Dan's Adventure

Following my time in Africa, I will be heading to Asia, with India being the first stop. As I explained in a previous post, travelling by train in India is extremely popular and is in fact the easiest way to travel the vast distances between cities. I considered for some time whether to book tickets in advance, there by tying myself to a schedule, or whether to wing it and hope that I could get tickets as I go. In the end I made the decision to book the tickets so that I could ensure that I will be able to travel to everywhere that I want to go.

The IRCTC website is very easy to use. It allows you to choose the class of carriage you wish to travel in, and for overnight trains, your preference of berth. All of the trains that I have booked are overnight trains so I have booked myself into the Air conditioned 3 tier class (3AC) with an upper berth being my preference. The reason for choosing an upper berth is because the lower ones are used as seats until night, but with an upper berth I can use it during the day if I wish.

I knew that travel in India was not going to be expensive, but I was really surprised by just how cheap the train tickets were. For 8 long distance trains, the total cost (including service charge) was £65. For all but two of the trains, my reservations are confirmed, but for the other two there is already a waiting list so hopefully people with reservations will cancel in the next two months!