Holiday with a twist: My 7 day vacation using public transport only

We made the necessary foundation by planning a trip to be done entirely in public transport & also added some masala just so as to make it a tasty journey.

BHPian aargee recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My last memorable journey by train was somewhere in 2008/09 or so; it was endured (yes endured) just to give an experience of train for my little Son then. Post that, I might’ve taken train hardly some 2-3 times. WagonR, S-Cross & CBR have pampered & spoiled all of us to core. Not just Children, even we were dreading to take public transport for last few years, nevertheless we’ve been thinking in recent times on how to get over with it. However, we weren’t scared as much as our Children due to our recent trip to DL via Duronto, but still we had our concerns due to our return journey from DL-TN. When returning our train departed nearly 4 hours late & finally 8 hours delayed when reaching Chennai due to derailment of a good train in the Jhansi sector. Only positive attribute was, due to the 8 hours delay it arrived around 5:00 Am instead owl hour of 1:00 am.

So in 2022, we decided, we will do what we need to do!! In the month of October, we made the necessary foundation by planning a trip to be done entirely in public transport & also added some masala just so as to make it a tasty journey. Besides Gustavo Petro’s quote (Mayor of Bogota Columbia) always rings in my mind:

Thus the trip was planned with utmost cautiousness & we deliberately avoided AC as much as possible due to 2 reasons:

Need to show some life’s realities to children.
Month of December means over half the world is on holiday & the weather is pleasant.

Light wallet comes free; but still the Duronto’s delay left us with deep apprehension due to our tight train schedules; if there were any delays reaching some of the stations, then it would have a huge impact on entire trip.

Sat 24-Dec

Reach Chennai Central at 07:00.

Take train 22625 (KSR Bengaluru AC Double Decker Express) at 07:25 to reach KSR Bengaluru at 13:15.
Take Greenline Metro at 13:50 to reach Yeshwantpur at 14:30.
Take train 17309 (Vasco da Gama Express, 2S) at 15:00 to reach Madgaon.

Sun 25-Dec

Stay at OYO Flagship 11950.

Mon 26-Dec

Take train 10104 (Mandovi Express, The Food Queen of Konkan Railways) at 09:00 & GET DOWN at Dadar at 21:10.
Take train 12927 (Ekta Nagar SF Express 2S) at 23:50 to reach Ekta Nagar.

Tue 27-Dec

SOU + stay at BRG.

Wed 28-Dec

Take Bus/Train at 08:00 to reach Ahmedabad by 14:00.
Take train 20902 (Mumbai Central Vandhe Bharat Express) from Ahmedabad at 15:00 to reach Mumbai Central at 20:15.
Stay at Heraa International.

Thu 29-Dec

Take train 22159 (MGR Chennai Central SF Express 2S) from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus at 12:45 to reach Home

Fri 30-Dec

Reach home.

Day 1:

Took EMU to Chennai Central, had breakfast at Madras Hotel instead of regular A2B for a change (for which we regret) & then boarded the double decker train. We got the normal regular seating experience. From Bangalore Cantt when almost the entire train got empty, we switched to those empty seats & enjoyed the upper & lower deck travel to SBC.

At SBC, we took the metro to Yeshwantpur station. An elderly person who was issuing tickets at SBC ticket vending machine suggested taking a walk to Metro.

The metro was damn crowded, unbelievably crowded like a town bus which is much unlike Chennai!! Finally reached Yeshwantpur & then boarded the train to Madgaon.

Nothing particularly to note except for I couldn’t sleep properly due to people talking in loud voices, loud YT shots from mobile due to which I had severe headache. These noise jokers ensured to wake me every 1 hour or so (22:53, 23:53, 00:17) until 1:00 Am!!! We had ordered food through Food on Track to deliver Sabudana Vada, beetroot cutlet. Food was extremely good & the packing was extraordinarily great as well. Worth the money!!

The train was also late by more than an hour reaching Madgaon.

Chennai to Bangalore: