My Ten Steps to an Indian Travel Destination

bus and rickshaw picture

bus and rickshaw example

To try to capture what may happen in a typical trip between one Indian city and another, I thought to outline the typical 10 steps which may occur during a journey for me. As an example, I’m using Monday’s 10 hour bus journey from the hill station of Conoor, transfer at Coimbature, and then to Tamil Nadu’s capital of Maderai.

1. Prepare: Pack biscuits and water and glean through the guidebooks and ask the locals for potential transportation connections, expected travel time, and costs. I also try to mentally prepare myself for the expected frustration and confusion which will undoubtedly occur by reminding myself that I will eventually get there – all in one piece in body if not in mind. Finding the bus can never be done without assistance. I tried in Conoor by walking to the bus station but, as usual, there are few or no bus numbers and the destinations are all in Hindi. After asking two people and getting a “go left” and “outside,” I figured out that I had already passed by the bus stop at the entrance to the bus station. Who knew?

2. Boarding the bus: Usually, the bus station worker kindly keeps an eye out for my bus and notifies me of its arrival but I usually ask a nearby person to help me as well. If at all possible, I try to sit in the very front, solitary seat next to the driver but sandwiched between the engine and the side window. The seat’s positive aspects are that it has the best view, has space for legroom and the backpack, and has relative privacy and solitude as only the driver or someone sitting on the engine cover can engage in a conversation. Upon occasion, I also get to observe the reaction of someone on the street realizing there is a foreign woman passenger on the bus. I feel at one with a zoo animal who suddenly pops out of his shelter at those times… but I often laugh and wave unlike the animal. The seat’s negative aspects are that it is situated directly under the blaring television showing Indian movies on DVDs, it can be dirty and hot at the very front, conversations can be limited, and the best views mean I can see how often I was nearly killed in this suicide seat. I left Conoor about an hour after I had arrived via the toy train, it was 11:30.

3. Participate in bus conversations: Unfortunately, both bus drivers were rather quiet and spoke limited English so I didn’t get a chance to talk with them. As we started to drive through sprawling Coimbature after a 2 ½ hour drive, I attempted once more a conversation with him. I wanted to figure out the bus station we would arrive at and the desired bus station to leave for Madurai as the city had three bus stations. The only thing I could figure out from our conversation was that the departure station was different from the one in the guidebook and he would drop me off at the one I needed. It is now about 2:00 pm.

4. Rely on the kindness of strangers: As I began to wander through Coimbature’s bus station equally torn between finding a bathroom and finding the bus, a young man came from behind me and said he had been on my bus and knew I was going to Madurai. He would help me get to the bus. Rajesh was the name of my young guardian angel. Turns out, I needed to transfer to a local bus at this station to get to the long distance bus station which was about 15 minutes away. Rajesh also helped me to find the private bus companies across the street to ask if there would be any deluxe or express buses leaving soon. Strangely, the private buses had roughly the same insanely inconvenient travel schedule as the only train to Madurai: leave around 9 pm and arrive around 2 am. Begs the question of entrepreneurial innovation doesn’t it? Before guiding me back to the local bus, Rajesh kindly showed me where the pay-for-use toilet and waited for me. He certainly gained some big karma points that day!

5. Be flexible: Since I was still recovering from a mild food poisoning incident of the previous day, the local bus travel time gave me a chance to devise a plan to stay the night at a lesser known Hindu pilgrimage town which was about halfway to Madurai. Rajesh’s insistence that the Madurai leg would take 7 hours rather than the guide’s 5 to 6 hours helped prod that sudden change of plans. Upon arrival at the long distance bus station and asking for the new destination, I was told that I was on the wrong bus station. As I tried to understand the very thick accents of two middle aged men trying to help me near a bus that was waiting to leave, the crisply clean question of “where is your final destination, Ma’am?” came floating down from a young woman on the waiting bus. Turns out she was on the express bus to Madurai that only took 5 hours. Within minutes, I was safely ensconced in my suicide seat, had paid my 70 rupees (US$1.80 or so) for my ticket to Madurai, and I was on the move again listening to blaring movie above my head.

6. Rest stop activities: Like Croatia, the bus stopped about 2 and a 1/2 hours for a 10 minute break. The rest area is a muddy parking lot with two stalls: one with bottled drinks and candy and the other serving deep fried food served in newspaper and India’s ever popular spiced tea, chai. The public toilets with no doors were situated to the far right of the turn off. I only availed myself of a chai and a deep fried ball of something which turned out to be potatoes with vegetables as it was now about 5 pm and I was tired of biscuits.

7. Completely surrender self to the ride and to the driver’s competency: Shortly after the rest stop, we began our drive eastward into an area severely impacted by an incoming cyclone or hurricane which was offshore of Sri Lanka. Not that cyclones happen every day in my journeys, but the step here is to live in the moment and completely trust in the driver’s skill in dealing with the coming evening, torrential rain, and frequent “diversions” as the road is being expanded or improved upon. My admiration for my “speed racer” driver grew by the minute as we began to ford flooded roads and skirt pedestrians, cows, and motorcyclists who moved closer to the middle of the road to avoid the flooding edges. By then, I kissed any hope of a five hour bus journey good by.

8. Arrival at the destination: I was not prepared for an on-time arrival and nor did I have any idea which of the three Madurai’s bus stations we had arrived at. A rickshaw driver (the three wheeled taxis), came on the now deserted bus and we started talking about where I should stay and how much it would cost to take me there. He said 80 rupees but accepted 60. I still have no idea which bus station I arrived at and maybe he drove me in circles, I don’t know. Since it was 8:00 pm, I chose to be dropped off in an area where there were many guest houses and hotels for efficiency and safety’s sake.

9. Choose a place to sleep: Only a comparatively few places in India offer single rooms so I often pay the same price as two people. I don’t mind as it usually means a difference of US$2 or so and I get a bigger room but the guidebooks had grossly underestimated the costs of the places in Madurai. One cheaper place was clean but reaked of a rose scented sanitizer – for those who have read my Dubrovnik’s blog entry – that smell now acts like mace for me. Others wanted an outrageous $15 for a room. The fourth place had the desired price range ($4), cleanliness, friendly staff, and potentially quieter location factors so I chose the grandiosely titled “International Hotel” and arranged for a bucket of hot water to be ready after I came back from dinner.

10. Reward self for completion: Now that I don’t smoke, I find I reward myself with a beer after a big travel day. Often the beer isn’t on the menu but I can get one for about US$2.50 if I eat in a hotel or a “licensed establishment.” The beer always costs more than my food. At that point in the day, I would pay far more as the carrot has done the trick. I’ve completed my 10 step program and try not to think that I will probably repeat it within a few days. Luckily, the beer bottles here are the size of two regular sized ones in America! Bottoms up or gan bei!

    P.S. – For those who have read the blog entries in Croatia, I am sure you will join me in a laugh and a chagrin in finding out that all of the intricately painted, magnificent towers in the world famous temple complex here in Madurai are all completely covered in palm leaves. The towers are getting their every 10 year repainting done underneath the scaffolding. The process will be complete in April, 2009. Yes, I am still one with the angels of reconstruction – no matter the country!