Raj travels- Bangalore Mumbai

Raj Travels – (Raj trvl) – means

1. Travel service which offers you a horrible experience

2. one person or  a group/organisation which does Day light cheating

I think this one is the correct dictionary meaning if raj travels is added in Oxford Dictionary or at least any local dictionary. The first and last time travel in Raj travels, which gave a whole new experience in my travel history. Starting from the Online booking till when I got down from the bus. As mentioned in my previous blog, i here by dedicate this blog to Raj travels.

My friend gave me this idea of travelling in Raj travels from bangalore to mumbai as its a night journey and when compared to the train journey which takes more than 22hrs and that too day journey,travel in bus is good. So i booked the ticket from Bangalore to  Chembur as i was asked by the travels customer care to book till chembur which is one of their boarding point and its easy to goto thane from there. So I used their Online Booking option. The website was looking good and itinerary was from Bangalore to Pune and then Pune to Mumbai. I booked the ticket to and fro and i got the seat somewhere on the middle window seat(5A), except for the journey to Mumbai, which was on the back(8A)

To my surprise when paid 2500Rs and found the travel itinerary, all the seats where shown as the same seat i got for Bangalore to Mumbai(8A). I didnt care about that as i thought their records will show the correct one and i’ll get the seat that i booked.

The bus started from Bangalore at correct time at 4:30PM and the bus was not that good as shown in the website. It was not maintained properly also. I expected at least a small water bottle , but my expectations were exceeded when they gave single blanket for both the passengers sitting together. No water,not even proper service. On the way i managed to buy one bottle of water when i had dinner. Only one good service that they provided to the guys at least was at around 10Pm they stopped somewhere on the way and almost all the guys got down to go for a pee. Wow my good time on the travel. It was so funny that every guy was showing their back to the passengers in the bus and hearing to the nature’s call.Even i was their among the crowd  who were hearing to the call. For a moment i thought of the difficulty the ladies might have experienced in a long journey like this in such a crap bus.The AC in the bus was ok, not that good but.

Luckily the other guy sitting near me had a Jacket and i was able to use the blanket most of the time at night. The bus was supposed to reach Mumbai around 9 or 9.30 but reached late. I was supposed to get down at chembur and after i passed Pune i called my bro to give him my status. Once again Raj travels showed their good service by telling me that, they can’t go to Diamond garden, chembur where my bro was waiting with uncle and they told they will stop near some bridge. I called my bro and gave the phone to cleaner so that he could tell my bro the exact place he have to pick me. Everything went well and they dropped me somewhere.

Again to my surprise, oh, how many surprises that Raj travels give you in the journey, just like the reward points that earn using ur credit card, they dropped me somewhere else from the place which they communicated to my bro and that too more than 1 hr late. Good time management, it was ok with me when compared to travel in train. At last i had to go to the place where my brother was waiting by taking an auto as i couldn’t help him find my location. Need of GPS

Return trip: The amazing one, when i took the decision, that even if Raj travel sponsor me a trip free to Switzerland i’m not going to use their service. Me and my bro was waiting for the bus at andheri, don’t remember the exact name of the place, but i remember it was near to Bal thackeray’s house(Shiv Sena leader). The arrival time of the bus was around 2.30Pm and it came after 3Pm. Fine fine, KC you need to suffer all these, because you paid for it.Ah ha, again a surprise before the bus took; My seat(5A) is occupied by a fair girl and when i asked she showed me her ticket. Multiple booking for the same seat. Internet, Online booking and I hate myself when considering me as a Software engineer who creates these kind of bugs in the application and defying the customers by giving a good look to the page. Ok let me check the seat (8A) which shown in the ticket. Great there was sitting a married lady with her kid. Kid was sitting in my seat. This happened for other passengers also who boarded from the same place.Next target, kick the **s of cleaner. He was a such dump that he was blaming the travel booking agencies and travels itself. Great act of escape!!!

Man now were will i sit, cleaner  seat or the luggage area of the bus? Some body e lse of the travel  agency managed to find a free space in the bus for me which was an aisle seat. Man you are going to travel in that seat till bangalore sitting in the aisle, looking at who all are getting down and who all are boarding the bus. Cool good entertainment. No words now. Anyhow i got a seat and I told bye to my bro. The bus left it was already more than  1 hr late.

We reached Pune around 7-8Pm. Funny thing happened then. One guy who was sitting two to three seats behind me came to me and told that it was his place. Cool.. What can i tell now other than the whole drama that he saw. So he was also was asked to adjust somewhere in the Bus. After 2 to 3 stops in pune i got a window seat and shifted their on the belief that i can tell some story to the owner of that seat, if he is boarding somewhere. But till i reached bangalore no one came and asked for that seat. This time i got a separate blanket. Good it’s correct that Mumbai is richest city than Bangalore. They  managed to get separate blankets now.

The proposed time of arrival at bangalore was around 8.30Am, but; no im not going to repeat that word here again, i reached there at 11.30Am. Oh man how will i reach office and work, because I have to take another bus to Mysore now from Bangalore. I took another Volvo from Bangalore to Mysore and i reached my home at 3.30PM. After that i managed to goto office at 5.00Pm and worked till late night.

28-Dec-2008 03:00PM Mumbai –> 29-Dec-2008 03:30PM Mysore.

Now im thinking whether it would have taken this much time if board a flight to Newyork from Mumbai or a train from Mumbai to Mysore. No, Only Raj travels can offer you a Happy and Safe journey like which i felt,travelling all the east-west-north-south places of India in a 24hr + travel. Isn’t it cool.

I really would love to give a star rating for Raj travels out of 5, but none of the stars are turning up when they hear the word Raj Travels. I’ll give eggs instead of stars then. One Egg for  Raj travels. Happy journey!!!