Rickshaw: While the rickshaw may be costly due to an imposed “white tax”, it may be my favorite. It is always an ordeal to haggle with a rickshaw driver but sometimes you can get a fairly reasonable price and you can’t beat the convenience of going exactly where you want to go. There’s something really exciting about being so close to the road (and the traffic) and having the “fresh” air rushing by. If you are lucky enough you might even get a rickshaw driver to blast Indian music in your ears as you speed down the highway. I’ve seen ten people crammed into one little rickshaw so they are also very space efficient (if you are willing to squish).
Bus: The bus wins points for being the most economical, however it is also generally the most unpleasant. I’m not unfamiliar with cramming a large number of commuters into a small space back at home but India is inherently different. A person in New York can be pressed up against you in a subway car but still ignore you; a person in India may strike up a conversation. The concept of social space doesn’t exist here. Of course there is also the added interest of the fare collector making his way back and forth across the bus on a semi-regular basis. If you are taking a long distance bus then be prepared to be crammed into a seat with at least two other people in the heat for the next few hours.
Despite the crowding, the bus experience often redeems itself when one makes a friend. There is almost always someone who is interested in talking to the clearly out of place Americans or helping them with their large bag of purchases from the day.
Cabs: For those who have the money, there is the option of the cab. It costs 500 rupees for four hours and it will take you anywhere (except the airport). If you put five people in a cab that’s only 100r (about 2 dollars) for the luxury of having your own personal driver. We’ve been opting for these a lot lately because it means we can travel to multiple places without having to fight with a rickshaw driver on each trip. While there are cabs about it is not a very widely used option by most Indians due to the cost.
Trains: There are two types of trains: long distance trains and commuter style trains. The commuter trains run in the city and are a pretty cheap and good deal. Depending on the time you travel it can either be very pleasant or very unpleasant. I have been on one extremely crowded train which was as bad as a bus but all my other experiences have been fairly spacious. There are female only cabins and then general compartments which both are reasonable. What I like best about the trains is that there are no doors, or at least they very rarely seem to be closed. You can watch the city outskirts rush by and feel the breeze, though sometimes the smell is enough to make you wish the door would close.
As for overnight trains these seem to range in comfort and quality by a large amount. There are a range of classes one can ride in on the overnight trains from general class (which I’ve been strongly advised against) to regular sleeper to sleeper AC. General Class may leave you without a seat, sleeper will get you a seat which converts to a bed. The sleeper AC classes come in three-tier and two-tier which denotes the amount of beds in a compartment. AC three-tier is like regular sleeper in which three beds will unfold per side of the wall and there is air conditioning. Two-tier is nice because you get a little compartment with four beds (2 per side). I’ve found some trains to be extremely bumpy and a bit nauseating while others have been fairly smooth. Sleeper class is pretty grimy and you will feel gross once you get off the train ten hours later. AC is not quite so bad and sometimes you get shifted around to a different compartment so that it is all female or all male instead of mixed. While trains are generally reliable you may find yourself sitting at a station for four hours for some unknown reason. As with everything in India it is always a gamble.
