[country music fades out ...] Our 44 hour trip to Varkala was the product of bad advice from Mr Dodgy Travel Agent (highly recommended by our boring but very friendly guide from the Jain temple excursion) - we should have taken a much faster train. We also gave Mr Dodgy Travel Agent around a thousand GB pounds in exchange for return air tickets to Kenya, supposedly to be provided on the Monday morning we were leaving Mumbai. Of course, no tickets were available Monday morning, and none could be provided for a further week at the price originally quoted, apparently - though if we could manage another 200 quid he'd see what he could do, and otherwise he'd be very happy to hold onto our cash and give us the tickets when we arrived in Mumbai in early Dec, two or three days before our flight ...
Money back? If we were so distrustful as that it was our loss and he'd be happy to give us our money back, minus 25 percent cancellation charge - a 250 quid fee for not booking us any tickets! I quailed, felt stupid, and thought it was my just desserts for being dumb enough to trust the guy. Heather, however, has learned many things in representing Foleshill ward, and sitting tight while this guy ranted and the percentage came down and down seems to be one of them. If we'd waited a little longer, I think we'd have got the lot back, but in the end we settled for losing 2.5 percent (twenty quid) - we had a train to catch! The friendly and reliable Mr Singh at our hotel (Hotel Godwin in Colaba, it's in the guidebooks), who easily organised IATA-covered tickets for us within the remaining hour we had left, was quite surprised that we'd got any of it back, I think.
With experiences like this, I looked haggard: before I was helped by Melissa and Rosa's Beauty Parlour ...
Back to the train journey ...
So, we were on the wrong train, but it was a great journey. Second class AC 2-tier is comfortable enough, and the food, company and views were great.
The train passed mountains, villages, little stations with friendly people on them; often stopping, never hurtling, usually moving along at a reasonable rate. The countryside was very different from North-East China - maybe partly because we were heading further south - with none of the ordered allotment feel to it that we'd seen in the People's Republic, and lots of space with no people in it (which we'd very rarely seen in China).
1 comment:
phew! a close run thing. Congrats to Heather for perseverance. I know that sinking feeling only 2 well being the shocked and dazed owner of 2 Moroccan rugs... love to all Alan
What a cautionary tale! The picture of you all in the train is great - you all look very relaxed and happy. And the views look lovely. Lots of love to you all Jo xxxx
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