Comments on: Oh, What a Night

By: Daniel Noll

Daniel Noll — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:41:13 +0000

@Sutapa: I thought we had responded earlier. To write a book (or two) about our experiences — it’s definitely on the wish list.

@Atul: Thanks. We’ll be sure to give you a ring next time we’re in New Delhi. Glad this piece made you laugh. That bus was something else to rival all my India experiences, except perhaps the train I took during my first visit back in 1997. That one is getting it’s own article one of these days. Stay tuned!

By: Atul Chaudhary

Atul Chaudhary — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:00:47 +0000

Hi,

I can’t stop laughing your post and I am surely gonna read all of them…

Well being an Indian I know how you must have felt and that ‘out of place’ feeling must have surrounded you. 🙂

But I think the end feeling and experience is whole new.

Look forward to you visit to India again….and If you do come again feel free to call me at 9990034566 for any kinda help. I am based in New Delhi.

By: Sutapa Chattopadhyay

Sutapa Chattopadhyay — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:53:25 +0000

Audrey, a travel book with all these experiences would (in my opinion) make for a great travel book. I am sure you have a lot more experiences like these to share. I am actually going through your archives…

By: Sutapa Chattopadhyay

Sutapa Chattopadhyay — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:16:50 +0000

This is such an interesting article! I am not at all surprised by 100 people getting onto a bus in the middle of nowhere (Mumbai suburb). This happens on trains as well, but you (Dan and Audrey) probably know that already.

By: Audrey Scott

Audrey Scott — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:35:42 +0000

@Sutapa: We were used to this happening on trains, but were just amazed at how many people fit into the bus. Every inch was covered! Quite an experience.

By: Dave and Deb

Dave and Deb — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:03:07 +0000

That is what we are going to start doing now. We sat down yesterday to plan a new route and we figured out how to make our card work, so we booked our first train online! Yeah! Thanks for the information, you are the best.

By: Audrey Scott

Audrey Scott — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:26:14 +0000

@Dave and Deb: I’m not sure if this information will help, but we called National Travel (23015652) for a bus to Udaipur from Mumbai and just gave the cell phone to the taxi driver to get the correct departure address. The bus company guy had promised to hold the direct bus for us, but when we arrived he claimed he couldn’t hold it any longer so that is why we had this quasi-direct bus. We were desperate at that point, so we took it. I believe there were several bus companies there, so you could shop around. You can pay a bit more for an A/C bus, which might be worth it.

We made good use of the online booking for trains (it accepted our US credit card), but we essentially had to plan our 2 months of India travel and what trains we needed when we first arrived because trains fill up very quickly. Even months in advance, some trains were booked. On the one hand, it limited our flexibility a bit. But, on the other hand, it kept us to a schedule…otherwise we might still be in India 🙂

Good luck and enjoy Udaipur! It has one of our favorite markets in the whole world.

By: Dave and Deb

Dave and Deb — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:54:24 +0000

We are trying to book a train, bus, anything to Udaipur right now. And your site came up in our search…Too cool. Traveling India is very frustrating. It is not the people, the garbage, the crazy drivers or anything like that, that is getting to us, it is the fact that we can’t get anywhere. We are always trapped with no way out of a place. We went to the train station today, Dec 23rd to book for Dec 27th…no room and 30+ wait list. Can’t make online booking work and we are trying to figure out how to book a bus with no luck. Ahh, India:)

By: Audrey Scott

Audrey Scott — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:47:17 +0000

Sonia: Yes, our visit to Chandigarh was really a pleasure, not just because of the place but because of the great people we met there! I just sent you some photos by email from our visit. Thanks for your wishes for our safe travels and hope we meet again!

By: Daniel Noll

Daniel Noll — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:42:28 +0000

Vikramjit: Thank you for the complimentsâ€¦and our conversations.

True, there is a fine line between sharing and â€œover-sharingâ€ an experience. We have to draw this line constantly, as Iâ€™m sure you are aware from what weâ€™ve written. We reserve many experiences to share later in a different context or merely for ourselves and our diaries. But it’s important to leave enough lines on the page for the reader to read between.

We also have to draw distinctions when making observations that appear negative. Passing judgment is easy; relating events and circumstances in challenging contexts is not. We rarely intend to cast aspersions. We simply hope to share the moment and our feelings, particularly with readers unfamiliar with the places weâ€™ve been and the modes of travel weâ€™ve chosen.

The true measure of any experience is to ask, â€œWould we do it over again, exactly with the same level of discomfort and uncertainty?â€ In this case â€“ and in many others along our journey â€“ we would answer â€œYes,â€ for these experiences help form and inform who we are and our view of the world.

Tim: Thanks for the well-wishes, and the compliments.