Leaving Sawai Madhopur
Leaving Sawai Madhopur was a great experience in Indian-style transportation. I won't go into all the boring details, but I'll just touch on the highlights:
--I was unstatisfied with the tiger hunting process, and had decided it would never work.
--I teamed up with a group of 3 Germans staying in the same hotel as myself to catch the 13:10 train to the next stop. From the time that the suggestion to leave was proposed until we got on the train was less than 90 minutes.
--I was part of a 4-passenger pile into an autorickshaw. We fit 4 people plus luggage plus the driver into it. I hung on with one hand off the side next to the driver. While this is unremarkable by Indian standards, its the most westerners I've seen fit into an autorickshaw.
--We made extensive use of the "women-cut-to-the-front-of-the-line-rule" in the Indian rail system
--The train ticket we got was 3rd class local. The cheapest of the cheap. I traveled 150km for 24 rupees, about 60 cents.
--The compartment was packed. I was one of those idiots you see on the trains sitting in the doorway of the moving train; for a while it was the only space available.
--For those of you who have seen it, towards the end of the movie "Mission Impossible" there is special effect of a highspeed train zipping past the camera. It had a whooshing sound and a massive blur of steel and glass. I can now attest this special effect is almost extactly right; while sitting in the doorway, a train passed within about a foot of me going the other way at a relative speed of 120 kmph. After it passed, I came to my senses and forced my way fully into the compartment.
--I was unstatisfied with the tiger hunting process, and had decided it would never work.
--I teamed up with a group of 3 Germans staying in the same hotel as myself to catch the 13:10 train to the next stop. From the time that the suggestion to leave was proposed until we got on the train was less than 90 minutes.
--I was part of a 4-passenger pile into an autorickshaw. We fit 4 people plus luggage plus the driver into it. I hung on with one hand off the side next to the driver. While this is unremarkable by Indian standards, its the most westerners I've seen fit into an autorickshaw.
--We made extensive use of the "women-cut-to-the-front-of-the-line-rule" in the Indian rail system
--The train ticket we got was 3rd class local. The cheapest of the cheap. I traveled 150km for 24 rupees, about 60 cents.
--The compartment was packed. I was one of those idiots you see on the trains sitting in the doorway of the moving train; for a while it was the only space available.
--For those of you who have seen it, towards the end of the movie "Mission Impossible" there is special effect of a highspeed train zipping past the camera. It had a whooshing sound and a massive blur of steel and glass. I can now attest this special effect is almost extactly right; while sitting in the doorway, a train passed within about a foot of me going the other way at a relative speed of 120 kmph. After it passed, I came to my senses and forced my way fully into the compartment.
posted by Linton at 9:36 AM
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