viernes, 23 de mayo de 2008

Traveling around India (like in the third world)

Since I entered India, I tried to use public transpor that the average indian has to use, not the ones set up for the tourist, so I could get more closer to the indian daily reallity, talking with them, instead of another tourist. But, the reallity that I don't like the reallity that I have seen.
The bus. In the third world, in Nepal is the same, the transport by road is the cheapest way to travel, little bite under the train. But it's the cheapest due to the system that teh companies employ. If a bus departs at seven in the morning, I will appear around there at quarter to seven, to get my ticket and be sit some minutes before the departure. But at the time, the bus doesn't depart. First, because the india, doesn't have a time conception like in Europe, they can arrive to hours late and they don't consider that are getting late. But even once the bus is full, the bus stay quiet. The ticketyer officer, is just waiting for more and more people to the point that all the bus, even the corridors, and roof in Nepal, are full. Your are inside, close to a lot of human beings, suffering from heat, but not because of the 45 degrees outside, jsut because of the human heat inside the bus.
Once the the bus starts the travel, it doesn't follow a trip from A to B. It stops at any city, goes to other cities out of the way jsut to collect more and more people that is put inside the bus like if they were plastic bags.
Meanwhile, the driver just drives the bus as fast as possible, even in narrow streets, pulling the brakesa lot of times, and through the highways, small roads without haouse around, faster and faster, overtaking cars, buses and trucks one after the last, pulling the horn most of the tiem, because around this lands, is the only way to overtake, like saying: " Ey, I'm overtaking you, brake. or I wil;l crahs with the truck that is coming in the other direction"
The jeep is the saem thing, overcrowed, but with the diferences that one passenger, my case in one of my trips, will be close to the driver, with the gearshift between his/her leg, unconfortable.
The train, is something more confortable, but not too much in class sleeper. You can sleep during the trip if the other 99 indians and tourists of your coach let you and the sound and noise of all the stations to which the trains is calling at. Besides, the train is stoping most of the tiem, even without aparent reason. But, was i nthe trains where I got my worst experience travelling aourn India. In my trip from Mughalsarai to Siliguri. I didn't have time to buy a reserved ticket, so I bought a unreserved one. In my guide book, it's written that once in the train, a ticketer officer wil take you to one sit, charging you a little more that you would pay in the station. But that train was overcrowed, not full. I was sharing during ten hours a space in a corridor with other six indias, standing up, without sleep, just because the ticketer officer didn't pay any attention to us. The true is after a change in the officer, the new one toldme to go to the coach at the end of the train, the secon class generenal, to travel with the poor indians, but it was better that the corridor. I got an unreserved ticket, but the other indians were holding perfect valid tickets, but couldn't use them just because of the fullnes of the train and the passivity of the officers. The last seven hours of the trip, I was sitting with really kind indias singin, chatting or trying to sleep.

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