Sunday, October 26, 2008

Lucknow by Bus

Never travel to Lucknow by bus. The previous statement can be counted a maxim, for what is an overnight journey by train turned out an 18hr neck-straining bummer for me by the bus. 18 hours is time in which I could've set out from Lucknow to Delhi by the Mail and back by Shatabdi, still with another couple of hours which I'd have devoted to visiting the Lucknow Zoo and having kababs. Theoretically it should've been no more than 14 hours, but the tire blowing up midway and another couple of hours spent at the railway crossing delayed things. There are rare times when a journey becomes a drag and this was one of them; even the epic 3-day Leh-Delhi rickety bus ride the previous year was better. UP roads are inferior to any other state I've been to, and there's a severe scarcity of road sense.
I was traveling by the bus because I proved too slow to fetch a train reservation - even the Tatkals were filled up within 15 minutes of their availability, Diwali being the sole reason. There were others with similar tales to recall - who'd have traveled by the AC coach on a train if not for the unavailability; their collective presence upped the general standard of the bus crowd. (I hope there were other bloggers amongst them as well, we all curse our road transport in unison that way.)
Learnt that truckers' halts are the best place to have tea, and had a live example of scare mongering; not much else to tell about...oh and that Michaelganj/Maikalganj reaffirms its position as the best food halt along the route.

This is one case where 'The end justify the means' falls flat in its logical validity. The next time I'm traveling to Lucknow on a bus is either when they make a super-express highway where the most rickety of buses can manage a steady 100kmph, or when I'm required to be follow some KGB agent out on an espionage mission.
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