day 42 - varanasi - travel - nov 13

arranged for a late check-out so i could sleep in. got up around 10:30 tried to read the word, but was distracted by the number of people coming in to look at rooms, i thought it might be best if i get out of the room so they could clean it up and get someone else in it. also wanted to go back to the hotel near internet place to purchase a train tix from mumbai (bombay) to goa, had to get online to see if steven or harpreet had responded to my email with any info about goa. managed to get hold of the cab driver to have him pick me up there instead of back hat the hotel to save me a bit of backtracking. once i got the the travel center they informed me their man who does the train tickets had left for the day. it was barely after noon. this through everything off. thinking i’d have to go to the local train station i called the driver and asked him to come earlier.

i knew i’d be hungry so i went next door and had some more mediterranean food at the restaurant i had visited a few days before. this time everything a few items had a burnt hint to them.

the driver showed up and people outside told him i had left, i had asked some people to tell him where i was perhaps they thought he would go and they could take his fare.


WARNING: the rest of this day goes a bit negative,

he found me and he took me by some guy who told me what my options would be once i got to goa. from there we got on the road for the airport which took us through a couple of traffic jams where i made an interesting observation, if the vehicles are moving ever so slightly then someone is honking, but when traffic is at a dead stop, everyone shuts off their motors and sits, once it begins to move again the horns are blaring.

the ride to the airport was a very long one. before we got on the ground the driver stopped and said you pay me now. i had given him approx. $6 worth of rupees for gas a few days before. so when gave him the equivalent of another $27 i thought he would be happy. at the beginning of my stay in varanasi, i asked a price and he told me you happy you pay nice price. if he had told me what he really expected i would not have ridden in his tuk tuk again. the first trip to the river from the bus station he had offered to do for 50 rupees, so knowing how far that was i figured the trips that he taken me out on and calculated about 200 rupees a day, he wasn’t always with me the full day so there was time for him to get other fares. plus in earlier conversations he’d said that some days he had no fares. now in the grand scheme of things yes it’ s not as if i don’t have the money, however i don’t have the money with me here in rupees. plus i was so miserable i the back of that thing, i was disappointed because i would have been on the street actually meeting people

in the end i gave him another $11 and neither of us parted feeling completely happy.

i got in the airport to the check in counter where this guy jumped right in front of me, sort of pretending to know the guy at the counter in front of me. (i’ve since discovered that is common practice at rail station windows, more on that later.

getting through there security check is a bit of a hassle, seems the women have to go through separately, i don’t know why it was so backed up other than there were three flights scheduled to leave at 4pm then one at 4:20 and one at 4:40. so i think they got slammed and then they were trying to pull people out of line for the first three flights to get them through.

the flight was painless. got to bombay airport around 6:30 and grabbed my bag then off to the tourist info to see how i could get to goa, the train seemed the best option she directed me to take a tuk tuk to the vile parle station (for rs 15) then the churchgate train to the dadar station (for rs 20) where i could by my ticket for the train to goa. the tuk tuk driver quoted me rs 50 (approx. $1.10) and conveniently turned off the meter as we left the airport i questioned him about it and wrote down his cab number to see if he might have a change of heart but he never flinched. at the train station i got a general ticket for rs 4 (about 8 cents) and sat with the locals, i was the oddity amongst the sea of india teen and men.

at the dadar station i got on line and go to the window only to have the guy go to lunch on me leaving me to get in the end of the next line, once to the window there someone tried to jump the line which i could see him positioning himself, i just repositioned my bag to let him know he wasn’t going to do that. at the window i discovered that the attendant didn’t speak english, so now i had to go back to the window i’d just left and ask the guy there to interpret for me. i found out that i was not going to be able to get into a sleeper from that station, so he directed me to another station. i didn’t quite get he directions so i walked over to another part of the station as it was rather larger in its layout, thinking that perhaps the train departed form this other area, there i was informed that i had to go on another train to the central station where the train would originate in order to be able to get a 2nd class ac sleeper.

this was possibly going to be a bit of a challenge as i was going to ride in the general seating car and from that station most of the trains that came through had packed general cars, where fights were nearly breaking out as guys got on and off. i was questioning if that was going to be a bright idea. when the train came into the station i was on the platform the train stopped with the general car door right in front of me, they poured out and as the last guy came off i was able to slip in and get into the car and find a seat. this other guy came and sat right next to me, suddenly i looked around and the car was all but empty, so them i’m wondering why this guy chose to sit right side by side with me.

he spoke some english so we talked a bit until his stop. he was working for an english company doing phones (customer service).

once at the central station i made my way to the ticket counter, while in line this young guys in line started talking with me, they were also going to goa. they had friends in each of the lines waiting to see who would get to the front first, they were going to have their friend purchase my ticket so i could join them but he was done before they got his attention. when i got to the window, the representative informed me that there were no 2nd class ac sleeper seats available. so i wasn’t quite sure what to do he charged me about 480 rupees (about $11) for the general seat he gave me. (later i looked at the ticket and it was 158 rupees, so in my confusion he seemed to have pulled a fast one on me, i’m still trying to go through my expenditures to see if i’m mistaken) not being all that excited about my seat, and the prospect of repeating the journey from delhi to varanasi or worse yet, having to sit up right on a train for 12 hours. i was walking out into the expanse of the main hall when a porter tried to take my bag telling me that i would have to check it since i was in general seating. at this point another porter (older with more of a sense of what’s going on) approaches me, and starts to talk to me about my alternatives, next thing i know he’s grabbing my bag fro the other porter, who is getting upset, they nearly come to blows. he finally calms the first guy down puts my bag down, goes up to another section of the ticketing counter and asks if there are any seats available in 2nd class ac sleeper cars. he gets the same answer from the window. comes back picks up my bag and takes it back to where the other guy had got it from me. he talks to me a little more about my options: other trains, sleeper buses etc. get gets other porter to leave and then grabs my bag and takes me out of the station to a stand where the sleeper bus agents operate. they inform us that the sleeper bus is leaving i 15 minutes from another part of town, i’ll never make it. so back into the station we go and he starts to chat up some other guy in the station.

next thing i know that guy is going up to the window and getting the same results - nada. but they keep persisting. at one point he comes back and tell me he can get me in a 1st class sleeper (private space) for 1800 rupees. this seems much better to me. so he takes me to be seated in a special waiting room, until his return.

while there i started speaking with this german couple who were traveling in india for their first time, we were comparing war stories from varanasi and delhi. he was a social worker in germany building dwellings for special needs children. didn’t get allot of details about where they were from, as the porter returned for me within 15 minutes. from there we went out to the platform and he and the other guy he had enlisted earlier were now speaking to the conductor.

from what i could see of there conversations i was not hopeful. as it go later i became even more concerned thinking that i was going to be turned away and have to go to general seating which at this point was full. after a few more minutes the enlistee ran back to the ticket office and came back with some information, at which time he took me onto the train. the seat was actually in a 2nd class car, and he still wanted the same amount. not really being in much of a position to protest i paid. so this whole leg cost me about $50 (in the grand scheme of things it was still cheaper then a us train ticket in a similar seat)

the train was scheduled to depart at 23:20, so i pretty much made up the bed and sacked out for the night.