I was on the journey to Ahmedabad from Mumbai … late in the evening I was headed to the bus stand for an overnight bus ride. Taking a walk in the rain to the bus waiting point I finally used the poncho I bought in Peru. The so called bus stop was a small little shack of a travel agency. I was semi shocked I guess for I was not used to the bus system in India but then again what the hell ….
The agency was a man just minding his own business … everyone just wait at the road looking at the massive traffic jam and hoping a bus would pull up. None of the bus pulled up and sometimes you see one person stops a bus for a second before hopping on.
Luckily the bus I was going on was late …. I manage to decipher the bus code system in time … else I would have missed the bus and no one to help me with it. The bus all had a name written on the top of the bus like a dark screen and it is plastered big in bright colours so one can spot it a mile away even at night. The ticket gives the name of the bus … so all those people waiting by the road was looking out for busses with the right name ….
Fortunately I was looking too and not waiting inside the crappy travel agent shack and when the bus did come I had to flag it and ran after it … I was the only boarding that bus from that junction. The travel agent did nothing …. If I did not see the bus I would have missed it and left holding a useless ticket and with no place to stay the night.
Ok so I was in the bus now … got my sleeper bunk and it was air-con …. A quick look and no toilet on the bus … this was not South America ….. I am regretting the bus ride already. No sheets too … I so miss AC class on the train …. And no blanket nor pillow …. Air-con was freaking cold too … it now remind me of the greyhound bus in USA …. Luckily I pinched the sheets from the train … it was now my thin sheet of blanket which was all it needed to keep my body heat with me.
The bumbs, the horn, the sudden swaying … the bus was trying his best to get out of the Mumbai traffic and it was almost driving me sick …. Motion sick …. I hate the bus already
Once we were out and on the road it was not that bad thou ….. stolen sheet for a blanket, a toilet break every 4 hours and but then early morning and I got jerk woken up by a splash of dripping cold wet air con water leaking from the overhead vents. I hate the bus.
Reached Ahmedabad and guess what .. the bus chucks me out outside the city … I so miss the train now …. A bit slower is still better than a bus. Then again the bus was not even faster than the train … it took 12 hours, 2 hours longer than the train allocated time … f*ckers …. Rs 1700 too.
This is where the cheating started …
When the bus spits me out, vultures of Auto-rickshaw drivers with big grins was fighting to see who can eat the delicious yellow man. I was in the outskirts of the city …. Nothing nearby to help me get to the city …. Rickshaw is all there is …. And they know it ….
I settle for the first guy who spoke …. What was I to do anyway …. Plus when I asked how much he said meter …. Fishy but then again I really did not have a choice …. And after a long journey decision making aren’t that good anymore. Inspecting the meter it was those mechanical distance counter like one normally see on a car or motorbike. Rigged to show the distance in numbers …. I was guessing it was tuned differently to show the price of the journey, …. Not electronic anyway so how bad could it be ….
He took me to where I wanted to go approximately since I had no idea where I was going, anywhere other than the area near the train station and the sights … Bandra colony …. Another light up glint in his eyes as he realized I dun have a hotel booking and he brought me to the first recommendation … good hotel he said …..
How Much I asked the hotel manager …
Rs 2000 …..
No ….
As the hotel manager tries to desperately cling to his only customer, the price actually drop till Rs1200 …. F*ckers …
The second hotel was much better …. They had a board and it was clearly stated Rs 700 for a night in non – ac …. I could do with that and settle on it.
Time to pay the rickshaw driver …. The meter had jumped till 467 …I thought it was a long ride but it was still high …. I gave him 500 and left it at there and he left ….. Later chit chatting with the hotel desk guy, the hotel guy told me it was a little high … or rather very high ….
How does one charge with the meters anyway in Ahmedabad I asked ….
The meter was this round thing at the side of the cab …. But then that was not the meter but the point counter based on the kilometres travelled …. Then one has to ask the rickshaw driver for the price chart … you then convert the points to the price in Rs ….
Going on other rickshaws with this knowledge visiting sights in Ahmedabad I studied one … and it was about 250 which was the fee I was soppose to pay the first ride … that guy got me I guess …. Sooner or later you get caught in their scheme …
Everyone gets cheated in India sooner or later …
Travelled on : Aug 2015
The agency was a man just minding his own business … everyone just wait at the road looking at the massive traffic jam and hoping a bus would pull up. None of the bus pulled up and sometimes you see one person stops a bus for a second before hopping on.
Luckily the bus I was going on was late …. I manage to decipher the bus code system in time … else I would have missed the bus and no one to help me with it. The bus all had a name written on the top of the bus like a dark screen and it is plastered big in bright colours so one can spot it a mile away even at night. The ticket gives the name of the bus … so all those people waiting by the road was looking out for busses with the right name ….
Fortunately I was looking too and not waiting inside the crappy travel agent shack and when the bus did come I had to flag it and ran after it … I was the only boarding that bus from that junction. The travel agent did nothing …. If I did not see the bus I would have missed it and left holding a useless ticket and with no place to stay the night.
Ok so I was in the bus now … got my sleeper bunk and it was air-con …. A quick look and no toilet on the bus … this was not South America ….. I am regretting the bus ride already. No sheets too … I so miss AC class on the train …. And no blanket nor pillow …. Air-con was freaking cold too … it now remind me of the greyhound bus in USA …. Luckily I pinched the sheets from the train … it was now my thin sheet of blanket which was all it needed to keep my body heat with me.
The bumbs, the horn, the sudden swaying … the bus was trying his best to get out of the Mumbai traffic and it was almost driving me sick …. Motion sick …. I hate the bus already
Once we were out and on the road it was not that bad thou ….. stolen sheet for a blanket, a toilet break every 4 hours and but then early morning and I got jerk woken up by a splash of dripping cold wet air con water leaking from the overhead vents. I hate the bus.
Reached Ahmedabad and guess what .. the bus chucks me out outside the city … I so miss the train now …. A bit slower is still better than a bus. Then again the bus was not even faster than the train … it took 12 hours, 2 hours longer than the train allocated time … f*ckers …. Rs 1700 too.
This is where the cheating started …
When the bus spits me out, vultures of Auto-rickshaw drivers with big grins was fighting to see who can eat the delicious yellow man. I was in the outskirts of the city …. Nothing nearby to help me get to the city …. Rickshaw is all there is …. And they know it ….
I settle for the first guy who spoke …. What was I to do anyway …. Plus when I asked how much he said meter …. Fishy but then again I really did not have a choice …. And after a long journey decision making aren’t that good anymore. Inspecting the meter it was those mechanical distance counter like one normally see on a car or motorbike. Rigged to show the distance in numbers …. I was guessing it was tuned differently to show the price of the journey, …. Not electronic anyway so how bad could it be ….
He took me to where I wanted to go approximately since I had no idea where I was going, anywhere other than the area near the train station and the sights … Bandra colony …. Another light up glint in his eyes as he realized I dun have a hotel booking and he brought me to the first recommendation … good hotel he said …..
How Much I asked the hotel manager …
Rs 2000 …..
No ….
As the hotel manager tries to desperately cling to his only customer, the price actually drop till Rs1200 …. F*ckers …
The second hotel was much better …. They had a board and it was clearly stated Rs 700 for a night in non – ac …. I could do with that and settle on it.
Time to pay the rickshaw driver …. The meter had jumped till 467 …I thought it was a long ride but it was still high …. I gave him 500 and left it at there and he left ….. Later chit chatting with the hotel desk guy, the hotel guy told me it was a little high … or rather very high ….
How does one charge with the meters anyway in Ahmedabad I asked ….
The meter was this round thing at the side of the cab …. But then that was not the meter but the point counter based on the kilometres travelled …. Then one has to ask the rickshaw driver for the price chart … you then convert the points to the price in Rs ….
 |
| The Auto-Rickshaw Meter in Ahmedabad |
Everyone gets cheated in India sooner or later …
Travelled on : Aug 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment