In my last post I said i will try to tell you guys about my observation of different entities while i was traveling through out India. If you have not noticed i was in north @ Delhi, South @ Hyderabad, East @ Kolkata and Home, West @ Goa in last 3 months.
So instead of writing about few of them lets pitch all of them against each other.
Round 1: Travel.
I won’t say a thing about the journey but the first hand experience of destination or origin.
- By Train – Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Home
- By Bus – Goa, Bangalore
- By Flight – Bangalore, Delhi(Terminal 1-A), Kolkata
I don’t know what’s your travelling preference but i always felt that train journeys are the best. if it satisfies one condition “You have a good company” I leave the choice of the companion to you it may range from sleep depravation to love or from a book to Girl Friend.
So here is quick comparison between the stations i have visited in recent past.
Hyderabad (Secundrabad to be precise):- A small and clean station. They have got adequate security and even though the same station is used for local trains it not that crowded.
Bangalore:- Its been quite some time before i gave bangalore station a visit. It was still the same crowded platform and even crowded ticket counters. But clean and chaotic.
Kolkata:- Huge station loads of people and little security. Its not that clean, though there are people taking care of cleaning but something, somewhere has gone wrong.
Home:- Really small station, not clean, no security, is in process of getting a face-lift. That include a new ticket window, generator, lights and fans on the platform but that betterment is still few years away.
Now comes the bus stands.
Bangalore: Has got a huge bus stand. lots of people. well marked platforms and dirty.
Goa: Medium sized, semi clean, not well marked and crowded.
Airports:- The fastest and (now not so) cheaper mode of transport. I chose this for last for the simple reason that i have been adding loads of air-mile.
Kolkata:- Really old airport. Small, crowded, Really slow security checks, No WI-FI, Shady Buses used for aircarft transfer(Most of them look like old city buses). But they do have a rail ticket reservation counter and post office at the arrival waiting lounge. fewer baggage claim belts and No AC taxi for stand. (One had to call for AC taxies)
Delhi:- Big, clean, with almost no crowd departure terminal. Even though its a new terminal baggage scan is mandatory(as compared to bangalore), WI-FI signal strength fluctuate every second.(In short it sucks, just WI-FI). Lots of shops including a Mc-Dee’s The arrival terminal is too crowded. even though they have 7-8 baggage claim belts the baggage arrival takes a life time. which makes the area even more crowded.
Bangalore:- Big, really clean, little crowded, No Baggage checks (which makes the check in really really swift) The check-in counter itself are dynamic(There no individual airline counter but any counter can be used by any airline. All the counters have a LCD screen showing the airlines name.) 3-4 ATM machine. 8-10 Self-Check-in counters. The arrival area is large and the baggage arrival is really fast max 5-10 min wait time. The only bone of contention is the location of airport. 25 KM from the city limits.
So if you are planning to go to any of these places plan accordingly.