My journey has taken me this far. and it has been absolutely amazing.
Staying with the hosts I have has revealed a real human side to India that I know I wouldn't have been given. Not to mention the expert advice and the opportunity to try all kinds of food. :)
I had bought a train ticket which was to leave from Vascoe Railway station in Goa at 7:20 am. Now the thing is that this happens to be on a Sunday and it's the only day off for most Indians.(would you want to get up at 5:30 am to get me there... and then again would it be worth the risk?) The local buses don't start working until 7 am and it is a 2 hour taxi/motorcycle ride, or I could try and find a place to stay closer to the station. Then there is another option, the overnight sleeper bus.
Seem kinda dodgy to me. But I would leave at 7:30 pm and get to Hubli at 12:45 am.
I didn't realize that Goa is the go to spot for the holidays and so there was no rooms to be had. So the sleeper bus is a real good plan, or so I thought.
So because I couldn't get a room I did book a ticket on the bus...much more expensive than the train. The train was R175 and the sleeper bus (or shaggin' wagon for short) is R915. Big difference. I hope it has free movies or something....You can choose between a single sleeper upper or lower berth (pick the upper!!) Of course you can also choose a double side. Now, if you only pay for one side of the double bed, you could wake up with someone else in your bed...hmmm that could be interesting, now wouldn't it???
Christopher was helpful in guiding me on the booking the best seats on the train. He said that I should book on 2nd class aircon that way I would have much cleaner bathrooms! I do love getting the inside information.
To date I've been booking 2nd class non aircon, as I don't really like the cold of the aircon. But with the windows open in those cars, it gets pretty cold for the Indians as they all have their winter jackets on and they look at me in wonder as I will only cover my shorts and short sleeve shirt with a light pasmina.
So at 6 pm my motorcycle taxi driver arrives to take me to Margao to meet my bus. The way to move on a motorbike with a backpack is to give the backpack to the driver who lays it over his handlebars and then I take a seat behind him with my day pack. I thought I should get there early see if they will let me leave my backpack at their kiosk (nothing valuable in there) and then head out for a half hour to pick up something tasty. Ah...nope. No room to leave a backpack so I had to babysit it until the bus arrived.
So I took the lower because of my experience with the upper on the train, and hiking my backpack way over head is a bugger. So because of this I decide to take a lower berth on the sleeper train.
Wrong choice again!
I figure I will understand better given a few more trips...or at least I think so. Hope blooms eternal.
So you are pretty much on the floor (and if you didn't know, the Indians are smaller people so you pretty much are not horizontal. There is a small rectangular window that gives you enough of a view that you think you are in a prison, and then there are curtains on the other side to afford you whatever privacy...and being a foreigner woman, you want to stay at least a little invisible as I am sure I would wake up to the staring of some guy. I find that sunglasses do the trick for me. I can look at them back without them thinking it is a come on...cause really it isn't.
The trip to Hubli I would liken to being in a washing machine. I am an expert at bus travel, or at least I thought I was until I got on this bus. Talk about some motion sickness...I had to get myself together because we kept twisting and turning and you have this 6 inch window that you have to sit up to see out of. And no bathroom.
I told Siddu to meet me at 1 am at the bus stop, but when I get on the bus the bus guy tells me that the bus will get to Hubli at 2 am.
I actually arrived at 1:30 am and Siddu was there with a taxi. Amazing. They are such incredible hosts here. We head back to his place.
Siddu started his career working in Goa 18 hours a day in the hotel industry. He learned very fast that that wouldn't be his future and went into sales. He is marketing some pretty innovative products for India, such as kotex pad dispensers in the schools and colleges and universities. They come with an incineration unit so that the waste is taken care of too. He also markets street sweepers and garbage trucks. (Something they could use more of in India as the garbage is pretty much everywhere...and so are the cows and the pigs and the dogs that eat it.)
Siddu takes me to a one bedroom apartment where he has rented it for R2700 a month. He has repairmen that come in from Bangalore to repair and service the equipment and so he rents this apartment. He and his wife live in Hampi, where I was planning to go to when I leave Hubli.
Staying with the hosts I have has revealed a real human side to India that I know I wouldn't have been given. Not to mention the expert advice and the opportunity to try all kinds of food. :)
I had bought a train ticket which was to leave from Vascoe Railway station in Goa at 7:20 am. Now the thing is that this happens to be on a Sunday and it's the only day off for most Indians.(would you want to get up at 5:30 am to get me there... and then again would it be worth the risk?) The local buses don't start working until 7 am and it is a 2 hour taxi/motorcycle ride, or I could try and find a place to stay closer to the station. Then there is another option, the overnight sleeper bus.
Seem kinda dodgy to me. But I would leave at 7:30 pm and get to Hubli at 12:45 am.
I didn't realize that Goa is the go to spot for the holidays and so there was no rooms to be had. So the sleeper bus is a real good plan, or so I thought.
So because I couldn't get a room I did book a ticket on the bus...much more expensive than the train. The train was R175 and the sleeper bus (or shaggin' wagon for short) is R915. Big difference. I hope it has free movies or something....You can choose between a single sleeper upper or lower berth (pick the upper!!) Of course you can also choose a double side. Now, if you only pay for one side of the double bed, you could wake up with someone else in your bed...hmmm that could be interesting, now wouldn't it???
Christopher was helpful in guiding me on the booking the best seats on the train. He said that I should book on 2nd class aircon that way I would have much cleaner bathrooms! I do love getting the inside information.
To date I've been booking 2nd class non aircon, as I don't really like the cold of the aircon. But with the windows open in those cars, it gets pretty cold for the Indians as they all have their winter jackets on and they look at me in wonder as I will only cover my shorts and short sleeve shirt with a light pasmina.
So at 6 pm my motorcycle taxi driver arrives to take me to Margao to meet my bus. The way to move on a motorbike with a backpack is to give the backpack to the driver who lays it over his handlebars and then I take a seat behind him with my day pack. I thought I should get there early see if they will let me leave my backpack at their kiosk (nothing valuable in there) and then head out for a half hour to pick up something tasty. Ah...nope. No room to leave a backpack so I had to babysit it until the bus arrived.
So I took the lower because of my experience with the upper on the train, and hiking my backpack way over head is a bugger. So because of this I decide to take a lower berth on the sleeper train.
Wrong choice again!
I figure I will understand better given a few more trips...or at least I think so. Hope blooms eternal.
So you are pretty much on the floor (and if you didn't know, the Indians are smaller people so you pretty much are not horizontal. There is a small rectangular window that gives you enough of a view that you think you are in a prison, and then there are curtains on the other side to afford you whatever privacy...and being a foreigner woman, you want to stay at least a little invisible as I am sure I would wake up to the staring of some guy. I find that sunglasses do the trick for me. I can look at them back without them thinking it is a come on...cause really it isn't.
The trip to Hubli I would liken to being in a washing machine. I am an expert at bus travel, or at least I thought I was until I got on this bus. Talk about some motion sickness...I had to get myself together because we kept twisting and turning and you have this 6 inch window that you have to sit up to see out of. And no bathroom.
I told Siddu to meet me at 1 am at the bus stop, but when I get on the bus the bus guy tells me that the bus will get to Hubli at 2 am.
I actually arrived at 1:30 am and Siddu was there with a taxi. Amazing. They are such incredible hosts here. We head back to his place.
Siddu started his career working in Goa 18 hours a day in the hotel industry. He learned very fast that that wouldn't be his future and went into sales. He is marketing some pretty innovative products for India, such as kotex pad dispensers in the schools and colleges and universities. They come with an incineration unit so that the waste is taken care of too. He also markets street sweepers and garbage trucks. (Something they could use more of in India as the garbage is pretty much everywhere...and so are the cows and the pigs and the dogs that eat it.)
Siddu takes me to a one bedroom apartment where he has rented it for R2700 a month. He has repairmen that come in from Bangalore to repair and service the equipment and so he rents this apartment. He and his wife live in Hampi, where I was planning to go to when I leave Hubli.
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