caravanman
Engineer
Hi Folks,
My long awaited return trip to India is finally underway, and tonight finds me in my budget hotel in Pargange, Delhi.
For benefit of guest readers, may I just mention to ignore any underlining in the text, that is an advertising link, and not part of my trip report.
I arrived in Trivandrum, south India from UK, via Dubai on Thursday morning 17th Sept.. Flights were fine, not over full, so plenty of leg and arm room.
Hotel in Trivandrum was not good, I chose it as it was opposite the station. Best thing was an Indian Coffee House next door. A workers co-operative and a breakfast of Masala Dosa and coffee was only about Rs 70, less than $1.
Warm and sunny weather, with the odd shower.
A quick look around, savouring the sights and sounds... including a visit to the zoo (for a green oasis of calm, more than any animal interest, although the big cats were pretty impressive.)
Took hundreds of snapshots as always. street scenes always interest more than the "must see" tourist sites.
So, onto the train: I booked my ticket online after a deal of hassle getting registered with the booking website. Indian trains are very popular means of travel, and often get booked up months in advance... To stop "touts" buying up and re-selling tickets, there is an involved registration process. Nevertheless, I got it sorted.
Arrived on the platform about an hour before departure, and stocked up on water and snacks. Enjoyed my first masala chai of this trip too.
19.15 departure on time.
Large family with large amount of luggage decide to move to another part of the coach, as I don't want to swap my lower berth of two.
Nice evening meal of soup, rice, dahl, and veg curry is served, together with a sort of sweet cake, a little like halva I think... don't quote me on that! Very nice anyway.
Despite expectations, the nearby berths are fairly empty tonight, and I only have one companion, a doctor travelling as far as Mangalore for a conference. He has left the train by the time I awake, and a couple of new faces have arrived while I had been sleeping.
Breakfast starts with a cup of tea, all meal are served at your berth, there is no dinning car as such. Quite an involved process for a cup of tea. Someone arrives with a tray on which there is a paper mat. there is a tea bag, a sachet of milk powder, and one of sugar. Some while later another person delivers a cup, and then a third person brings a flask of hot water.
(I swapped the tea bag for my prefered PG tips tea!).
After that is all removed, breakfast is served, either veg or non veg. Non veg will be an omlette and two slices of bread and veg option will be 2 veg "nuggets" and the bread. tomato sauce sachet is provided.
The attendant provides pillows, sheets, blankets for the night time.
My coach was AC2 class which means it has air-con, and there are 2 tier sleeping berths on each side, rather than AC3, which has 3.
Absolutely no problems on the journey, I hopped off the train to buy a few bananas, and took a few pics from time to time.
The only thing I did notice was that the train was diesel engined at the start, and one could often smell the exhaust fumes within the coaches, even when not in the tunnels. Probably the a/c fans sucking them in...
The following breakfast lunch and evening meals over the journey were similar to those described, with minor variations in dahl and currys. Forgot to mention, 2 bread chappaties with lunch and dinner too.
The cleanliness of the food was good, and it was very tasty.
When writing a trip report, it is hard to know who will read it... I have assumed a "beginners guide to Indian railways" for my first post of this trip !
The Rajdhani are among the top trains of Indian railways, and there are many other services and classes of ticket available.
We arrived in Delhi slightly early, the timings were padded anyway. Due to the coastal route of this train they run at a reduced speed with a "Monsoon Timetable".
My hotel here in Delhi is very nice, and today I had an interesting visit to the Red Fort.
My head is spinning tonight with all the sights and sounds of Delhi !
My next train ride is on Friday, when I head to Orissa to see the sun temple of Konak.
Namaste,
Ed.
P.S. I forgot to mention prices. The ticket cost was about £45, I don't have it here just now, that would be about $70, and included all the meals and sleeper berth.
PPS... The A/C probably does not suck in the fumes from outside, nevertheless the fumes were there!
EDIT TO INCLUDE PICTURES: Please click: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153613888639120.1073741865.682004119&type=1&l=2e8839ac53
My long awaited return trip to India is finally underway, and tonight finds me in my budget hotel in Pargange, Delhi.
For benefit of guest readers, may I just mention to ignore any underlining in the text, that is an advertising link, and not part of my trip report.
I arrived in Trivandrum, south India from UK, via Dubai on Thursday morning 17th Sept.. Flights were fine, not over full, so plenty of leg and arm room.
Hotel in Trivandrum was not good, I chose it as it was opposite the station. Best thing was an Indian Coffee House next door. A workers co-operative and a breakfast of Masala Dosa and coffee was only about Rs 70, less than $1.
Warm and sunny weather, with the odd shower.
A quick look around, savouring the sights and sounds... including a visit to the zoo (for a green oasis of calm, more than any animal interest, although the big cats were pretty impressive.)
Took hundreds of snapshots as always. street scenes always interest more than the "must see" tourist sites.
So, onto the train: I booked my ticket online after a deal of hassle getting registered with the booking website. Indian trains are very popular means of travel, and often get booked up months in advance... To stop "touts" buying up and re-selling tickets, there is an involved registration process. Nevertheless, I got it sorted.
Arrived on the platform about an hour before departure, and stocked up on water and snacks. Enjoyed my first masala chai of this trip too.
19.15 departure on time.
Large family with large amount of luggage decide to move to another part of the coach, as I don't want to swap my lower berth of two.
Nice evening meal of soup, rice, dahl, and veg curry is served, together with a sort of sweet cake, a little like halva I think... don't quote me on that! Very nice anyway.
Despite expectations, the nearby berths are fairly empty tonight, and I only have one companion, a doctor travelling as far as Mangalore for a conference. He has left the train by the time I awake, and a couple of new faces have arrived while I had been sleeping.
Breakfast starts with a cup of tea, all meal are served at your berth, there is no dinning car as such. Quite an involved process for a cup of tea. Someone arrives with a tray on which there is a paper mat. there is a tea bag, a sachet of milk powder, and one of sugar. Some while later another person delivers a cup, and then a third person brings a flask of hot water.
(I swapped the tea bag for my prefered PG tips tea!).
After that is all removed, breakfast is served, either veg or non veg. Non veg will be an omlette and two slices of bread and veg option will be 2 veg "nuggets" and the bread. tomato sauce sachet is provided.
The attendant provides pillows, sheets, blankets for the night time.
My coach was AC2 class which means it has air-con, and there are 2 tier sleeping berths on each side, rather than AC3, which has 3.
Absolutely no problems on the journey, I hopped off the train to buy a few bananas, and took a few pics from time to time.
The only thing I did notice was that the train was diesel engined at the start, and one could often smell the exhaust fumes within the coaches, even when not in the tunnels. Probably the a/c fans sucking them in...
The following breakfast lunch and evening meals over the journey were similar to those described, with minor variations in dahl and currys. Forgot to mention, 2 bread chappaties with lunch and dinner too.
The cleanliness of the food was good, and it was very tasty.
When writing a trip report, it is hard to know who will read it... I have assumed a "beginners guide to Indian railways" for my first post of this trip !
The Rajdhani are among the top trains of Indian railways, and there are many other services and classes of ticket available.
We arrived in Delhi slightly early, the timings were padded anyway. Due to the coastal route of this train they run at a reduced speed with a "Monsoon Timetable".
My hotel here in Delhi is very nice, and today I had an interesting visit to the Red Fort.
My head is spinning tonight with all the sights and sounds of Delhi !
My next train ride is on Friday, when I head to Orissa to see the sun temple of Konak.
Namaste,
Ed.
P.S. I forgot to mention prices. The ticket cost was about £45, I don't have it here just now, that would be about $70, and included all the meals and sleeper berth.
PPS... The A/C probably does not suck in the fumes from outside, nevertheless the fumes were there!
EDIT TO INCLUDE PICTURES: Please click: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153613888639120.1073741865.682004119&type=1&l=2e8839ac53
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