Travelling in Bombay

Traveling in Bombay is an adventure itself. First of all you have to think about the means of transportation you are going to use. You can always try a public transportation which consists of buses and local trains.They are extremely cheap! For 30 – minutes ride by bus or train you pay not more than 10 Indian Rupees which is like 0,7 PLN. I traveled by bus once, it’s a nice experience, you always get in by the back door and get down by the front door. While inside you buy a ticket from a guy who sells them.Obviously buses are very crowded and many people simply don’t get in plus they travel mostly only on the main streets, having no time schedule so you never know what and when you can expect. Trains are a bit better but still the route they go is limited. As the result there are many people who decide to travel by taxi or auto (rickshaw). Ricks are my personal favourites, try one of them when it rains! You get all wet! Therefore following Meenal’s advice I take clothes for change when going to the office in rain.

Another funny thing about rick is how much you pay for them. So basically, the meter has 4 digets. You have to ignore the last one and then substract 1. If it shows 0120 it means you are paying 11 rupees, when it shows 0290 you pay 28 rupees:)

Apart from that there are also so-called shared taxis. Basically, these are not regularly marked taxis which travel along main streets and pick up people standing there. They take as many people as fit in, therefore they charge you the minimum fee. Very smart concept!

Surprise number 6

Distance is never measured in km. It is always measured either in minutes/hours or in rupees! For eg. the distance between work-place & home is in my case 15 rupees by the shared taxi. The distance from our flat to the airport is 20 rupees. The distance to town is 1 hour.