News
BHPian aargee recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
My last memorable journey by train was somewhere in 2008/09 or so; it was endured (yes endured) just to give an experience of train for my little Son then. Post that, I might've taken train hardly some 2-3 times. WagonR, S-Cross & CBR have pampered & spoiled all of us to core. Not just Children, even we were dreading to take public transport for last few years, nevertheless we've been thinking in recent times on how to get over with it. However, we weren't scared as much as our Children due to our recent trip to DL via Duronto, but still we had our concerns due to our return journey from DL-TN. When returning our train departed nearly 4 hours late & finally 8 hours delayed when reaching Chennai due to derailment of a good train in the Jhansi sector. Only positive attribute was, due to the 8 hours delay it arrived around 5:00 Am instead owl hour of 1:00 am.
So in 2022, we decided, we will do what we need to do!! In the month of October, we made the necessary foundation by planning a trip to be done entirely in public transport & also added some masala just so as to make it a tasty journey. Besides Gustavo Petro's quote (Mayor of Bogota Columbia) always rings in my mind:
Thus the trip was planned with utmost cautiousness & we deliberately avoided AC as much as possible due to 2 reasons:
Light wallet comes free; but still the Duronto's delay left us with deep apprehension due to our tight train schedules; if there were any delays reaching some of the stations, then it would have a huge impact on entire trip.
Sat 24-Dec
Reach Chennai Central at 07:00.
Sun 25-Dec
Mon 26-Dec
Tue 27-Dec
Wed 28-Dec
Thu 29-Dec
Fri 30-Dec
Took EMU to Chennai Central, had breakfast at Madras Hotel instead of regular A2B for a change (for which we regret) & then boarded the double decker train. We got the normal regular seating experience. From Bangalore Cantt when almost the entire train got empty, we switched to those empty seats & enjoyed the upper & lower deck travel to SBC.
At SBC, we took the metro to Yeshwantpur station. An elderly person who was issuing tickets at SBC ticket vending machine suggested taking a walk to Metro.
The metro was damn crowded, unbelievably crowded like a town bus which is much unlike Chennai!! Finally reached Yeshwantpur & then boarded the train to Madgaon.
Nothing particularly to note except for I couldn't sleep properly due to people talking in loud voices, loud YT shots from mobile due to which I had severe headache. These noise jokers ensured to wake me every 1 hour or so (22:53, 23:53, 00:17) until 1:00 Am!!! We had ordered food through Food on Track to deliver Sabudana Vada, beetroot cutlet. Food was extremely good & the packing was extraordinarily great as well. Worth the money!!
The train was also late by more than an hour reaching Madgaon.
Chennai to Bangalore:
At Yeshwantpur:
Sceneries enroute from Yeshwantpur to Madgaon:
Dinner at night:
Continue reading on BHPian aargee's holiday using only public transport for BHPian comments, insights and more information.