Indian Train Hacks : Travel cheap in India Part 2

India is very big country; railway covers almost every part of the country. Indian Railways is world’s largest employer. If the tracks of Indian railways were to be laid out, they would circle the earth almost 1.5 times. The longest running train covers a distance of 4273 km between Dibrugarh and Kanyakumari: It’s called the Vivek Express. 2.5 crore Indians travel in train every day. Some quick India train hacks to get best out of 161-year-old system. To travel cheap in India, you need to take advantage of largest travel network of most populated country. So keep reading India Train Hacks.

1. Last Minute Train Booking: During last minute ticket booking, you will not get direct train. So train hack for that situation is try to find 2-tier city where you can change train. For example: you want to go from Bangalore to Guwahati, which are 3000km apart. You will not get tickets to Guwahati even if you try before a month. Now find the exchange point. Bangalore train goes through Vijayawada, Vizag, and Bhubaneswar; try for tickets to and from these cities to your destination.

2. Storing extra Luggage: All major railway station has cloakroom where you can keep your extra luggage. Rates are cheaper. You can carry blanket, bed sheet and pillow for long journey; keep these luggages in cloakroom, as you don’t need this stuff in lodge room. We stored our extra luggage in New Jalpaiguri, took it after five days when we came back from Bhutan trip.

3. Purchase ticket from TC: You have boarded train but you have ticket only for half way, you don’t have to get down to buy ticket. Just buy from TT.

4. Prefer Upper berth: If you got seat in upper berth, you can sleep whenever you want or you can sit in lower berth to enjoy the view. If you have lower berth, you have to share it with middle berth and vice versa. Always avoid side lower berth as it is having hollow in the centre of the seat. Upper berth are best place to escape from non-sense of beggars, transgender etc.

5. Bags and Valuable items safety: Always use two-bag system. Keep your valuable items like phone, ID card, debit card, wallet etc. in small bag and keep that with while sleeping. 

6. Eye blinds and Earplugs are a game changer. Buy good pair of eye blinds and the best earplugs 

7. Waiting rooms: Railway station have decent waiting rooms so use the place to take bath and for getting fresh. If you are low on budget, you can sleep in waiting rooms.

8. Refund: If your train reach destination with lot of delay, apply for refund.

9. Tatkal Ticket Booking: Keep your payment mode details ready

10. Hiring Taxi: Never take a taxi from the airport or Rail Station. Walk down to the main road and you will find taxis for less than half the price. Hire 'running taxis' i.e. taxis on the go.

I hope these Indian train hacks are useful to you. If you know any good Indian train hack, please add in comment. For more detailed travel hacks and tips, read my book Travel Cheap In India

Can we stop Handshake?

          

I hardly have seen people doing anything other than Hand Shake while greeting irrespective of whenever and wherever they meet others. Meeting friends, relatives or colleagues, starts and ends with Hand Shake. Why we are so prone to imitating? And we laugh at china by saying no one can beat china in copying? Aren’t we beating china in copying other cultures?

I will narrate few incidents from my life that opened my eyes. Recently I had attended marriage engagement with friend. My friend is around 28 years old. He was speaking to elder lady; suddenly middle-aged woman called his name. She was happy to see him. First thing she did when he went near her; Handshake. I can’t believe what I had seen. I tried to analyse this incident in two ways. First, even housewives also know party manners. Second even housewife/mothers also became western and forgot our culture. Irrespective of age or relation, people do hand shake. In childhood, we used to see hand shake only in films when villains make deal.  

I was in world famous jog falls. I sneaked in and spent good time on top of the falls. I was sitting looking down at the people who are viewing falls. Suddenly I heard “Namaste”, I was pleasantly shocked and surprised when I saw foreign couple. I said “Namaste” then I realizes, last time I said “Namaste” is more than a decade back. “Namaste” felt so foreign to me that moment.

I have seen cousin/relatives who purchased blazer for marriage by paying 10-15k but wore only on one day (i.e. reception day) till date. We have our own unique marriage dress why do we need blazer?

Are we copying only from western countries? No. We are copying from everywhere, within India too. In proper Karnataka marriages, there is no dance or mehandi program. Now there is sangeeth, which is pin-to-pin copy from north India marriages, Only Hindi songs played during sangeeth.

Above-mentioned incidents are very small but impact is not negligible. We can’t even guess our magnitude of westernization. If a mother do handshake, how can her child do anything different?

I am travel enthusiast, I like to explore and know different culture. In present situation, I feel there is no need for a foreigner to come India to know our culture because we will be having almost everything similar. We are using same steel/plastic utensils, driving same bike/cars and wearing same dress as westerns. So tell me, where is Bharatiya culture or identity? From many decades, we are calling our parents as mommy and daddy, relatives as uncle and aunty, or strangers as sir and mam. From long time we stopped putting hands on our friends shoulders but started hugging irrespective of gender.

There is one positive incident also. I had attended corgi friend marriage in Virajpet, Karnataka. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw people touching their elder’s feet while greeting. I meant to say instead of handshake they are greeting by touching feet. Almost all relatives of groom and bride were wearing their Kodava dress.  I was very happy that day, as Bharatiya culture still exists among few of us.

Is it wrong to copy? No we have to take the best from others while retaining our best. For example: Jeans easy to wear and can wash once in month.

Lets try these below simple things to preserve our culture in small way

In Karnataka, we have lot of Kannada songs so lets play Kannada songs in Sangeeth.

Lets greet by folding our hands with respect or touching feet of elders instead of handshake.

Lets preserve suit and handshake for business purpose only.

Lets say Namaskara/Namaste instead of Hi/Hello.

Lets put hands across the shoulder instead of just hugging.

I take this opportunity to ask you to question yourself. As a Bharatiya, you have to protect your identity and culture. Think in your own way; share the same in your circles.

Series of Cultural Shock at Coorg Marriage

When we reached Mysuru KSRTC bus stand at morning 5am, interstate bus packed with mallu's waiting for us to board. Virajpet is one of the four taluk in kodagu district. The way is so beautiful but I was not able to enjoy the beauty as I was tried by sleepless night. My eyes are closing automatically. Me and my cousin tried to keep ourselves up so that we don't miss our stop. Both of us didn't know much about Coorg marriage so we are confused about how much time we need to stay in marriage hall. Finally we decided to stay in lodge as we badly wanted to sleep and hot bath after sleep. We had landed inside old crumpled building which had lodge board outside, however rooms are pretty decent.

During check inn, we saw few mallu guys with beer bottles entering side lodge. Those guys had a expression of Olympic medal winner. As Kerala Government for banned alcohol consumption, Karnataka border cities are hub for Kerala people to drink.

Reached marriage hall around 10am after sleeping in cold room for 3 hours straight. My cousin worked in chennai for two years. He had a coorgi roommate in pg. As both of them are outside, they were close and kid of tribe brotherhood. I accepted to accompany with my cousin for marriage only after he agreed to travel with me for next 3 days in coorg. So here we are landed in coorgi marriage by thinking are attending just another another marriage visit but little less we know it will turn to one of the memorable marriage I ever attended.

We joined wth people are having light snacks in the entrance. Snacks included sweets, coffee, tea,etc. As we are never shy of food, we took full plate snacks and landed on empty chairs. Most of the elders were wearing traditional  Kodava dress. Eye catchy item is Knife like structure in the waist in silver colour. Both of us surprised when we saw people touching their elders feel irrespective of gender while greeting. As we do only hand shakes while greeting, this gesture remembered our culture. Irrespective what of work they are doing, people used to touch elder feet. I was bowled by kodava culture. But sad thing is handshake are also creeping in slowly. Many people irrespective of age doing hand shake even ladies too.

Young generation of kodava boys and girls are comfortable in their modren dress like shirts, blazers, lehengas etc. Are kodava's also losing their tradition slowly like others? or May be they don't have traditional dress ready yet.

Second surprise is separate queue for men and women to wish newly wed couple. It seems kodava's are more civilize than others in term of giving equal status to woman. Not only in queue, kodava's woman can also drink in their home.

I had one more surprise when we went for lunch;open bar. I was expecting home made wines but they had every kind of drink available in regular bar. As I am newbie, I went with a glass to get beer just like in brewery but they offered me full bottle. As elders occupied places, we started searching for a place to drink by holding plate full pig curry, kabab and beer bottle. We settled in to place near  elderly person who was lonely having hard drinks. By seeing our discomfort and shock, He guessed that we are not Kodava. He worked as Police Inspector and now settled in mysuru. He was also surprised as drinks available both on both day and night. He shared few interesting things with us about Kodava culture like expense of marriage shared between both groom and bride side, Kodava dress cost around Rs.25000 and now only close relatives wear Kodava dress in marriages. The environment is superb and kicking.

After receiving series of culture shock, We went for a walk in less travelled path. Even though, Kodagu is only 250km from my place, culturally we are far apart. I can't imagine expense sharing in marriage and open bar in our side marriages.

I had another shock when we went to have lunch because of sitting arrangement. Now, every where people adapting buffet system. Our side, every convention hall designed to accommodate around 300 people and sitting arrangement is row wise. Each row can accommodate 50-60 people. Catering guys serve all the item one by one. But in this convention hall, there is no seating arrangement like that. Convention hall is built to server through buffet system. In centre of convention, there is place for keeping dishes in roundtable manner. I am very shy by nature but due to travel my shyness is shredding slowly. Confidently, I asked the dish name to catering guys when i was not able to identify the dish. Notable improvement in me. We had pleasant time while having lunch as we were sitting against most beautiful gal in the hall.As groom is free, we had small chit chat and he invited for evening ceremony.

After a nap in lodge, We started to walk towards marriage hall in evening. Throughout the way, we drenched in rain. Marriage hall was looking like a party hall now. There were gals and boys dancing in front of bride. And Open bar was still there with lot of snacks and full bottles.  Now gals are in dancing in complete modren dress, most of the guys had a drink in their hands. Atmosphere was very pleasant. Occasionally groom also joined the dance crew. We didn't got courage to dance so I settle with beer and snacks. Cousin bought me second beer when I finished first bottle in few minutes as I was getting better taste now. Custom of dance is people are stopping bride entering to hall by dancing in front of her.

From the time we enter inside hall, beautiful was stealing glances. She turned her chair so that she can sit opposite to me. Then she pushed her mother to dance. She was dancing pretty well for her beauty. sometimes she was looking at me to check whether I am still watching her dance. I forced my cousin to have dinner when she stopped. I tried my level best to start conversation with her, I was about to greet her and congratulate for wonderful dance but her mom came suddenly. Words died in mouth and that's the end of it.

Travel Cheap in India Part 1

Travellers like to travel as cheap as possible so they can travel for long time. But travelling cheap in India is totally different ball game. Travel hacks of developed countries like USA, Europe countries won't work here. For example, you will get hotel rooms in half of the price of AirBnb in many cities. Lorries is the best option to hitchhike in India. Car drivers are scared of highway robbery so they won't stop. Best place to hitchhike is tolls and petrol bunks not on Highway. This is reverse of globalisation and we call it as "Reverse Innovation"

I am engineering graduate, travelled around India, Nepal and Bhutan. One of my notable cheap travel is Bhutan from Bangalore in Rs.8000 for 10 days. Recently, I travelled around madikeri for four days in Rs.1200 and I was in Hampi for four days in 1800 for four days. Here I listed out hacks which I learnt while travelling in India. These hacks helps to travel cheap in india.

1. Accommodation/Hotel rooms: First, try to find a friend or friend of friend who lives in that city.It doesn't matter how close both of you because everyone feel longing for home when they stay outside. Definitely they treat you just like Athithi Devo Bhava(God is guest).
Second, Always try to bargain in hotel rooms for cheaper price. Use your skills like website/logo designing to get discounts. I used to promise that I would write good review about them in review sites and Facebook to get best price available. Don’t settle for the first hotel you get, check with other hotel. Never ask suggestion from taxi driver about hotel because they will take you to hotels where they discount irrespective cost and neatness of hotel.
Now with apps like Makemytrip, Goibibo and yatra, you will get very good rooms with AC for around 400. Install the apps, they always run 50% deals in almost all cities.
Third, Check out AirBnb. Yeah its third in my list because you will get good hotel for half the price of AirBnb. AirBnb hosts are not available in every part of India.
Fourth, Use Couch surfing to stay and meet new people for free. Get your profile verified to increase your odds of getting a stay but don’t solely depend on this site in India.
Fifth, search for tourist hostels (good place to meet travellers). Hostels are cheap in outside countries and also in some parts of India. Always compare the price with hotels.
Sixth, if you are in India, try searching for government Inspection/tourist bungalow. Give few hundred bucks to care taker. Even though, I am against to bribe; try this option at your own risk. IB/TB’s set up in nice building with good views but maintenance is; Okay lets move on

2. Paper work/Necessary permission: Even Indian citizens can’t simply go to any place you want in India. For example: we have to take Inner line permit (ILP) from DC before visiting any district in Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal Pradesh belongs to restricted area therefore the visitors other than the natives have to take official permission. In 90’s travellers has to write letter for seeking permission to enter inside Andaman Islands. So while planning, research about the permission part also. And Also take the pictures of all ID proof and send to your own email ID or to dropbox so that you can access whenever you want.

3. Buy a map and travel guide as soon as you reach the place: Use bus whenever possible to reach the places you want to visit. Try to avoid the taxis, so you can save a lot of money. But don’t stick to no-taxi rule. Some cities don’t have efficient bus system for example Thimpu, capital of Bhutan. In thimpu, You can’t reach many tourist places by bus; you have to take taxi. Ask hotel staff suggestions. Always take hotel card, in case if you forget hotel name, you can come back to hotel using card even if you don't know the language.

4. Travel in groups of 4 if not solo. 4 is the maximum number of people allowed to stay in 3 Bedded rooms and share a taxi. The whole transportation costs will be divided as well as the hotel bill.

5. Navigation: Use Google maps as a free GPS without data plan by downloading offline map. Star/Save your hotel as you can’t search route when your offline.

6. Hitchhike in Lorry: Lorry is the best option to long distance hitchhike in India as long as your not time sensitive. In few hundred bucks, you can travel between cities. Request for free ride when you don’t have money. Easily you can catch lorry in highways or at roadside eateries. If your not patient enough to wait for long time, go to near by toll gates where every vehicle stop to pay tolls. You will get time to interact and convince driver when they are in queue.

7. Debit and Credit Card: Check whether debit/credit card works internationally before leaving. Make necessary arrangements.

8. Acquire flight Miles: If you are frequent flight traveller, you are heard of miles accumulation. Credit cards have partnership with airlines. You will acquire miles for every purchase you made using card. I am using Jet Airways HDFC credit card, they have partnership with travel websites so I am accumulating miles by writing reviews on partner sites along with miles for spending on credit card.

9. Food: Never try to search for your home food in a foreign country. It will be overpriced and will never taste the same. Try local food; enjoy local cuisine. Never ever eat in restaurants nearby attractions, touristy spots.

10. Washing Clothes: Wash your clothes while taking shower. After your shower, first wring them out as dry as you can without overly stressing the fabric.  Then, lay a hotel towel out on the bed, put one article of clothing on it at a time, roll it up as tightly as possible, then sit on it for a few seconds. This gets them much drier than hand wringing alone.  Your clothes will now easily air dry overnight draped over the furniture even if there's no fan or A/C.

11. Learn the language: Don't bother taking classes or trying to get fluent, just pick up a phrase book ahead of time and read it. The point is to just get the basics down (how much, thank you, where, this, one two three four five, etc.).

12. The beer index: To find out hoe expensive a restaurant is, check the price of the beer. When looking at the menu of a restaurant or cafe you can use the price of a beer as a proxy for how expensive a restaurant is.

13. Booking Hotel/Airlines online: Websites are dynamic so it may show higher rate if you try to book through Apple MacBook and Safari browser, try to book through internet explorer after clearing cache or use privacy mode to get best price available.

14. Internet Browsing Centre and Public/Free Wi-Fi Hotspots: Try to avoid accessing bank accounts in these networks, as you are prone to attack. Use virtual keyboard in emergency. Change password of your accounts once you access from safe network. Beware of Key loggers in browsing centre. Key logger is software used to record every key you press in the keyboard.

For more travel hacks and tips, read my book Travel Cheap In India

Apple iPhone 5s at Cheapest Price Ever.

Apple iPhone 5s (Space Grey, 16GB)


Silently, APPLE given good news to all iPhone lovers in India. iPhone 5S, one of the flagship phone of the apple is available for cheapest rate in world irrespective of indian rupee struggle against USD. Apple slashed price of the iPhone 5S model in India. Now iPhone 5S is available in online stores around Rs.20000 for 16GB model which is less than US market price. With this price, iPhone 5S is must buy phone. Few months back, Apple reduced the price of iPhone 4S model also to Rs.14000 for 8GB Model.

iPhone 5S released to market for Rs. 45000. In October 2015, iPhone 5S rate was around Rs. 35000. Price reduction gradually started from the end of October. You can see the rate changes of iPhone in below graph.

Surprising thing is Apple didn't bothered to reduce the price of discontinued model iPhone 5C. Both iPhone 5S and 5C released together with notable price and spec differenece. Today, iPhone 5S which is far better than 5C is available for less price than 5C

Book readers/lovers, have you heard of Kindle?

I commute to my office in bus which is only 7km away from my home. Including waiting time, journey takes around one hour. I don't have problem with that as my office have flexible timings and I have Kindle eBook reader. Whenever I open Kindle, there will be always minimum few pairs of eyes stare at this black device with surprise. Few people ask me "What is this". I always explain about device, based on observer interest level, I give demo on how to use the device also. Few people think, it is tablet. One particular guy asked me whether I am reading "Fifty Shades of Grey" in Kindle. Recently there was one article about reading these genre books in Kindle in one of the leading news paper in India. So here I am writing this article to explain why I purchased Kindle and why you should purchase Kindle?

 In June 2015, with colleague I went to Bhutan, the land of thunder dragon. It was ten days trip so as a avid book reader I planned to carry up to 5 books along with other luggage. But it’s against backpacking rule of traveller; as per rule you need to pack as light as possible. I wanted to read those books from long time so I was not able to drop any books. Then I started to explore other options. eBook readers are not new. Along with amazon’s kindle, other eBook readers like kobo ereader and Sony eBook reader available in market. Initially I was apprehensive about eBook readers as old-school guy I thought paper book reading experience is irreplaceable. I tasted my first eBook reading experience when I got three free eBooks for purchasing Moto G from flipkart.com. I have read Yuvraj Singh book “The Test of My Life” in my mobile. As I like Yuvi, I loved the book. Surprisingly I didn’t find any problem while reading eBooks.  Next I read Steve Job’s authorized biography in my mobile. I read that book almost everywhere even in lunch breaks. As nowadays mobile screen is as big as 5.5 inch, you can easily read books on mobile because even Kindle is only 6 inch device. Only problem with mobile is backlight display so eyes get strained very soon. Kindle has ink display so you can read for long intervals.

So I decided to buy “Kindle, 6" Glare-Free Touchscreen Display, Wi-Fi”. So below I list out advantages of kindle and why you should buy one?

• Kindle books are cheaper than paper books.
• Kindle can store up to 1000 books so you can read whichever book you want.
• Even though Kindle is not intuitive like apple devices, operating is fairly simple. You can easily maintain notes and highlight important points. Most importantly you can access your notes and highlights easily. 
• Kindle is not only for books, you can read articles, blog post what not. By using send to kindle plugin, you can send interesting articles, blogs or Quora answer to your kindle. When you sync your kindle by connecting to Wi-Fi, new content will be loaded to your kindle. 
• You can read PDF also in kindle. It’s best to convert PDF into kindle format or mobi format for better reading experience. 
• With kindle unlimited subscription, you can read many books for Rs. 199/month. There are lots of good Indian authors books available in Kindle Unlimited like Amish Tripathi (Shiva Trilogy), Chetan Bhagat, Ravinder Singh etc. At a time you can load up to ten books to your kindle.
• Kindle battery life is really good. Daily I commute to office through bus. I read in my kindle on both ways for around 2hr/day. I charge my kindle maximum two times per month. 
• Kindle is having ink display so eyes will not get strained for long intervals
• You can read almost any books for free by downloading pirated copy but I strongly suggest don't read pirated books. Authors put lot of efforts to write a book. Reading pirated book is like stealing. 
• As the size of house shrinking, it's always difficult to store and maintain paper books.

Cons:

• Kindle is stand alone device, you can't install any apps.
• As of now, amazon is not supporting Indian language fonts. I tried some hacks but nothing worked out. I contacted amazon but no changes as of now.
• Only few Indian language eBooks are available for purchase.
• Some times shadow of previous page appears in present page.
• Browser is experimental as mentioned in specs. It has long way to go.
• Kindle is available in only white and black colour.
• No colour display.
• Kindle don't support interactive graphs like tableau or gif files.

if you are avid book reader, go ahead and buy kindle for Rs.4999. Feel free to comment if you have doubts.

Kindle, 6" Glare-Free Touchscreen Display, Wi-Fi