For some reason I don’t have any luck trying to tell this story. I have typed it in at 3 different times already in various forms and something has always gone wrong. So I am going to be very brief just to get it in and may elaborate later.
In short we got to Pune very late, the trip took two hours more that expected and all the cheap options around the train station were full. I was with an Israeli guy who was on a tight budget (more about that some other time) and we were trying to find a room to share to save costs. There was a moderately expensive room free at the first lace we went to – but by the time we had given up looking for cheaper options it was gone too and only quite expensive rooms were left. It was midnight and we had nowhere to go – so rather than sleep on an already crowded train platform I decided to jump on a bus to Mumbai and my companion on a train towards Goa.
The bus trip was fine – they played a noisy Hindi movie trying to ensure noone could sleep – but it was only three hours. They had promised me they would drop me at the central railway station, which of course they didn’t instead they dropped me about 15km North of it. It was 4:00 am and again I am stranded with a bunch of taxi drivers claiming my only choice at this time of night is to pay them 400r. A helpful passenger suggested that I go to a local train station nearby (20r in a cab) and catch a local train (4r) that runs every half hour or so. I took the taxi , he dropped me in a dark alley somewhere and pointed vaguely around a corner. I handed him a 20r note then looked to where he had pointed and asked him to confirm it was the way to the rail station. His English wasn’t very good. I looked back and he was saying “twenty rupee, twenty rupee”. I had already paid, but was waving a note and obviously I had given him a 10 instead of a 20. They are similar colour, it was dark and late and I was tire. So I took the 10 back went through my pockets and found a twenty (reading the text not just the number this time) and gave it to him. I put on my pack and was about to walk off when he said again “twenty rupee, twenty rupee”. I didn’t understand looked back and he was waving a 10 in the air again. Then it dawned on me that he had swapped the notes – he’d obviously done it the first time too. I got really mad and tried to grab the ten from him – but he drove off very quickly when he realized it wasn’t going to work twice. Arsehole, small amount but it really pissed me off.
The train trip went fine though – the commuters on the platforms helped me find the right spot and I got cheaply and quickly to the CST train station – it was nearly 5. I had a few names of places to look for accommodation, so I checked my luggage at the cloak room and set off. Surprisingly the first place I went to had a room, though somewhat expensive, so I went looking for another that had dorms and was much cheaper. It took a long time to find and then was full – so rather than repeat the experience of the previous night I took the room at the first place the “City Hotel”. It was actually a little half room. The length of the room was the length of a bed and it wasn’t even wide enough to fit my pack on the floor next to the bed. But it was nice and clean and had a little TV. It reminded me of those capsule hotels you hear about in Tokyo. Also because I had arrived so early he made me pay for a day and a half. I could have just gone and sat in a café or something until 10 am to save the money but I was tired and annoyed and so just paid it.
