India advice needed semi-urgently

breadmonkey

Greetings from Delhi!

OK, we've been here just over a week and are just back from Kashmir. Our plan was to go from Srinagar to Jaipur by a combination of jeep to Jammu and then train to Jaipur but that all fell apart because the jeep leg of the journey overshot by like five hours. We chose to get a train to Delhi rather than stay in Jammu because frankly is seemed like a dangerous hell hole.

The problem: we want to travel around Rajasthan for the next while but simply cannot get a straight answer out of anybody. Every single person tells us somethig different.

We were directed on two seperate occasions by four different train station officials (99% sure these guys were ligit) to a place that purports to be an actual government run tourist office but when we got there the guy started going on about how difficult it is to get around Rajsthan by train. He said the touts were even more vicious than Delhi which worries me because battling with these fcukers on a regular basis is not my idea of a holiday. He then proceeded to try to sell us a car and driver to travel around Rajasthan for a mere E196 each for two weeks (E14 each per day)! Now normally I would naturally assume that he was bullsh!tting us and that he was just another tout but this place is actually listed in the Lonely Planet (pg. 137 "Delhi Tourism & Transport Development Corporation", number 13, if anyone has a copy). Does anyone know if this place is legit?

How the hell does one buy a ticket for a train in Delhi withoiut getting scalped? (We've previously been to the reservation office where the official directed us to the aforementioned place). Is travel in Rajasthan difficult? Is it stressful? Is it worth it?

Thanks

Garthicus

I travelled around Raj by train, go to the central station by connaught place and buy your ticket at least 24 hours in advance, it worked every time for us... also, we found most of our hotels (I use the term Hotel very lightly) had a service where they would purchase the tickets for you at a small fee (they basically send a runner up to the station for you, but they will queue and battle for the tickets you want etc) so that is probably the best option (I think I stayed in the Anoop hotel in grand bazzare)

dizzyguy

checkout indiamike.com they're wonderful there

SkepticOne

The OP has probably made arrangements but for future reference you want the International Tourist Bureau which is situated within the New Delhi station. Directions are here. You can book all your train tickets there. It is not a private company but part of the railway service. See attached picture. Note the nice sofas.

Touts? Don't mind them. Just part of the fun of independent travel.

This "Delhi Tourism & Transport Development Corporation" appears to be a private tour operator. Nothing wrong with that so long as you know. They probably don't get commission from the train service so will try to get you on to other modes of transport.

breadmonkey

Thanks we made it to the right place eventually. I'm actually going to write to the LP and implore them to remove that stupid tourist office from the book as they are obviously abusing their inclusion.