, perhaps because of the noise of the train itself, his cries were not too loud and no one seemed to really object. Thus, we were able to bring back a kitten from the other side of the country.
Kolkata has a pre-paid taxi service at not only the airport but also Howrah train station. At the airport, the pre-paid taxis are less expensive than the post-paid taxis but at Howrah, they are more expensive! In the past, Caroline and I would walk further to get taxis that were leaving the area. Oftentimes, they would go by meter; other times they would demand slightly more; and a few times they would demand slightly more than that of the pre-paid taxis (but which was somewhat acceptable in that we did not have to wait in the usually very long queue/line for the pre-paid taxis). One time, as I was travelling by myself, the driver demanded 150 rupees but I told him that I would not pay him more than 100 rupees (especially as that was all I had in my pocket). At my destination, I got out, paid him the 100 rupees, and left.
In the past few months, however, a post-paid service seems to have developed at Howrah. I had horrible experiences with taking a post-paid taxi by myself (to and from the Nepal Consulate in Kolkata). There may have been legitimate and rational explanations for this, but it is also possible that the drivers took a longer route just to increase the metered fare. At Howrah, though, there does seem to be a system in place to make sure that only honest taxi drivers are allowed to pick up passengers there.
You may still want to protect yourself further, though. If you are not completely familiar with your destination and journey then I would suggest that you take the pre-paid taxi. Again, it is usually more expensive but you pay the same amount regardless of whether or not the driver gets lost or hopelessly stuck in traffic. However, if you are familiar (either with the roads or with certain landmarks) then I would suggest taking the cheaper post-paid taxis.