some more about India

I thought I'd write an addendum of sorts to yesterday's message, just to fill in some details since I got to India, because some pretty funny stuff has happened. The first thing was getting a train ticket at the New Delhi railway station, which is a long story unto itself....

There's a tourist desk upstairs there where foreigners can go in order to skip over the hassle and confusion of doing it the normal way, which will make perfect sense in a second, because it's pretty convoluted. I needed to take the train (trains are always preferrable to busses in India because there are almost no freeways here, it's all two lane roads that are filled with obstacles, and is a very nerve-wracking experience, to say the least) about 4 hours north to Haridwar, where the train tracks end because it starts to get mountainous, and then it's just a short 16-mile bus ride from there to Rishikesh. So I wandered down to the train station, which was only about a 15-minute walk from my hotel, the day before I planned to take the train. I knew about the tourist desk, but also knew that it can be a long wait, and it's quicker to use the normal ticket booths downstairs once you figure out the system. But for starters I figured I'd head up to the foreigners office and just see how things looked. As you walk in there's a desk just to the left, where you basically get general information as to how to proceed from there. After that there's a bunch of seats with people sitting in them, and you have to figure out which form to fill out and then which area to sit in. So I asked at the desk and realized the first thing I need was my passport, which was back in my hotel room. So with that, I decided to go ahead and try dealing with things downstairs.

Back downstairs, there's a series of windows, with metal bars leading up to them that create a mandatory line, which avoids the usual bunching up of people at the window basically jostling to be the next person to be served. So I picked a line, and as I was standing there I read a sign up front in English that stated that you could get a ticket for any destination at any one of the windows, of which there were about a dozen. Also the line was moving quickly enough, so within a few minutes I was at the window. So far, so good. Most people working with anything dealing with tourists will likely speak at least some English, so I told the man at the window I needed a train ticket to Haridwar. He responded with: "Go to booth number 32", and pointed off to the left. I looked up and this was booth number 6 or 7. Darn, not so easy.

So I headed in the direction he'd indicated, which led outside, and then there was another room next door with another series of lines leading up to ticket windows. Of course, these ones didn't have the metal railings that helped maintain the line. I found booth number 32, and miraculously there were only about 5 or 6 people in the line, or rather the bunch. So I stood in the back, meanwhile watching out for people trying to cut in front or go straight to the window, which happened regularly. The first thing is just that you have to make sure and leave no space between you and the guy in front, or someone will definitely cut in. So everyone ends up all bunched together. Then, people still try to simply walk straight up to the counter, acting as if they hadn't even noticed there was a line there at all. Several times I had to tap people on the shoulder and point to the back of the line. Every time I did this though, they were quite polite about it and begrudgingly went to the back of the line. About halfway into the line, I then noticed that everyone had a piece of paper, which I didn't have. I pointed at someone's piece of paper and gave a quizzical look, asking where to get one. He pointed to the far side of another line, so I made a gesture asking him to hold my space. He seemed okay with that, so I went and got the necessary form. The guy let me get back in line, and then I looked over the form.

I realized that I needed to know the number of the train I was getting on before I actually got up to the window. Somebody else indicated to me that there was another window nearby marked "Enquiry", and that was where I needed to find out the train number. So with that I relinquished my place in line, and went to stand in the other line. Once I got through that line, the guy there gave me the number of the train I would be getting on, #2055. Then, back to the other line. While I was standing there, I filled out the rest of the info, my name, place of departure, date of departure, destination, address, signature, etc. Finally I got to the front of the line and slipped my form through the hole in the window to the woman there. She didn't speak any English as it turned out, but indicated that there was a problem. She pointed to the ticket woman next to her, who apparently spoke some English. I was able to nudge my way to the front of that line, with the understanding that the woman from the other line had sent me there. The woman there then told me that I could only get tickets there for trains leaving on that same day. For advance reservations, I had to go to another building, three buildings down the street. With that, I decided screw it, I didn't want to waste my whole afternoon dealing with this, so I'd just come back to the same ticket booth #32 the next day, now that I had the appropriate form and knew where to go, and hope that the train wouldn't be full.

So, fast forward to the next day. The train left at 3:30 in the afternoon, so about 12:30 I made it down to the train station. As I was standing in the line for booth 32, with form in hand, I noticed something written in English just overhead, which I hadn't noticed before, that read "Tickets issued 2 hours until 10 minutes before train departure". It was 3 hours before the train departed. But you never know if a sign is accurate, so I continued waiting in the line. Once I got to the booth, there was a different woman this time who spoke some English, and after looking over the form, she handed it back and said "Come back in half an hour". Okay, no problem, I expected that might happen. I figured the two hours might refer to the time of boarding, rather than departure, since it was still almost 3 hours before the train actually departed. I went outside and stood in the sun for about 10 minutes, then figured I might as well get back in line since that would take another 15-20 minutes anyway.

Back in line. By now I'd somewhat gotten the hang of things, and there were other Indian guys coming up and asking where to get the forms to fill out. So one guy came up along my left side, who it turned out spoke English, but in an extremely formal manner. He said to me something along the lines of "Can you please to tell me sir where must I get the necessary forms which you currently obtain as is most required as necessary." These forms where off to the right. So, I abruptly went to point over in that direction, out of my sight since I was looking to the left, and in the process I ended up punching a guy squarely in the face, who was trying to sneak up to the front of the line. Oy ve. He had glasses on and luckily I hit him in the jaw, because otherwise I probably would have broken his glasses. He stood there stunned and rubbing his jaw, as I apologized profusely and tried to explain what had happened. So eventually that was all okay, and then I moved up to the front of the line. I handed over my form again, she took a quick glance at it and said "Come back in a half hour." Of course, I was seriously frustrated at this point, and exclaimed that it had been a half hour since she'd said to come back in a half hour the first time. She explained that it wasn't possible because the information wouldn't be in the computer yet, since it still wasn't two hours before the train departed. I gave up and went and sat outside again.

Fifteen minutes later I was back in line. About twenty minutes or so after that, I was up at the counter. This time she took my form, looked it over carefully, and busily started typing away at the computer in front of her. After about 3 or 4 minutes though, she handed it back to me and said, "You come back in another 20 minutes." I was of course completely exasperated by now, and refused to do so until I understood exactly what the problem was. She conferred with the woman in the line next to her, who spoke the better English, and that woman managed to explain to me that the computer was running a little slow, the information still hadn't been uploaded, but it could be accessible at any minute. So, back out of line. At this point I decided to go get some change for the 500 rupee note that I had, because the price of the ticket was 107 rupees and I was anticipating that if there was going to be another problem, it would be that they didn't have proper change, which happens regularly. But I knew also that no one ever wants to give change, especially for a 500 note, but it was worth a try. So I tried several different snack shops in the train station, and the third one broke it down into five 100 rupee notes. I also had a 10-rupee note, so I would have it covered. Back in line, and this time, finally I got my ticket, with barely enough time to run back to my hotel room, pack up, check out and then catch the train. That pretty well sums up India.

So the trains tend to start on time if you're at the originating point, but oftentimes are late actually getting there. This was the case this time, and we got to Haridwar about 8:30, an hour late. I then walked to the bus station, and managed to find the bus that was going to Rishikesh. I sat down along with about a half dozen other people and waited. After about 10 minutes, everyone mysteriously got up and got off the bus. Then someone who spoke English came back and told me the bus wasn't leaving now for another half hour. So, I decided to just stay the night in Haridwar rather than get to Rishikesh in another hour at best, and then try to find a room late, since it's a small town. So, I found a funky place that would do and went to sleep early that night. There were a couple of things I wanted to see in Haridwar anyway.

The next morning I got up relatively early, and then left the hotel room about 9, with enough time to hike up to a temple on a hill overlooking town, and then get back in time to check out of the room by 12. First though, I wandered down to the end of town, to an area on the Ganges river where pilgrims gather on the stone steps that line the river, and where they also do a candle ceremony similar to Thailand, where they place little lit boats into the river in the evening. I took a couple of photos there just of people gathered around the river, then headed over to the steps that went up to the temple. Right where the steps went up from the street, a woman was selling little plastic bags of various things that apparently were part of worshipping at the temple. It was 25 cents, and had some incense in it, a little plastic bag of stuff to feed the monkeys along the way, some flower petals, a colored headband, and I forget what else. On the way up the steps a little later, I came across some Indian men coming down the stairs, who were gesturing at me in a strange way. One of them then explained in some English that I should put the bag away under my shirt or in my pack, because the monkeys would try to grab it, since it contained monkey food (which I think was puffed rice). Right at that moment, I felt something brush against my leg, and a little monkey snatched the bag from my hand and ran off. This didn't bother me that much since I didn't know exactly what to do with everything anyway, and now I didn't have to carry it. So we all just laughed and I continued up the steps. About 15 minutes later, and halfway up to the temple, I decided to take a break and snack on some nuts and bananas that I had in my bag. Keeping my eyes on the monkeys, I sat down on the steps and ate one of the bananas and a few handfuls of nuts. Then I heard a monkey coming up from behind me, so I grabbed my bag and got out of the way, since I was getting a little paranoid at that point. In the process I grabbed the bag of nuts, but forgot about the bananas, and the rascal took off with my other two bananas. But, I'd only paid 5 rupees, or about 15 cents, for all three of them anyway, so no big loss.