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India Travel
We are looking to travel to India this year. Our plan is to spend a couple of days in New Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur {the golden triangle}. We have never been, don't speak the language, and were wondering about public transportation? I was mainly looking to hear from people who have been before?
We can pay for a car service from our hotels to drive us to each of these locations but would like to save some money and use public transportation if it's an option. I know to clearly get a ticket in an AC compartment and obviously beware of your surroundings, etc. We've never had a problem with public transportation anywhere {we live in NYC}, have used it in Europe, etc.
Aside from booking tours, if we wanted to use the metro in New Delhi and sort of wander around on our own, is it a good system to use?
Any advice from those who have been would be much appreciated!
Re: India Travel
We spent 5 weeks in India this summer and traveled only by way of public transport, and it was totally fine. Generally we took trains, and we had seats sometimes in the AC cars (depending on the route sometimes you get a seat, which is AC Chair, but other times it's AC 3Tier, which is a sleeper car, so your seat with be a bench that later someone will sleep on.) but we also rode second sitting class, which is a general compartment with no AC. Second sitting was sometimes pretty grungy, but sometimes totally fine. For longer routes I'd stick with AC. We were in 3rd Tier AC for nearly all our overnight rides and it was fine. We got upgraded to 2nd Tier AC once and honestly, there was almost no difference.
Depending on when you go, I'd suggest booking your train seats well in advance, they can sell out months in advance during peak season, and I think you can only book seats 3 months out. For a very small fee you can use cleartrip.com. We used it numerous times, it's fantastic. It is a bit of a process to set up since you have to register with them and with the Indian Railways, but it's worth it to make sure you get the seats you want. If you need to change tickets or have questions, all those cities have a 'tourist' window at the train station and it will be staffed with English speakers. In the cities, nearly everyone we encountered spoke English.
As for the metro in Delhi, it was clean and efficient. Only one thing...the first time we rode I just got into a regular compartment with my husband, and the car was pretty full, but not packed, mostly with men. I got touched at least 15 or 20 different times in that short ride. Nothing too obscene, just some touching of my hair, my arm, my back...it was uncomfortable. We lived in NYC for 10 years so I've been on super packed subway cars and buses and have never been touched in the same way. After that, I rode in the 'Women's Only' car, a pink car (literally) at either the beginning or end of the train. There are signs on the platform indicating where that car will stop. My husband rode in the regular car right next to the women's car and we just met at the platform at each stop. It was much more pleasant.
Feel free to message me if you have other questions about your trip, I don't usually check messages here, but there's a link to our blog in my siggy and there's a 'contact me' form there that I check regularly.
Have fun!
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How long are you going for? Are you on a tight schedule? If so, you might want to consider other options, simply because the Indian rail system can be a bit eccentric. There are always special lines you're supposed to be in, and everything seems to function on paper systems that are decades out of date. It's a great experience if you have some flexibility, but it's can definitely be stressful if you're on a fixed schedule.
I assume you've used public transportation in a developing country before? Where have you traveled? I was kind of surprised to find that Indian trains seem to be far behind China even in the lower-class cars. They definitely smell better IMO, because there's more Indian spices in the air, compared to the stinky tofu and garlic in China. I've never taken the train in Russia, and the only train travel I've done in eastern Europe was in Hungary, which was reasonably nice, albeit crowded, so I really don't have any comparable European experiences.
When I traveled the golden triangle with my Indian ex, we hired a driver from Delhi to Agra and Agra to Jaipur, and then we took flights for the rest of the trip. Domestic airfare was very inexpensive and saved us a lot of time since we only had two weeks in India (and needed to spend at least one of those visiting family). At the time, the Agra airport was still a government airport, but they opened it to commercial flights a few years ago.
Also, while you're in the region, have you considered visiting Udaipur? It's one of my favorite cities in the world. Gorgeous! (There are some pics in my bio)