india first timer?

Hi David,

Check out our blogs on our month in India at www.travelblog.org/bloggers/tomandbry for a feel of our time there. It is not the easiest place to navigate so please be patient. We didn't go to Poovar, but the best bet is to head to MadGao or Cancona train station and get a tuk tuk to Goa. Fully recommend staying at Havana on Palolem beach, run by a great guy called Mohan. Advice on trains... give yourslef plenty of time. They book up sometimes days in advance so DO NOT leave it until the last minute, especially if you want a sleeper. Typically, you'll need to go to a seprate booking office which isn't generally in the main station but somewhere close by. The train numbers and times are displayed on the walls and most stations also have a touch screen computer in English so you can work out which one you need. So, go to the computer or wall and note down all possible options for where you want to go (if you're doing lots of train travel it is porbably worth buying 'Trains at a Glance' which has all Indians train schedules listed). Then go to the reservations and complete a couple of options on the reservations forms and take them to the reservations desk. They'll double check the details and give it back to you to make any amends. Then, if you're lucky you'll be allocated a seat. However, it is much mo0re common to get given an RAC ticket, which means 'reserved against cancellation' which sounds like you won't get a seat, but you will, it just hasn't been allocated yet. So, on the day of travel get there a bit early and there will be walls full of charts detailing each pasenger's name ans seat allocation... that's how you find out where you're sitting... or by putting your 'pnr' number in the computer. AC is worth paying for, two tier isn't much better than 3. Any other questions, give us a shout. Have fun.

Bry Reply to this

I'd take the train anytime over a bus. We rode sleeper class and often on overnight trains so it was cool and AC was NOT necessary. You pay close to double the cost for AC over sleeper class. We used the Indian Railways website to find out information on the train schedule, availability and cost. Why pay for a book when it's online for free? Normally we'd book a day or two in advance and didn't have much trouble with full trains. At holiday time, it could get busy, but then you could often get a "tourist quota" ticket or an "emergency" ticket (which you pay slightly more for).

99%!o(MISSING)f ticket counters are at the train station. You can pay a commission to have a tourist agent get the ticket for you. Armed with the train number, times and cost we would go the reservation counter. We'd know from the website whether the train was full or not already. If it was close to full then we'd go with the information on our second choice train just in case.

We didn't go to Poovar. Spent some time in the backwaters of Kerala, Allepey, and REALLY enjoyed that boat trip. Enjoy Incredible India! Reply to this