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About Nilesh Korgaokar
Expertise
budget travel in India, off-beat locations, beaches on the west coast, backpacking, travelled extensively all over India, Nepal, Tibet and China during my Army career. Willing to assist travellers, especially yougsters, in their travel plans. Recommendations, locations, etc.
Experience
Travelled in India, Nepal, Tibet and China as a volunteer for a travel agency to explore unseen areas for working out itineraries. Many of my guides are permanent features on the web-sites of travel information service providers.
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You are here: Experts > Food/Drink > Indian Cuisine > Travel in India > train travel in india
Expert: Nilesh Korgaokar - 9/5/2008
Question
QUESTION: Hi Niles,
I will be in India, 27 sept-11 oct 2008 : 27-5 in Rajasthan, 5-11 in Ladakh. We plan to travel between cities in Rajasthan (Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer), Delhi and Agra by train. How should we do it? How's the possibility to get seat without earlier booking, we just come to the train station and buy the ticket on our departure day? How's the condition, travelling by train in India? How's Mandor Express to be compared with other trains? How's travelling by train to be compared with bus?
Thank you for answering.
Regards,
Nawita
ANSWER: Hi Fransiska,
It is encouraging to know that you want to travel by train in India during your trip to this country. Nowadays everyone (including me) want to zip across the country in aeroplanes. I remember as kids we used to travel everywhere by train (planes were so expensive) and enjoy the countryside, the quaint railway stations, eating all kinds of food and drinking endless cups of tea as the stations came and went.
Train travel is a bit crowded in India nowadays, but you can still enjoy yourself if you travel in a group (I assume you are a woman) and take some commonsense safety precautions.
The Indian Railways has a good website - http://www.irctc.co.in/ where you can book look at schedules and also book tickets on-line. However, there is no e-ticket facility and you will need to have an address in India, specially at the starting point (Delhi, I presume) where these tickets can be delivered by courier. You can make payments using credit card. I have used this facility sometime back and have been impressed with the speed and efficiency of the service - my tickets were delivered home the very next day.
Please take a look at the website and hopefully you can navigate the site without too many problems. I think there is a facility called INDRAIL - where foreigners can book open passes and can travel on trains. There are helpline numbers given - just replace the 0 with the international dialing code in your country and 91 for India.
If possible book by air-conditioned class. In Sep-Oct India can be very humid and uncomfortable. Try to book as early as possible as seats can get filled up quickly. Most Indian trains are packed to capacity at any given time and it is not advisable to arrive at the station and hope to get a seat or a berth to sleep (for overnight trains)
I don't know about MANDOR Express as I have not heard about it. Traveling by train is safer than traveling by bus.
Hope this helps and have a great trip.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hi Nilesh,
Thank you for answering so soon. I'm a woman and will travel with a friend, a woman too. During my travel, there will be Idul Fitri, biggest moslem holiday on 1st-2nd OCtober 2008. How it affect the train? Are there going to be more passengers? More expensive ticket?
Regards,
Nawita
Answer
Hi Nawita,
I recently came across this website that has a great interface for Train Travel in India - www.cleartip.com
Hope you find it useful to plan your train journeys in India.
Nilesh.
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Hi Nawita,
Idul Fitr is a festival that does not involve travel on the part of the people celebrating. The celebrations are local and should not affect train travel in any way. Train tickets do not have a variable pricing policy in India. They are fixed price, unlike airline tickets, and no matter when you book, they are the same cost.
Hope this helps
Nilesh.
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