Useful Tips

If you are planning a trip to India, here are some useful tips on how to get around.

DOMESTIC FLIGHTS

• www.makemytrip.com - a popular Indian travel agency through which you can book cheap internal flights; the website searches all the low-cost Indian airlines and gives you the best deal. Usefully, they accept foreign-issued credit and debit cards for online bookings. (Most domestic Indian airlines will not accept foreign cards on their websites.) Additionally, you can also book international flights here, which is useful if you are going from India to another Asian country. There is also the option to book package holiday deals / tours, although I don't think these are good value for money.

TRAINS

Indian trains have a very complicated system of classes, which determine the price and comfort of your journey. Here is my rough guide:

• General class (2S), also known as "Second Sitting" is the cheapest class - you will find people from all social backgrounds in this class. It is very common that people get onto carriages of this class with no tickets, so it can get very crowded and you might need to fight for your seat. There are usually some fans, but no air-conditioning. It can make for an interesting experience to travel on this class, but it's not very comfortable. In terms of safety, I wouldn't say you should be overly concerned. It won't be comfortable, but no one is going to kill you either.
  me and the girls on a general class train from Delhi to Amritsar (before it got all crowded and crazy)
   
• Sleeper class (SL) is the sleeping equivalent of general class - it is the cheapest sleeper class and there is no air-conditioning. Otherwise, there is little difference comfort-wise between sleeper class and AC 3 Tier (3A) There are three tiers of beds on top of each other - if you have the choice, go for the top berth where you are least likely to be bothered by anyone. In the summer, it's probably better to go for an air-conditioned class. In winter, bring a sleeping bag - the windows often don't close properly and it can be freezing.
• AC Chair car (CC) is a comfortable sitting class with air-conditioning, which tends to be a lot less crowded than general class. You will mostly find middle-class Indians here. Usually pretty comfortable; there should be no safety issues.
• AC 3 Tier (3A) is an air-conditioned sleeper class with 3 tiers of beds (bottom, top, middle). If you can choose, go for the top bearth where you are least likely to be bothered by anyone. You will probably find middle-class Indians in this class. Blankets are provided but sometimes it can get pretty cold because of the A/C. This is a pretty comfortable class and there should be no safety issues.
• AC 2-tier sleeper (2A) is a sleeper class with 2 tiers of beds with air-conditioning. It should be slightly better than AC 3 Tier.
• First Class (FC) and First Class AC (1A) are pretty self-explanatory. As a skint backpacker, I never travelled on this class in India, so I can't tell you much about them.

The standard of different classes varies a lot between individual states in India. For example, when I travelled on a local train in Kerala, the general class had wooden seats; in Delhi, it was incredibly crowded with plenty of poor people and generally pretty uncomfortable; in Mumbai (on the way to Goa), it was almost empty, with mostly middle-class passangers and it looked the same as the AC Chair car that I took from Jhansi to Delhi ... I heard trains in the Northeastern states are supposed to be the worst in India, so you might want to upgrade there.

• http://www.irctc.co.in - the Indian railway website through which you can book train tickets online. Trains in India can get completely booked up days ahead (sometimes even weeks), especially on popular routes or during festivals such as Diwali and Christmas, so it's a good idea to book in advance. This is no joke - with a population of 1 billion, the train services cannot cover the demand and if you leave things to the last minute, you could be stuck without a means of transport.

BUSES

Ordinary buses can be extremely uncomfortable for longer journeys, so you might prefer one of the Volvo buses, which are clean, modern and have air-conditioning. Bus tickets are not so easy to buy online - your best bet are local travel agents in India, or simply turn up to the bus station and buy your tickets just before you go.

• http://dtc.nic.in/dt4.htm - basic information about interstate bus services from Delhi run by the Delhi Transport Corporation. The main bus station in Delhi is called "ISBT" and it is located in Old Delhi.