After much deliberation, I have finally decided to publish my Tirupati travelogue. And even though I have already drafted a few parts, I will be posting only one per day, in the hope that it will kindle your curiosity. So here goes....
Since it has become my habit to write about all the trips I make, I am left with no choice but to jot down last week's trip as well. As briefly mentioned earlier, it was an eye-opening trip, but this travelogue will not get into the specifics when it gets to individuals.
Our Travel Department in the office was giving us a lot of trouble with the ticket booking and so we just had them book the onward journey by bus. We managed to get tickets with the APSRTC and we booked their Luxury bus at the whopping cost of Rs.86 per ticket.
When all of us gathered by the appointed hour at the Koyambedu bus stand, we were informed that the bus had developed a technical snag and so we were directed to their regular bus - they called it a Deluxe - where we got the preferred seating based on the tickets issued.
While there was adequate leg room, the seats were not really that comfy. Once the bus started, we realized that this was one service which was designated to stop at many places. So much so, that when people walking on the road, stopped in the path to cross the road and looked at the road before crossing (some people still do it), the driver assumed that they wanted to board the bus and used to pull over near them. Only when they moved out of the way, did the driver get the message.
And the speed at which he was driving....My goodness. It was scary. Before you misinterpret it, the scare was because he was driving at such slow speeds, that I thought we would travel back in time! We had to go through a level crossing near Puttur and I was really afraid if this guy would be able to get me through to my immediate destination of Tirupati or would he take me to my final destination of heaven or hell as evaluated by Chitragupta.
Thankfully, the service was without a halt - only stopping for people to board or alight from the bus. We didn’t even stop for breakfast and we finally reached Tirupati by 11AM.
We noticed that the hotel we had booked was quite close to the bus stand (as mentioned in their website). However, it was not really a distance that can be legged with older people around and we decided to get autos. The folks wanted 20 bucks and while it was on the higher side, it was the standard rate asked by all guys in the stand.
With a lot of reluctance from some of my fellow passengers, we went ahead with the auto and reached the hotel in 5 minutes. The booking that I had done was thankfully acknowledged and we went ahead with the check-in.
[To be continued in Part 2]
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