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One Hour, Four Dollars and a Date with Death

INDIA | Monday, 12 March 2007 | Views [723]

Having had the experience of making our way through the very daunting train station in Delhi back in 2004, we opted to hire some help to navigate for this evening’s overnighter in our second-class 3-tier sleeper train journey. We had arranged through the hotel to have a driver take us to the train station, and help us to find our actual train car/seat. When the driver arrived, it was all a different story- he wouldn’t take us into the train station, but wanted the same price. After arguing for 15 minutes with the guy, we opted to go out to the street to find another cab. One that wasn’t in coo-hoots with our hotel manager who had already gone home for the evening. We found someone willing to take us down for the meter rate of the cab, so we loaded our packs in, and off we went. Big Mistake: our first late night cab ride, with the driver from hell. Our cabbie proceeded to go the wrong way down one-way streets, dodging an onslaught of auto rickshaws, trucks, people and cars. Other drivers were screaming and shouting at our driver, but our cabbie kept jamming on the gas pedal and plowing through. One thing I’ve learned in India is to just keep my eyes shut when taking a cab. You eventually arrive safely anyways, so why give yourself a heart attack enroute if you can avoid it? We did arrive safely, but our driver was not on the up and up. That will be an extra 100 rupees for each bag, and oh, because the ride was at 9:00pm, I’m also going to charge you the midnight tariff rate. I managed to get out of the situation paying the late night fee, but told him to get lost on the baggage charge. We loaded up our packs like mules and headed into the train station… prepared for the worst- our Delhi-like train station experience…. Prepared to step over bodies, animals and excrement lining the platforms, all while maintaining the security of our bags and all the pouch-packs Darrin has hanging off him filled with electronic gadgets. To our surprise, the Mumbai train station was a much more pleasant experience.

Tags: Misadventures