Going On A Trip - Tips

Some of my friends ask me to help them plan their travel for vacation. 

They have toyed with the idea of traveling alone and want to know how to take the 1st step (climbing aboard a train all alone). 

This post is specific to traveling alone, traveling low budget and traveling within India and to a journey that usually includes 30+ hours of train travel each way. This post is about primarily traveling with a little of vacationing and not about primarily vacationing with a little of travel. If you are not a resident of India, there may be other issues which I have not covered. The link mentioned at the end of this post may be useful for such persons. 

If you have plenty of friends and hate traveling alone, if you love your comfort or are closely related to the Ambanis, well, there are other posts in this blog which may interest you. You can skip this post. 

Once you have decided to travel alone, the questions to be answered are: where to go, how to go, how much will it cost, how do you travel safely.

Where to go:

Rather than suggest where you should go, I will explain how I decide where to go. I usually have places in mind where I want to go. 

When I talk to peple or read, something clicks and I make a mental note ("aha sounds like a nice place"). Then I read about these places or talk to people who are from there and then have a better idea about the places to see, how to commute locally. I do not stay at any place for more than 2 days, so the local sightseeing would not be much and rather limited to cheap options available. Specific details of local sightseeing and commuting and eating etc are not detailed at the stage of planning the trip. These are decided during the travel or after arrival at the place. I decide these based on information provided by co-passengers, auto drivers etc.

Closely linked to the question of where to go is the duration of the travel which in my case is about 7 to 10 days, including travel time, if the destination is about 2000km away. 

My long distance journeys are by train. Looking up the train schedules will give you an idea about the time it takes to travel to the destination and back. Then you know you may have, say, about 3 days locally before you start back. 

Now that you know how many days you have for local sightseeing, you should have an idea of the things you want to do once you reach the place. I look for greenery or snow. You may have your own set of things that excite you. Find out approximate time, cost to go around. If you are traveling to remote areas such as Sikkim, Arunachal etc you may need to get an Inner Line Permit (ILP) from the government even if you are an Indian citizen. Find out when, where these permits are available and what documents to show to get the ILP and how long it will take to get those permits. 

Cost (at the time of writing)

Since this is a low budget trip, let me give you the approximate cost of various types of transport. 

Rented car, taxi: Rs 18/km (plains) and in the hills about Rs 25/km. 
Auto: Rs 15/km

Plane: Rs 4-7/km (for short travels of few hundred kms, the rate would be higher)

Private luxury Bus: Rs 2/km

Train: Rs 0.5/km (2nd class sleeper) and Rs 1 - Rs 2.3/km for A/C (cost increases progressively from AC 3 tier to 1st AC).

See how cheap train travel is in India. And if you are traveling two nights by train then that is 2 days of stay in a hotel avoided. Hotel costs about Rs 800 - 1300/day for a decent room in a Tier 2-3 city. Make sure you travel during off season time and avoid having to stay in Chennai, Mumbai etc or even places like Ahmedabad, Chandigarh. Food may cost about Rs 500/day whether you are traveling by train or are outside.

Itinerary Planning:

Once you have decided where to go, you will then need to determine how to get there. You will need to find out the nearest station(s) and then the trains that get you there. Some trains run everyday, some only a few days a week. You will then decide the approximate starting date and return date. Check whether tickets are available for both journeys. Makemytrip's train ticket booking is very user friendly and you can check availability by class, by date, by train and for return tickets at the same time. With irctc's earlier site, you may have reached your destination before the ticket booking site loaded. The new version of irctc released in Jun 2014 seems way better in terms of response times. 

Ayyoooo Train Tickets:
Do not depend on a waitlisted ticket, especially for the return journey, your ticket may not get confirmed. It is extremely uncomfortable to travel in an unreserved compartment for 30 hours. Plus you will not be able to book tatkal tickets on the return journey since you will be on the move and may not have reliable internet access. Usually an RAC ticket status at the time of booking is safe IF you have booked a month in advance. Even a waitlisted ticket (e-g., WL 3) might get confirmed if you are traveling 2nd class sleeper, but a ticket that is W/L 3 in 1st A/C runs a high risk of not getting confirmed. Similarly a 2nd class ticket that is RAC but booked for travel from the starting point of the train is more likely to get confirmed than a ticket for travel from a station en route. RAC and WL tickets have two numbers (WL 189, WL 145) for each passenger. Refer elsewhere to understand the meaning of each. The numbers given as examples above refer to the 2nd number and not the first. As on Nov 11, 2016 tatkal tickets can be booked the day before the train starts from its starting point (and not the day before you board the train)

The return journey has to have a confirmed ticket. If you are planning on a lot of travel as I normally do, there is one more issue. Your train / bus may get delayed and you may miss the train that brings you back home. And you may be stranded at a place thousands of kilometers away and facing the choice of traveling in the general compartment of a train or taking a flight home at an exorbitant price.

I would suggest that you book a 2nd train ticket upfront for the day after your scheduled return date, so that even if you were to miss your train you just need to hang around at the station platform for a day or spend the night at a hotel, which isn't too big an issue. 

I would recommend booking these additional tickets for each step of the journey where the schedule is risky. For me the most risky step is usually the last leg of the journey. If I miss the train at the 1st leg of the journey, then I just need to cancel the whole trip, but I won't be stranded. So I don't deem the 1st step to be risky. For a journey that has 4 legs,  I usually book about 7 tickets. 

The additional tickets booked are an insurance for your journey. They involve additional cost but give you a peace of mind. If you can, do cancel the unnecessary tickets at the right time. For example, if you boarded the train as originally planned and you had also bought a ticket for the next day, cancel the next day's ticket once you have boarded the train. You need to have an internet connection to cancel the ticket or have some friend or family member who will do it on your behalf. Else you will not get any refund on the ticket cost. Even if you do cancel the ticket, you may be refunded only half the price that you paid.

Most of my trips involve two rail journeys to get to the destination. For example if you are at Jammu and plan to holiday at Dibrugarh, you may have to go from Jammu to Delhi and then from Delhi to Dibrugarh. In such a case, you need to take care to know when (date and time) the train from Jammu will reach Delhi and when the next train will leave from Delhi for Dibrugarh.

Once you have made all train bookings, make a table like this:

Departure Date	Departure Time	From	To	Arrival Date	Arrival Time	Train No.	Seat
27-Apr-14	12:15 PM	Jammu	Delhi	27-Apr-14	10:10 PM	12345	S1/32
28-Apr-14	12:13 AM	Delh	Dibrugar	30-Apr-14	4:45 AM	12678	S3/49
3-May-14	11:45 PM	Dibrugar	Delhi	6-May-14	4:15 AM	12679	S12/54
6-May-14	11:20 PM	Delhi	Jammu	6-May-14	9:43 PM	12346	S7/9

In each row, include the PNR number, train name and number also. So now you have the itinerary at your finger tips. I would think that the journeys marked in red are risky. The ETA (Expected Time of Arrival) at Delhi is 10:10PM and the train to Dibrugarh leaves at 12:13AM, you have only two hours and the Dibrugarh train may leave from a different station at Delhi than the one that you arrived at. 

Imagine being in Delhi, and you have missed your train to Dibrugarh. So you may consider booking upfront another ticket from Delhi to Dibrugarh for the next day (29th Apr). Another point to note is that the Dibrugarh train leaves at 12:13AM and hence the travel date for Dibrugarh journey should be 28th April and not 27th April.

Again for the Dibrugarh - Delhi return trip you may consider another ticket for the next day (4th May 2014). Note that I have not colored the last leg (Delhi to Jammu) red since I can easily find an alternate way to get back home - take a bus from Delhi to Jammu. The last leg is not very risky.

Is the above schedule ok?

• The above schedule indicates that you have 2 hours in Delhi to catch the next train (to Dibrugarh).
• On the return leg, you have from 4:15AM to 11:45PM at Delhi. What will you do there? You plan to book a hotel room? Or walk around and stay in the station? 
• At Dibrugarh, you arrive at 4:15AM and leave at 11:20PM. Many hotels charge you on 12 noon to 12 noon next day basis. So if you checkin to hotel at 6AM on 30th Apr and checkout at 10PM on 3rd May, then you pay for 30th Apr, 1st May, 2nd May, 3rd May and 4th May - for 5 days. If you are not comfortable paying for 5 days when you are staying there only for 3.5 days, then checkin at noon Leave the luggage at the reception and hang around outside or see some places from 6AM till noon on 30th Apr. You will save 1 day's tariff. Similarly on 3rd May checkout at 12 noon and hang around outside till 10PM, then pick up your luggage from the hotel and leave for the station. You save one day's tariff, of course at some inconvenience to yourself. Else book a train that arrives at Dibrugarh close to noon and leaves Dibrugarh for Delhi around noon.

Which train berths do I prefer?
Are you tall? Then avoid side berths since those don't give you legroom. 
Do you like your me time? Then avoid lower and middle berths, choose upper berth or side berths. If you have an upper berth seat, you can choose to go up and lie down any time. You can't do this if you have a lower or a middle berth. Upper and middle berths are not recommended if you need to go to the toilet frequently or if you have a problem climbing the "stairs" to get to those berths.

Remember that the lower side berths sometimes are allocated to people whose tickets are RAC at the time of boarding. Hence if you have been allocated a confirmed side upper berth ticket, you may find that the lower berth is shared with 2 other people, both with RAC tickets. During day time three people (you and the other two) will be sitting in the lower berth, which will be rather uncomfortable. In 2nd class sleeper compartments, seat numbers that are multiples of 8 (e-g., 8, 16, 32, .... 72) and the previous number (e-g., 7, 15, 31, ... 71) are side berths. The former are upper side berths and the latter are lower ones.

Sometimes if you are lucky you may get a bedroll (a pillow and a bedsheet rental of which for the journey costs Rs 30 as on Oct 27, 2016). But then you are much less likely to get this offer if you are far away from A/C compartments. So if you are particular to get bedroll try to book in S1 compartment. Remember, though, if you choose the compartment you may not get the kind of berth you desire. It's a trade off. I have chosen and got the berths I desired. But I have never chosen a particular compartment while booking tickets. So this is a feature of irctc that I am yet to explore. Readers are welcome to leave comments.

Packing for the journey
Take 2 bags, one small and easy to carry with you (for the shorter trips at the destination) and one large to carry your dress and stuff. Take a mug with you and take bath in the train. Traveling in 2nd class sleeper compartment gets you really dirty (especially if you keep the glass window open) and a bath does wonders. Carry a book or other stuff that you can do by yourself. 

Security of your belongings:
Carry a chain and a lock. Tie your bags with the chain so your bags cannot be stolen easily. Make sure you have two sets of keys, one in your purse and one set someplace else. There should be two sets of money and other valuables, including tickets and cell phones. Your purse or phone may be stolen or misplaced or may fall down while boarding the train or while in the toilet. Remember you are all alone. 

All the things that you need to use frequently should be easily accessible in the bags. Make sure that you leave about one third space empty in your bags to accommodate stuff that you might buy and bring back home.

Dress:
Fewer the better. You aren't going to Buckingham palace. Shoes? No, unless you hate slippers. Shoes take a lot of space and make you seem rich and are a hindrance when you are bargaining with people. Pack an extra pack of light slippers just in case you lose your primary pair or is stolen or torn. It's not easy to buy a pair of slippers while traveling by train. 

SIM for your mobile:
If you are going to a remote area, you may not have good or even any network connectivity with many operators. It might be a good idea to carry a BSNL SIM card to such places. These days roaming is automatically enabled on all SIM's. Ensure that you do have roaming enabled, just in case.

Chargers:
A/C compartments have chargers (220V electricity outlets) in each berth. Alas, 2nd class sleeper compartments usually have only 4 chargers (2 on either end of the compartment near the exit door) to cater to 72 travelers. During day time the there is usually a long queue to charge the phone. What I do is:
1. Use the phone minimally during travel. Not even browsing, listening to songs etc.
2. Carry a multi pin plug so that 2 or 3 phones can be charged at the same time.
3. Charge during off peak hours (midnight to 6AM). Very little crowd at this time, most will be sleeping.

Or, carry a battery bank from which to charge your phone. 

Medicines:
Carry emergency medicines. This would include, say, Crocin for headache / fever, Eno for stomach ache and if you need any specific medicines, then those too.

ID Card:
Don't forget to carry an ID card and it must be original too - no xerox. You don't need to carry printed tickets. If you have the confirmation SMS for the ticket, then that serves as a valid ticket.

Accommodation: (Updated on Sep 13, 2015)
You can now book railway retiring rooms online. You need to have a confirmed or RAC ticket. The PNR number is the starting point of your room reservation. 
The room can be booked either at the starting station or at the destination station (as per the PNR) for a maximum of 48 hours. Checkin time is between 6AM to 8AM - varies from station to station. The minimum duration you can book is 24 hours, in some stations it is 12 hours. 
If your train ticket is canceled your room reservation gets automatically cancelled. If you are going from Mumbai to Delhi and onward from Delhi to Ludhiana and you want to book a retiring room at Delhi, then you can book based on the PNR of the Mumbai-Delhi train or based on the Delhi-Ludhiana train. The one that you should use is the one where the journey is more or less confirmed. 

If you are departing from Chennai on 12th Sep and reaching Kolkata on 13th Sep, you can book retiring room at Kolkata on 13th - 14th Sep (1 day) or 13th - 15th Sep (2 days).  You can book retiring room at Chennai from 11th to 12th Sep (1 day) or 10th to 12th Sep (2 days) at Chennai. Note that at the departing station, checkout time again is around 6AM to 8AM. So if your train's departure time is in the evening, you will have to find other ways to spend the time from the checkout time till your departure. Remember, if you plan to get down at Kharagpur instead of at Howrah, you cannot book a retiring room at Kharagpur because Kharagpur is neither the starting station nor the destination station as per your PNR.

The retiring rooms are decent but do not expect a reception, a telephone, drinking water, towel, extra bedsheets / pillows. There is an attendant but expect difficulty in locating him. Finding the place where they give you the keys to your rooms is also a chore. It may be the station master's office. Start your search there, take a printout of your room reservation. Despite these issues the retiring room is a comfortable place to stretch your legs and keep your bags. 
Retiring rooms cost about Rs 250 per 24 hours for non A/c and about Rs 500 for A/C rooms.

You have boarded the train, now what?

Now we have identified where to go, we have booked the tickets, also planned for some contingency tickets. But we have not planned the details of what to do in Dibrugarh. When you leave you will have some idea about places to visit and things to do. Talk to your co-passengers who are from Dibrugarh. If you are lucky one might offer you yummy avakkai. Or a friend who knows Dibrugarh well may offer to be a virtual guide on phone telling you where (not) to go and eat etc.

Once you have settled in and chained your bags, avoid catching the eye of any woman who looks to be in distress. They usually want to coalesce with other friends / family members and they unerringly detect single males so that they can exchange berths with them. If you make eye contact, the next sentence you hear might very well will be: "Sir, my father / mother / cat / sister / friend are in this compartment and my berth is in S43 compartment. If you don't mind, can you move there so that I can come here to S3?" and the next moment you have been swiftly kicked towards S43 from S3. (She would already have brought her bag to S3). You could be forgiven for suspecting that you are married to her. Women can be very insensitive to even men they are not married to. Be chauvinistic or pretend to be deaf.

Once you arrive at Dibrugarh, you need to know where you will stay. Find a decent hotel first which is close to town (meaning bus stand railway station are close and the pin code's right most digit is 1!). The reception at the hotel is a good source of information. I have usually avoided arranging my transport for local sightseeing at the hotel as I think the hotel takes a cut from it. You get the info from the hotel and then find out where and when buses are available to take you where you want to go. Then find your own way. Do your thing, only make sure that you have your return ticket booked for the 3rd of May. Make sure you don't miss that.

Should I share information with my co-passengers?
Uhh uhh. While I encourage talking to co-passengers and getting information, make sure you do not divulge personal information, including your itinerary since you really don't know the person you are talking to and how that information may be used. Prevaricate when asked probing questions. When someone asks you "How is your mother?" alarm bells should ring loudly. Some friends I know relate their family history or their residence address when they are asked "Time kya hai (what is the time)?". Strictly No No.

If you (the traveler) are female and if by nature you are social, sweet, nice and smile a lot, then don't do any of these while traveling. Read this also.

Do I eat sweets, biscuits etc that another person has offered? Yes and no. Yes, if its a 2nd class sleeper compartment and crowded and no, if you are in a coupe or A/C compartment. Yes, if it's tasty and No, if it's healthy.

Hiring a Car:
If you hire a car for yourself at the destination and want to be dropped some place out of town and do not need a return journey, you would still be charged to and fro fare. If you are forced to rent a car (meaning it's not a share taxi), make sure you tell the driver that you will pay only at the end of the journey. Note down the car number or take a photo of the registration plate, just in case you lose something. And it helps to engage with the driver, you get to hear some useful information and interesting anecdotes. 

Keep tab on your expenses, find out how much you spent for the whole trip from the time you left home to the time you reach home, including the cost of tickets. The major heads of expenses would be train tickets, food, accommodation and miscellaneous (including local travel).

Is the trip going to be very safe?
Well, trains derail or collide with other trains, with elephants (in North Bengal), cars (at unmanned level crossings) not infrequently. Even fires in some compartments or terrorist bombs (as in the Bangalore Guwahati train few days back) do happen. When you go to Assam or Kashmir, there are jihad groups or Maoists. Boats may capsize when you are doing local sightseeing. Cars or buses slide off the road and fall into deep valleys.

Will it happen to me? Hmm. Not very likely but no guarantee.

Expect some minor medical issues like flu, diarrhea when you get back from the trip because of the kind of weather, food, water that you will be exposed to. If you are finicky about hygiene, you may want to drink only mineral water and avoid eating at dirty places. 

The most important part of going on a trip like this is to get back home in 3 pieces (including the 2 bags).

Bon Voyage.



Additional reading:

1. Andoid app review: http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/03/indian-rail-guide.html
2. Indian Railways Ticketing Rules: https://www.services.irctc.co.in/beta_htmls/features12.html
3. You can buy Insurance along with train ticket as from Sep 2016.: http://www.livemint.com/Money/n8lyussoGyjdPMC1HbO8ZL/Insurance-for-train-travellers-takes-off.html
4. http://www.indiamike.com/india-articles/india-railways-and-the-indian-train
5. http://trainstuff.in/gallery/choochoo
6. http://www.thecrowdedplanet.com/simple-guide-indian-trains/
7. https://sites.google.com/site/suhanasafarbyks/43-gcirc and https://gcirc.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/you-too-can-be-this-stupid/
8. Livemint: Assam to Kerala: 5 trains, 4,000 kilometres, and 21 days. https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/assam-to-kerala-5-trains-4-000-kilometres-and-21-days-1559897695310.html - Somewhat akin to a 18 year old wearing a gorgeous sari for the first time and posing for a selfie