A Chinese railfan's journey to India (2010-Dec-22 – 2011-Feb-01)

[HKG]

This is a great journey,I like it!
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...335&highlight=

[HKG]

Originally Posted by yaohua2000

Hello, I finally got some bandwidth budget to share my first trip to India earlier this year with you. Many pictures:


(click here for all pics)

http://www.yaohua2000.org/2010/20101222/en.html

Brief itinerary:

1. C2036, Tianjin–Beijing South, 120 km, 1st class seat (new railway line opened on August 1, 2008)
2. T27, Beijing West–Lhasa, 4064 km, hard seat (Qinghai–Tibet Railway, highest railway line in the world, up to 5072 meters above sea level, opened on July 1, 2006)
3. Lhasa–Zhangmu–Kodari–Kathmandu–Lumbini–Sunauli–Nautanwa by road
4. Train No. 15020, NTV-GKP, 84 km, unreserved (Gorakhpur Nautanwa Express)
5. 12531, GKP-LJN, 279 km, unreserved (Gorakhpur Lucknow Intercity Express)
6. 12179, LJN-AGC, 330 km, 2S (Lucknow Agra Intercity Superfast Express)
7. 12721, AGC-NZM, 188 km, unreserved (original booking cancelled due to fog)
8. 12952, NDLS-BCT, 1384 km, 1A (Mumbai Rajdhani, 12+ hours delay due to fog and protests)
9. 10103, CSTM-MAO, 765 km, 2A (Konkan Railway)
10. 56961, MAO-VSG, 22 km, unreserved
11. 02779, VSG-SBC, 705 km, 3A
12. 16221, SBC-MAS, 361 km, 2A
13. 12633, MS-VM, 159 km, unreserved (original booking got waitlisted)
14. 12693, VM-CVP, 429 km, 3A (onboard upgrade)
15. 12631, CVP-TEN, 65 km, unreserved
16. 06007, TEN-NCJ, 73 km, unreserved
17. 56045, NCJ-CAPE, 16 km, unreserved
18. 12634, CAPE-NCJ, 16 km, unreserved (Himsagar Express had decided not to come in CAPE, its origin station, as it was very late)
19. 16317, NCJ-CHKB, 3600 km, 3A (Himsagar Express, longest train ride in India)
20. 52472, KGRA-PTK, 95 km, unreserved (Kangra Valley Railway)
21. 14034, PTK-DLI, 484 km, SL (Jammu Mail)
22. 12392, NDLS-NLD, 1092 km, 2A (Shramjeevi Express)
23. Unknown train, NLD-RGD, 11 km, unreserved
24. 13233, RGD-PNBE, 99 km, CC (Rajgriha Express)
25. 12352, PNBE-HWH, 531 km, unreserved (Howrah Express)
26. 13109, KOAA-DHCA, 375 km, 1A (Maitree Express, international train India–Bangladesh introduced on April 14, 2008)
27. 704, Dhaka-Chittagong, 321 km, AC_S (Mahanagar Provati in Bangladesh)
28. AK149, DAC-KUL, 2739 km (AirAsia flight)
29. AK50, KUL-MFM, 2643 km (AirAsia flight)
30. D7604, Zhuhai North–Guangzhou South, 93 km, 1st class private cabin (new railway line opened on January 7, 2011)
31. G1082, Guangzhou South–Zhuzhou West, 655 km, 2nd class seat (Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway, new railway line opened on December 26, 2009, fastest commercial rail service in the world in term of average speed)
32. D106, Zhuzhou–Hangzhou South, 937 km, 2nd class seat
33. G7318, Hangzhou–Shanghai Hongqiao, 169 km, 1st class private cabin (new railway line opened on October 26, 2010)
34. G7388, Shanghai Hongqiao–Changzhou, 165 km, 1st class seat (new railway line opened on July 1, 2010)
35. D342, Changzhou–Tianjin, 1160 km, soft sleeper lower berth (CRH2E sleeper bullet train, introduced on December 21, 2008)

Total rail trips: 32
Total rail distance: 18,847 km
Total rail ticket cost: 2021 CNY + 12329 INR + 495 BDT = ~US$590

......................

[Kenwen]

wow,thats a really looooooooooong journey

[sharon0902s]

woow,can somebody tell me how many days will take?

[Pangu]

Originally Posted by sharon0902s

woow,can somebody tell me how many days will take?

If you click on the link above, you'll see that the author noted the date range of each of his trips. The total trip went from December 22 to February 1, which is a total of 42 days.

---

I just noticed the dates are also displayed in the title of this thread lol

[stone]

I'm just back from a trip in hyderabad, india. Indians are all cheaters. If you give them even a little respect, they will take advantage of you and cheat money from your pocket.

Never wanna go to india again

[Pangu]

Originally Posted by stone

I'm just back from a trip in hyderabad, india. Indians are all cheaters. If you give them even a little respect, they will take advantage of you and cheat money from your pocket.

Never wanna go to india again

You are obviously angry from your experience, but that doesn't warrant stereotyping a whole population of 1.2 billion people.

When you go to most places in the world, if you don't speak the local language and are not familiar with the local culture, chances are you will be cheated to some degree.

[stone]

i've been to many countries, but indians are so special. They may look friendly to you, but they will cheat you when time comes. So be very careful to deal with indians.

those locals are poor and very hungry for money without moral, especially when they see foreigners. The public park/museums charge 20 times more to foreigners than locals. Shops cheat you with 100 times higher price. One shop even threaten me with a knife when I leave the shop without purchase. My driver stole gasoline from the car I rent. And they are good liars. they can completely change their words in just 1 minutes right in front of you.

My trip was completely ruined by the people and the city is chaotic and shitty as well.

Indians are really cheap people. If you treat them as friends, they will cheat you, but if you treat them as slaves, they seem to feel more comfortable and be nicer to you

I know my words above may not sound polite to indian people. But this is my true experience. It is reality.

[big-dog]

it's too generalizing and harsh. I agree with Pangu. Some of my friends in Malaysia speak the same to China.

I've been to Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai and I was also tricked by cab drivers and street stores too (I posted my story 2 years ago in Indian forum). But most other people are very nice to me and helped me a lot on my journey.

The street cheating is not very common in China now but it was there only 10~20 years ago. I believe with fast development India will improve in this aspect soon. When I think of Inida I always remember the nice people and their smiling faces on my path.

[HKG]

+10

There are nice people all around the world!

[stone]

Originally Posted by big-dog

it's too generalizing and harsh. I agree with Pangu. Some of my friends in Malaysia speak the same to China.

I've been to Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai and I was also tricked by cab drivers and street stores too (I posted my story 2 years ago in Indian forum). But most other people are very nice to me and helped me a lot on my journey.

The street cheating is not very common in China now but it was there only 10~20 years ago. I believe with fast development India will improve in this aspect soon. When I think of Inida I always remember the nice people and their smiling faces on my path.

your contact with indians may be superficial. When I went to tourist sites, those ppl also looked nice. they smiled at me. Some even took pictures with me. They do this just out of their curiosity and they think it's some kind of honor to interact with foreigners, as they don't quite often see ppl from other countries.

But when it comes to money (almost every single time), they trick you. They generally think foreigners are rich and they wanna get as much money from you as possible by any means. Some ppl look very nice to you, but later you found out they tricked you. I hired a driver to drive my car for 7 days in india, and I learned so many tricks from him alone.

Of course there are nice ppl in india, like anywhere else. and I know you wanna be polite to indians, which is good. But I just want my experience to remind those tourists to india, especially chinese tourists to be very careful when you visit india. This is more important than being polite.

[fragel]

^Stereotyping a whole country based on a trip experience in an insulting manner is no way to get your points taken seriously. it is not a matter of being nice or polite, your accusation is so harsh that it undermines your credibility. Frankly do you really believe your own words when you say "Indians are all cheaters"? I think not, then why on the earth would you say it? to show us that your anger has compromised your judgment?

you could have listed your advices, in a more specific way, for instance, it is a good advice for people to be alert to the drivers who might steal gas from your rented cars. Your detailed personal experiences would also help. If you have many problems with a place you visited, make a really long warning/advice list.

[fragel]

Apparently this topic is not very attractive in this subforum. On ourail.com it has got 93 pages of replies (including the post pic pages).

[BarbaricManchurian]

what is there to say? India's trains are slower, I guess...

[fragel]

mostly appreciation and admiration. the sharp contrast is also too obvious for ppl to miss.

then discussion on the Indian locomotives, you know, the WAP series and so on.

[Munch ma Quichi]

Damn Indian terrorists! Always blowing up the Chinese border, you even killed all of our cows, dammit!!!!!!

[oliver999]

当外国人也这么说咱中国人,心里是啥滋味呢

[bk3494]

Just happened to stumble upon this site. Looks like an amazing trip! Just saying, not all Indian are cheaters and I have never heard about Indian Terrorists!! To the person who said "All Indians are cheater"...what are u saying all Chinese people are honest good living folks who never cheated people before? That's false! Chinese people cheat people too but there are also honest Chinese people out there! Don't judge a country by the few people you meet on a trip!

Our trains are slow but they serve their purpose.

[CoCoMilk]

Hey bk3494

DONT PAID ANY ATTENTION TO Munch ma Quichi. He's a troll and hes not even Chinese.

[bk3494]

Hey! Alrite thanks for that info!