Our Many Moons of Honey: Transportation in India

We have a lot to say about travel in India as we spent a large number of the 58 days there making our way around the vast country. We travelled our way from India’s northern border with Nepal all the way down the west coast to Gokarna (almost made it to its most southern tip but unfortunately our expiring visa told us it was time to leave) and there was a minimum 11 hours of travel time between most of our destinations. Overall our traveling experience in India was great. The country is very well connected and easily and affordably accessible through an excellent mixture of air, rail and road transportation. We can only comment on India’s rail and road transportation as we only took one flight and that was out of the country.

a double bunk on one side of the aisle in A2 class

Let’s begin with train travel in India. India has an amazing railway network that connects all corners of the country and efficiently moves its 1 billion inhabitants… and not surprisingly you have to book way in advance! Sometimes this is weeks or months in advance depending on your destination, class and date of travel - especially if you are looking at a direct train for long distances with only once a week service. Buying your first railway ticket on your own in India can be a confusing experience as there are eight classes of travel available and you can purchase your ticket under three different quotas. These are the general quota, the tatkal quota and the foreign tourist quota. The first two you can purchase in person or on-line where as a tourist quota ticket must be purchased at the station. The tourist and tatkal quota (tatkal seats become available 48 hours before travel time at a price increased by 5-25% of the original ticket price) are there to ensure that last minute travellers and tourists can get seats.

the four person sleeping area in the A2 class

There are up to eight different class options when selecting your seat on Indian trains though not all trains offer every class. At the top of the list is the A1 (air conditioned first class) for longer or overnight trips. This is a sleeper car which sleeps two people and has a locking door. You get two sheets (one for the bedding and one to put your blanket on), one thicker blanklet (comes in very handy when travelling through the northern provinces in the winter months) and a pillow. This is by far the most luxurious way to travel in India and has a price tag to go along with it. We never chose this option as the two lower A classes offer similar luxury with only a few differences at a discount. The A2 (air conditioned second class) is divided into a four person section on one side with a curtain closing it off for privacy with a double bunk on the opposite side of the aisle which lies along the length of the car and is also closed off by a curtain. If you’re lucky you get the double bunk. The A3 (air conditioned third class) fits in more people with six to one side and a double bunk on the other side of the aisle and has lower quality sheets, blanket and pillow compared to A2 (which in turn has lower quality than A1). Then you move down to the sleeper class which is the same in size and layout as the A3 except that you do not get any bedding, there are no curtains dividing the areas and no air conditioning. The cars themselves are built differently without the glass sealed windows of the A class (these are slats and in the lowest classes, just bars) and the frames and seating are of a lower quality. Needless to say if you are travelling in the winter and get a sleeper car, bring a blanket as it gets cold in there. Sometimes a non AC first class sleeper offered, with double or quadruple lockable berths, then you have your two AC seater classes and finally the unreserved second class. This last class is what you see in movies with open doors and wooden or padded plastic seats and yes, it does get rammed with people and people do hang out of the door.

With our way of last minute traveling we only had the chance to use the train on a handful of occasions and all but one of the times we were waitlisted to get on. How the waitlist works is when all the seats are sold out you get put on the list and hope that people cancel their trip so you can get their seat. You are notified by email and/or text telling you that you are off the waitlist and will be issued a seat. So how do you find out what seats you were given? There are rows of boards in every train station with lists of all the passengers leaving on the trains in the following two hours. The lists are organized by train number, class and finally cabin number. The lists are then organized by seat number and provide the full name, age and gender of each passenger assigned to each seat. The lists are also posted on the door of the two entrances of each car but only the lists with the passenger info for that particular car are posted.

chicken lollipops

One of the best parts of traveling on the train, especially when you are going on long hauls, is the variety of food that is available for sale at any given time. The chai merchant passes by every 15 minutes followed by men selling chicken and veg biryani, omelettes, samosas, chicken lollipops (chicken drumsticks which are breaded and fried and smothered in hot sauce), tomato soup (very random we know :), and a variety of chip like snacks and pop. Although the food might not be the best, considering its train food, it’s not bad at all.

chhatrapati shivaji terminus (Victoria terminus), Mumbai

Before we leave off to talk about the bus system, we have to tell you a little bit about the train stations themselves. On our first visit we arrived in the late afternoon and the station was as full of people as you'd expect any station in India would be. We came back a few hours later to find out that the population at the train station had tripled with people not only buying tickets and standing around but making themselves comfortable all over the floors with blankets and dinners.

in our first double sleeper bunk

Since we could almost never find an available seat on a train we ended up travelling a lot by bus. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that for long distance buses there is a sleeper option. A sleeper bus is a regular sized travel bus that has been converted into horizontal cubes that sleep either one or two people. A bus can be either a complete sleeper bus with only single and double bunks lining the bus or it can be a bus with seats on the bottom and single and double bunks on top on either side of the aisle where the luggage racks normally are. We have to say that we really enjoyed travelling in a sleeper bunk although on one occasion the bus was really disgustingly dirty. We eventually found a fantastic website (www.redbus.in) where you can easily find route information and book and print your own ticket but the best part is that the bus companies are rated and pictured so you know what you are getting into before hand.

inside a Mumbai taxi

Once we made it to the many cities we encountered more options of transportation. Every city that we visited had some form of a bike or auto rick-shaws (tuk-tuk) that would line the corners of busy streets and thruways. There would be hundreds of them at any bus or train station and riding in one was an adventure to say the least. Then there were your standard cabs which really stand out in Mumbai with their yellow and black paint job in addition to their funky interiors. We highly recommend taking one if you are ever in this city as the feel of being in one is an experience on its own. In addition to being driven you can rent yourself a moped, bike or car and join the madness on the streets. While on the Goan coast we used a moped quite a bit and found it to be a great way of exploring the local beaches and towns.

Overall we have to say that traveling throughout India was a comfortable, safe and enjoyable experience. The country is really well connected with affordable options of which we found the train to be the most comfortable if you can get a seat on one. Buses were a great second option with some variation in their appearance, smell and capacity. Both buses and trains are almost always late but jus as often happen to leave on time.
　