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19/03/08

3000 kms of India : Finally it started

A few trips are exciting even before they start, and more often then not thats how it happens with me...

A plan to trek, getting converted into living a few days in towns with people to everything getting canceled, my travel plans changing to go to Mumbai/Goa, to the original plan coming to life again suddenly to tatkal booking of the exit tickets from Delhi... it all happened for the last one week, which I spent away from everything and close to myself and yes Aro was around too...

He happens to me one of my best co travelers... for reasons which are strange... We usually argue a lot when we talk, and most of the time we are not talking as we have different agendas when we travel together ( can't really say what though)... his walk pace is very different then me and that helps with some space too... the bottom line is he is one of the best people to travel with and I can find 100 best most stupid reasons as well to prove that point...

So back to the trip...

We finally decided that we were going to Kanha from Delhi and thats all we knew... rest was going to Fluid... I got the tickets on Friday, and made the bookings the same day in Mogli Resorts, Kanha on Friday....

Saturday... in the afternoon, my dear friend Aro calls me and tells me that he and Sanjit were lost in Delhi and did not know how to reach NOIDA... it was just about 90 minutes before our train was to leave... fantastic... the excitement starts a li'il earlier than expected...

and India saw the introduction of a new GPS device that day... Prashant Bhardwaj... I was with him on the phone for about 35 odd minutes guiding the ways and turns before they finally managed to reach NOIDA...

A quick lunch and 20 minutes to the departure, we rushed... thanks to the DND we were at the platform number 4, to catch the Gondwana Express well in time...

now this was one long train, 20 coaches to be exact. The reason, the train splits into 2 somewhere in MP and half of it goes to Bilaspur and the rest to Jabalpur...

Our seats 1, and 2 were in the Coach B1 which was I think third to the last coach on the looooooong train which we managed to reach after walking for a mile I guess... but we did :)

The Coach B1 of Gondwana Express to Jabalpur

Being in a train coach is a great feeling.. specially the ones in which you can sleep :) After spending sometime, I was dying to be in the train in India.. and here I was... lovely... put our bags in place... and settled...


The train moved at the right time, and we were off... yippieeeeeeeee....

Halt just before Mathura Junction...

Travelling in a train is no fun if you cannot stand at the door watching the world being left behind :) so after about 30 minutes I was out talking to our coach attendents Vinod and Vinod and sitting on the wooden plank which was there for the attendants next to the doors...

Vinod and Vinod...The coach attendants of B1 (there were 6 attendants who were Vinod on this train)

I think I must have spent a good 3 hours in all on that plank in the evening, and then again in the night just staring into space and not doing anything else...
My favorite seat in the entire coach :)

Even managed some sleep on it the next morning with the early morning sunrays kissing my face, and the colder than cool breeze reminding me of the presence of the cold weather...

The naughty friend we made, Raghav and his father enjoying the morning sun from their seats...

As expected, conversations started and did not stop during our entire journey to Jabalpur... we got a number of tips from our co passengers on what do and when... we even tried making some amendments to our plan, but managed to stick to the original which was to go to Kanha straight after getting off the train...

Oh and if you are traveling on that route, then instead of eating the food in the train, you can order food from Comesum @ Agra Cantt... the numbers are : 0562-3296410/11.. just call them about 30 odd minutes before you are reaching and tell them your train name, coach and seat numbers. The food would be delivered at your seat... Also make sure that you ask for the bill amount and arrange for exact change to pay because more often than not the person who comes with your packet would not come with any change, or less than what you should get back so that he can make some money...

I woke up at 0530 hrs to realize that the train was not moving... We were at the Katni Station (The place to get down it you are going to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, which is about 40 kms away) Had some tea and an interesting conversation with the Tea wallah there... He was a PGDCA, however did not have steady job and decided to sell tea at the station instead of sitting idle at home... he also mentioned that the rest of the boys at the station were graduates with no jobs... not a happy situation, but what helps is that fact that they decided to work hard for a living instead of not doing anything else... Another interesting comment that he made was that put an idiot on the railway station for 3 months and he would transform into an Insaan ( read Smart Ass) in that time... giving his own example he said that he did not have a clue on how to survive there about 2 months back, but had matured and knew people by the sheer looks, and body language much better now...

We reached Jabalpur around 0800 hrs Saturday.. and our agenda was now to get a ticket for our return journey (Bhopal to Delhi)... Aro filled the form and stood in the line and was thrown out of it after 35 minutes because the lady refused to give him a ticket... well because we did not know the train numbers that will go from Bhopal to Delhi, and we were supposed to know it before we ask her for a ticket... I am wondering if there are 10 trains, do I need to fill in 10 forms and then try or once she tells us that there is no space, we find a different train number and stand in the line again.. Anyway, we decided that we go the safe IRCTC way and took a rickshaw to Russel Chawk to find an internet cafe...

A Mazaar near the Empire Cinema.. the name was interesting...

Fresh Dosas being made for us :) at Russel Chawk...

Decided to eat first, and had some nice Idli Dosa at a roadside thela before we found an internet cafe and booked our tickets from Bhopal to Delhi for the next Saturday...

Now the next stop was the City Bus Stop and we were to find a bus to Mandla, and then take a bus to Kanha from there...
Mandla Bus Stand

The distance we were to travel was about 156 kms with one change of bus... the bus left @ 1030 hrs and reached Mandla ( about 96 kms) at 1330 hrs, which is where we realized that the bus to Kanha was the bus which was coming from Jabalpur only... But this was a welcome break after sitting in the bus for about 3 hours already... so some tea, cold drinks, tea later the bus to Kanha arrived... A smaller but more comfortable bus, and was to move to Kanha at 1400 hrs... I got talking to the conductor and realised that we were still a good 2.5 hours away from Kanha... He was also kind enough to force me to eat a parantha from his lunch, and it was the yummiest thing I had eaten in the last 18 hours...


The bus moved and thanks to a seat at the back, I was able to observe much more than our previous bus in which I was sitting on the first seat... What follows are some pictures from my seat in the bus... People standing, People sitting, people looking for a seat, and people just looking, relaxing or listening to radio... loved every bit of it...



On one of our pit stops in Mocha ( not pronounced Moka, but Mocha like in Locha) I had tea with sugar and Salt... needless to say it tasted pretty different and nice... I am looking forward to having that again sometime... one of the reasons why Tiwariji liked to drink the sweet-salted tea is because it helped clean the throat after inhaling a lot of smoke and dust over the day on that route...

I was both surprised and happy at the condition of the roads in MP so far, and also was glad to see a lot of boards, signs, hoardings demonstrating a lot of work happening on the ground level in the state related to employment, child education, girl education and insurance, personal sanitation (something similar to the project I clicked in Chattisgarh)...

Many pictures, conversations, and long/short stops later, the bus managed by Mr. Srikant Tiwari reached Kanha where a gypsy from our resort picked us up...

Tiwari ji on the right...

Approximately 27 hours later, we were finally in a room.. a huge one and in the middle of almost nowhere... Mogli Resort is in the buffer area of Kanha and for all practical purpose, is a part of the forest itself... so I have to mention that walking around in the dark was pretty scary with all those freaky sounds... Aro somehow was enjoying my fear and was laughing his ass out for nothing !!!

We were to leave for the safari at 0530 hrs in the morning and we finally called it a day @ 2200 hrs... pretty long and satisfying journey this was...

The path in the Mogli Resort Lit with Bulb Lanterns in the night

Now some objective information...
How to Reach Kanha:
Take a train to Jabalpur and then a bus/taxi from there to Kanha... Delhi Kanha in a train would take about 17-18 hours and a 3rd Tier AC ticket would cost about Rs. 900.
Jabalpur station to City Bus Stand:
Can take a Metro Bus Service ( Rs. 5 per head)

Shared Auto ( Rs. 5 per head again)

Cycle Rickshaw ( Rs. 15) Auto (Rs. 20)
Jabalpur to Mandla:
Rs. 50 per head
Distance : 96 kms

Time : 3 hours approx

Mandla to Kanha:
Rs. 38 per head
Distance : 60 kms
Time : 3 hours approx

There are just about 4 buses that run between Mandla and Kanha which makes the travel time higher because they move slow and pick up as many passengers as they can...

Another alternative is to take the fast bus from Jabalpur @ 0700 hrs which reaches Kanha @ 1330 hrs.

27 comments:

  1. kisi wild species ki bi fotu chipka deta...

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  2. Pahunchne to do jungle ke ander :) phir dikhata hoon foto tereko...

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  3. arrey wah....part-II bhi jaldi likho...

    -Anjuli

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  4. hmmm goood.....made me remember few times i have travelled in gondwana express way back when this train was started....i guess arnd 94 or 93....
    its a good train, very fast.......
    and i guess they divide it at katni.......katni is major junction on route........lines coming from all the 4 directions.......(allbhd, jabalpur, bilaspur, rourkela, sagar/delhi etc etc)

    generally ticket counter people help u in finding the seats but sometime they can act in weird way....u just got the wrong one.....

    exciting trip it sounds......good to see that some development effort is happening.......i dont have good memory of that region from my travel days there in early 90's.....

    btw jabalpur is a nice city and cantt area is beautiful.........and i dont know whether u guys did or didnt but if u r in jabalpur then u shudnt miss bhedaghat.....its one of its kind place in india....(rift valley) amazing it is.....one of the best waterfalls in india surely.......

    waiting for next log........and did i mention that i missed it :(

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  5. Two things:-

    1. the clarity of your pics are amazing... and amazing is an understatment....
    2. why did u choose to go to kanha specifically...

    and i think u shud be a travel book riter some time... think of it as a alternate profession... needless to say u are good....

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  6. # Anjuli...
    thanks :)


    # Deepu...
    :) glad to bring back good ol' memories...

    They don't split the train at Katni, its done much before that... I don't remember the name of the station though...

    That ticket counter bandi was one of her own kind... we really got irritated with the way she behaved... but anyway... does not matter till we know our way out...

    MP has changed much in the last few years... as per a few statistics.. there is about 12kms of road being built everyday in the state.. needless to say I was delighted to see the roads myself... and I have not see or heard about PMGSY roads as much as I saw in MP...

    Jabalpur definitely is a nice city.. but it did not really fit the travel plan this time.. will do the Bhedaghat and Duandhar falls sometime later, in an extended weekend... lets see...

    You sure did miss it... later bro... phir chalenge :)

    # Aqui...
    thanks :)

    Kanha because I wanted to see a jungle, the initial thoughts were around Bandhavgarh, but a few people I know from MP suggested Kanha, it being a denser forest...

    to be honest, no specific reasons... just wanted to get out of Delhi and get into a different state both geographically and mentally....

    thanks Dear... I will keep that in mind :) maybe my blogposts can be compiled and put as a travel book of sorts... who knows :)

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  7. # Deepu...

    the station is Bina...

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  8. oh yeah its bina.........its before katni........
    btw from reading experiences....bandhavgarh should have been better choices cuz of density of tigers.....

    shera dekha ki nahi yeh bata ?

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  9. Yupp... about 5 hours before...

    I was recommended Kanha because of a higher tiger density here by a lot of people in MP... but then things have changed over the last few years... Never went to see the tiger anyway :)

    abhi jungle wali post to aane de... phir bataunga :)

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  10. traveling in MP state bus is an amazing experience in itself...all the other things that your did are just bonus over that. :)

    Fandu trip account...Would love to see more pics.

    @Deeps
    Both Kanha and Bandhavgarh are wonderful place and nearly equal chances of spotting a tiger.

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  11. # Nitin...
    These were not really State Transport buses, but private buses associated with the state transport.. the State transport buses are much better in MP...

    but rightly said... the travel part was great, anything else that I did was a bonus :)

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  12. Ah to sit in an Indian Railways compartment and travel across the country once again.... Well written Prashant, you keep it entertaining....

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  13. # Chandan...
    just got nostalgic again :) after I read your comment...

    Thank you... hope this visit was good :)

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  14. Yeah I know (the hard way), they are not state ones...But I just love the hustle-bustle they have...esp at the stop-overs

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  15. finally, a curtain raiser for an amazing journey :D

    a long, i repeat long, train trip has always fascinated me beyond words, its quite an experience to meet variety pack of people, interact with them and get to know their own little ways of life: their language, food... and endless talks and debates... i always wonder what makes talking and connecting with strangers seem so easy on trains...

    and when i read the section on katni, i realized that teawallah was smarter than most of us... praise him...

    waiting to know more about m.p. @ chai ki dukan :)

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  16. # Nitin...
    :)

    i love it too..

    # Mayuri...
    Curtain Raiser was two posts ago maidam.. this is the actual journey :)

    and yes... our trains are like an India itself... rare that you see the issues that we otherwise seem to be struggling with...

    Teawallah... oh yes.. he was a smart guy !!!

    more coming up soon here !!!

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  17. :-) :-) ye second time tha aur phir bhi achcha tha...pehle wala version bhi kaafi achcha tha jo moohjabaani tha...:-)
    Will be waiting for your jungle wali possht! Jaldi likho.

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  18. #Mon...
    Thank you thank you :)

    likhunga ji jaldi hi...

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  19. Nice travelouge along with great pix!

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  20. Goody post hai...ainna vadda haiga (so big) but pata hi ni chala...
    waiting for the next part...
    lol@ scary sounds :P
    Happy Blogging!
    Cheers!

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  21. # Reeta...
    thanks...

    yea scary sounds :P
    thanks...

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  22. Trust Aro to work his charm with ladies :-P ... what were you thinking when you let HIM stand in the queue?

    The onward journey sounds good... waiting for the jungle details. Oh, and my personal experience is people expect to see too many exotic animals when they go on a jungle safari! In the process they forget to enjoy the nature and the journey, which is rewarding in itself!

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  23. # Subbu...
    :D hehehe.. i missed that important point bro.. I was relaxing on the chairs of the reservation counter while he was ensuring we get a ticket...

    Right, its the jungle that you gotta look forward to, and not the animals... if it happens great, if it does not, no worries either...

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  24. Amazing capture Om, in words and pics as well! The train pic along its length is just awesome. Will visit flickr to see if you have posted some pics there....I am just coming back from Toronto, some 5 hour journey...and am tired like hell. How can you keep up with so much traveling...:)

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  25. Right said Shubho...only thing is after 35 min of standing behind 4 people and not getting the information i want just kinda brings out the best character in me.....

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  26. # HelloWorld...
    thanks... there are some pictures on flickr too :) in a set that you can see on the right bar of chai ki dukaan...

    i just love traveling.. so getting rest at right times and traveling again is I guess what keeps me going :)

    # Aro...
    right said fred !!!

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