Dudhsaghar Falls Second highest in India.
We have just returned from our first foray into ‘the south’ – Tamil Nadu. We started with a trip on Indian Railways and an overnight train from Goa to Chennai (Madras). The first part of any train journey east from Goa involves a slow climb through the Western Ghats, one engine pulling and two banking. It does afford great views of the Duhdsagar waterfalls, the second highest in India, as the line goes almost right underneath them.
Regular readers of this blog will know we are pretty much old hands at Indian train travel now, however the powers that be pulled a new one on us during this leg of the journey. We generally book side berths, two bunks which give us control over what time we go to bed (with the three berth set ups, once the person who has the middle bunk wants to lie down everyone else has to because there’s no room to sit). However Alison couldn’t understand why our seat tickets were not consecutive numbers. We soon found out. One some trains they’ve now put a middle bunk as part of the side berths.
It conforms to the principle of making the cheapness of the railways here viable by cramming as many people in as possible. The railways minister comes from the caste of buffalo herders and his view is ‘if you don’t milk the cow, it dies’. This extends to having so many carriages on some trains that they’re too long for the stations – bit of a problem if you’re at the back. But that doesn’t worry the Indians and the railways are currently a great success story.
Of course, being India the working of the extra berth hasn’t quite been thought through. There are two different sets of numbers, which don’t agree. This gives ample room for vigorous arguments, which are only settled when the ticket collector arrives and tells everyone where to go. The new drop down bunk is at the same level as the switches for the fans and lights, so every time the rather ample lady sleeping on the mid bunk changed position, the light and fan went on or off according.
Fortunately we don’t expect to get that much sleep on the train.
September 4, 2008 at 11:02 am |
To book your tickets visit http://www.indiantrains.org.
The better way to search Indian trains looks great and it open fast, no pop-up, user friendly. Every information in a single page. This concept is good and some of the features like calendar, train running day has not come in a single website in this reviews. the most important features i have seen in this site that if the user does not know the station code then also he can see all the trains and it is only website which have a drop menu box for the important station from where you can choose the station name and also it has a date calendar from you can choose the date and it show the running day of the train so that you can know which day of the week this train is running. the other most important feature I have seen in this website that it show the train which does not have the reservation coach for the benefit of the user and they are showing the passenger train also which is also not available in any website. This site will enable the users to search train route and compare fares of most of the trains in India.
September 5, 2008 at 2:35 pm |
It is true that we dont plan for future in building a good infrastructure
The sucess story of railways has got more to do with making it profitable
from a lethargic organisation. The minister deserves all the credit that he’s
getting. It would be difficult for you fellas here in India but Railways is here
to deliver to the masses and not for the classes