India is Special

I thought I would change things up a little here and rather than just describe things, give you more of an insight into what the differences are between traveling in Europe and traveling in India. Perhaps the best way to do this is to pick one aspect: buying a train ticket.

In Europe
The last time I needed to buy a train ticket was in Hannover at 3am on my way to Frankfurt for a train that left at 5:18am. Now this could present many complications. The ticket offices are closed, the language is different, and I had 5 euros cash on me.

Here is what happened: I went to the helpdesk, which had 1 guy at it. He walked me to the automated machine where I entered where I wanted to go (city name, this is important later) and paid for the ticket on my Visa.

It wasn't always easy. Once in Warsaw I had to deal with a lady who only seemed to speak Russian and was DETERMINED not to sell me anything, but even then I worked it out without too many problems.

In India
Liz and I enter the booking area, which is a wall of glass windows, in front of which are huge lines of Indian men (and only men) who stare at her the ENTIRE time we are in the place. You can't just walk up to one of the windows and ask for what you want, you must first fill out a form that asks for your passport number, home address, blood type, shoe size and hair colour. Now its not enough to know where you are going. You somehow have to know the name of the train that wil take you there, a name that appeares chosen at random from the dictionary. This also corresponds to a train number, which can be found on large painted boards that look like they were painted in the early 40s and you have to wonder how accurate THOSE still are.

Just getting the forms is a task in itself. There are never any to be found, and you have to either reach your way through the lines to get one or pick one off the dirty ground and hope no one peed on that exact spot shortly before. So you get your form all filled out and notice that there is a helpful line for "Ladies, foreigners, freedom fighters, journalists and the elderly" (that is not a joke, I have a the pictures to prove that "freedom fighters" is on the list). You would imagine that this line would be full of the more civilized aspects of society, but in fact it is often little more than a scrum with people trying to shove their tickets through the little hole first.

If you somehow manage to make it to the front (and Liz has a very good elbow technique that she has been perfecting) and get to buy your ticket, you now have to somehow pay for it. I say somehow because its not enough just to have rupees, you often have to prove where you got them. It is illegal to take rupees out of the country or bring them in, so you need a certificate to say that you exchanged money in India. If you just used a bank machine, that little receipt is not enough and they may not let you buy the ticket. Also, make sure you have your passport with valid Visa, because that gets checked too and it sucks if you have to go back to your hotel to get it....cough cough....not that I ever did that.

At last your are issued a ticket and are free to find the train station, which may not be anywhere near the reservation office.

Today Liz and I had to refund 3 tickets, buy 1 and then find out the one I needed to buy was sold out...lets just say it was not easy.

By the way, I am in Jodpour and it is beautiful. The city is blue and has a breathtaking fortress that I explored today. I love India, I really do. But some of the daily activities could be made easier. Also, India's trains are pretty good considering the old equipment and number of people that use them everyday. It is also the worlds largest employer.

So with that grab bag of info, I leave you to continue your holiday prepertions and have some eggnog in my honour.