The night before last we had a leisurely dinner in the dining room at our resort with Nick and Teresa, who own 3 gift shops in Bristol, England, and Marlene, another English lady traveling alone. It was interesting to trade anecdotes.
Well before she came to India, Marlene conceived a travel itinerary for her 6 weeks and booked all the hotels. Then she engaged an agent specializing in Indian train travel to book all her train tickets. The tickets can be reserved up to 120 days in advance and are snapped up quickly. All her tickets were sent to her and she's had no problems. Nick and Teresa, on the other hand, did much the same thing but booked all the tickets online, I think, but still well in advance. They found that many of their trains were already booked so they were put on a wait list. They thought they might move up the list as people cancelled bookings but when they checked a few days before their arrival, they were still on a wait list for many trains. So, they came anyway because their hotels and time off from business were already set. They flew to Delhi and then to Varanasi and back with no problem. When they checked their train from Delhi to Agra, they found it was cancelled. So, they hired a car for 9 days to get them to and from the places where they have no tickets.
However, according to Marlene, who has been on many trains, most of the time the train cars are half empty. The overnight trains can be full but the day trains have lots of space. Nick's theory is that the government allocates blocks of tickets to different agencies otherwise the tour group companies could never be assured of space when they sell tours. That makes sense. But it means that you never know for sure what might happen until you have a confirmed ticket in your hand. You can probably get on the vast majority of trains in the lowest class but you might be sitting on a hard plastic seat for a long distance. It's very difficult to figure out.
We searched online for today's trains from Sawai Madhopur to Jaipur. There are 7 or 8 trains, each with 3 or 4 classes of tickets. It seemed our best bet was the 2:35 pm train in which air conditioned chair car seats were available. Yesterday, at the train station, they were all gone so we took the next best thing, 2-tier air conditioned bunks, even though it will be the middle of the afternoon. However, the price was only about $11 Canadian each and we have confirmation that we'll get to Jaipur. At the ticket window, you have to present a completed reservation slip and say what class you want. The agent will tell you if it's available and if not, what class you should request. Then he hands back the slip and you write the class in the appropriate place and give it back. Why he couldn't write in the class per your instructions is obscure but that's the system. Then you pay and get your ticket.
All 3 of our dinner companions had traveled extensively so it was interesting to hear their experiences. I wasn't the only one who got a bad headache soon after leaving the airport in Delhi. The air pollution is awful. To add to it, people who are trying to clean up will sweep the dirt in front of their homes or businesses and burn it on the spot. This happens constantly.
Littering is also rampant. It's appalling to us but normal here. Marlene told us that the government encourages people to leave the top of the plastic bag open when they throw their garbage on the street so the cows can get at it easier. Apparently a lot of cows have been dying from ingesting too many plastic bags.
At dinner, everyone had stories about pushy tuktuk and taxi drivers. Marlene has been approached by taxi drivers at train stations telling her that her hotel sent them. She always asks, "What's my name?" If they can't answer, she knows they're just trying to get her in the car to take her to another hotel at best or, at worst, scare her into using all her credit and debit cards at an ATM so they can take the maximum amount of cash before dropping her off somewhere she doesn't want to be.
The general consensus was that we're all walking stacks of cash. If the scam artists shake us hard enough, maybe some will fall their way.
Yesterday morning, after a celebrity photo-op at their request with some other Indian tourists staying here, we had breakfast with our friends again. We took a photo and exchanged email addresses. They're all gone now but we may run into them somewhere. We really enjoyed our time with them.
We didn't have internet all day yesterday so I drafted this on Pages. During that time, while we sat on our porch, a school group, all in their clean, neat uniforms, came through the hotel yard for a look at the garden while on their way to a park tour. They were anxious to talk to us and came right up on our porch. They were a little shy but really wanted to talk to us in their halting English. As usual, there was lots of smiling and nodding all around.
After breakfast, we asked the hotel manager to call a tuktuk to take us to an ATM and to the train station. The tuktuk driver already had train reservation slips so he helped us fill one out. Then he took us to an ATM where, with 3 separate transactions so as not to go over the 10,000 limit per transaction (or per day for Indians), we used our credit union card to get 24,000 rupees, the maximum a foreigner can withdraw in one day. We have yet to find an ATM that accepts Visa credit cards or our CIBC debit card. However, we can pay with Visa at hotels, if they don't demand cash. If not for our credit union debit card, we would be in trouble because this is mostly a cash economy. Near ATMs, the children are poor, dirty and persistent in begging for cash. Our driver eventually shooed them away. Once again, the disparity of economic classes and opportunity here is astounding.
At the train station, the tuktuk driver took us to the correct window, waited to make sure everything went well, and then drove us back to the hotel. All this for 200 rupees (about $4 CDN). He was very happy to get a 10% tip. This was a breath of fresh air. If we were staying longer we'd make sure we hired him again.
Then we had another excellent big lunch and relaxed on our porch until dinner. The food is great and Anita got a picture with the cook and waiter. Today we slowly packed up after breakfast.
We've included the celebrity photo op, a picture with our friends, the cook and waiter, pigs, cows on the median of the street downtown, a typically decorated farm tractor, the train station and a camel tour guide waiting for his customers at our hotel. Also our dinner. Mmmmmm!
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