DEC 21, 11 .. PRE TRIP PLANNING ..
If you have not yet read For What It’s Worth.. 90.. you may want to jump down to it and then back here .. this post builds on FWIW.. 90 ..
Wednesday morning the 21st of December .. I was up and I was out the door of my apartment a few minutes past 9AM walking to Arambol Village to catch a bus to Pernem at 9:30AM .. (Pernem is pronounced ‘Pair’ nem .. )
I wanted to confirm : (1) there is a bus from Arambol Village to Pernem at 9:30AM and later at 10:30AM .. confirmed .. both timings and I rode the 9:30AM to Pernem this morning .. (2) find out if I can take train baggage on the bus .. confirmed .. I can and they showed me two places I can place it .. (3) timing of the trip from Arambol Village to Pernem .. 47 minutes into Pernem .. (4) location of the Pernem Railway Station .. confirmed .. the Pernem Railway Station is about 5 kilometers out of Pernem (too far to comfortably walk when you are getting a train) BUT the bus I rode from Arambol to Pernem (slick as slick can be) actually took me TO THE ROAD JUNCTION where I walked about half a kilometer to the Railway Station.. (I will continue my confirmation shopping list below) ..
So at about 10:50AM I was AT the Pernem Railway Station .. waiting for a 12:20PM noontime train .. on January the 4th I will catch the same 9:30AM bus from Arambol Village to Pernem and on to the Railway Station .. I will NOT wait for the 10:30AM bus since I do NOT want to be arriving at the train station at 11:50AM for a 12:20PM train ..
On a zero to ten .. the Pernem Railway Station gets a solid ten today..
It is a real railway station .. it has a formal Station Master in his formal office wearing his formal uniform with hat with visor .. it has a nice waiting room .. it has nice restroom facilities .. it even has a nice snack shop that also serves hot food snacks .. the man who runs it has a back room where he disappears to prepare hot food for customers .. he really cares .. Patti even talked to him on my cell phone .. there are three sets of railway tracks past the station .. tracks 1 and 2 and a third central track for through trains .. and it has all the information I wanted .. detailed listings of trains through the station by days of the week ..
First thing I did was to peek into the Station Master’s Office .. it had a prominent sign saying .. Do Not Enter .. Authorized Personnel Only ..
Seeing me peeking in the Station Master looked up from his desk .. smiled a big smile and waived me in .. motioning for me to sit opposite him .. he had another visitor and was also on the telephone ..
My turn .. I handed him my ticket (keep in mind my ticket is for January the 4th .. TWO weeks from today .. and it STIPULATES I BOARD IN MARGAO) and I asked him.. “Sir.. can I board at your station with this ticket?”..
Well he got real serious and he said in a very concerned voice and tone .. “You must change a ticket a minimum of 24-hours before a ticketed departure date” .. and he contined .. “Sir.. the train is due here in just over one hour !”
I did not let him go further saying .. “Sir.. this ticket is for January the 4th two weeks from now and I am checking early with you to see IF I need to formally change this ticket to show boarding at Pernem Station.”
ABSOLUTELY !
He then told me where to go saying I had to go to an official computerized railway booking office to make the change in my ticket (which I bought at an official computerized railway office) and he named three.. Thivim (totally unheard of and totally unknown to me) .. Panjim (Panaji) I have been there ! .. and Margao (Madgaon) .. I have been there also ..
So tomorrow .. Thursday the 22nd of December .. it is out and off for Panjim early in the morning (read 6:30AM) ..
Well I say that now .. but I do have two weeks to do this .. and I am tired right now.. so I may sleep in and do this Panjim trip on Friday .. smiles ..
THANKING HIM PROFUSELY FOR HIS TIME AND ASSISTANCE I left his office and began the wait for my train to come through..
I still needed to confirm (5) the time my train will arrive and (6) the location of my coach (A1) in the train ..
In short I wanted to see with my own eyes my train ..
It was due to leave Margao at 11:20AM and it was due into Pernem at 12:20PM .. it was scheduled for a two (2) MINUTE stop in Pernem ..
It actually arrived into Pernem (twenty seven (27) minutes late) at 12:47PM and it actually pulled out of Pernem at 12:52PM .. a five (5) minute stop ..
The first coach behind the engine is coach number one..
At Pernem Station.. the engine stops about 100 feet past the station.. this is extremely unusual.. the engine usually stops such that the middle of the train is in front of the station .. my coach A1 is the sixteenth (16th) coach on the train ! my coach A1 is just about one-quarter of a mile (1/4-mile) from the engine ..
Do you all see why I did what I did today .. I need to know what I now know ..
The nice .. the good .. the phenomenal Station Master .. had told me where to walk along the platform to position myself properly for coach A1 .. and I was perfectly positioned when the train stopped.. coach A1 was right in front of me..
Along the station platform are a series of number signs indicating the numbering of coaches on the train.. the Station Master had told me to .. “Walk down the platform to sign number 16..”
So now I am ‘locked and loaded’ with regards to Pernem Station and my ..
Indian Railways Train Number 12449 the Goa Sampark Kranti Express (isn’t that a mouthful ?) ..
Now tomorrow I will strive to get my ticket changed to permit boarding at Pernem Station ..
I walked back out to the junction of the Pernem Railway Station Access Road with the intersection with India National Highway Number 17 .. waited not more than five minutes MAXIMUM for a bus back to Pernem (I was on the phone with Patti and she will confirm this and it was hot in the 90s in the sun) ..
In Pernem I got off the above bus and my Arambol bus was right behind it and on I got and on a packed bus I got a SEAT !
I was back home in my apartment in Arambol Beach about 2:25PM give or take a minute or two either way ..
On my zero to ten scale .. my five hour project was a twenty (20) !
To see some COLOR PHOTOS of the Pernem Station and my train on January 4th .. please go to .. http://bobbacaps.blogspot.com .. For What It’s Worth.. 104.. December 21, 2011 ..
Ah.. on your way to FWIW.. 104.. you just might want to have a look-see at FWIW.. 105.. too .. just a suggestion ..
IF YOU ARE CURIOUS ABOUT THE INDIA RAILWAYS YOU CAN GO TO THEIR EXCEPTIONAL WEB SITE .. www.indianrail.gov.in ..
Much joy and much love.. over and out for now.. gotta go post photos at bobbacaps.blogspot .. cap..