It was hard to convince my father to book in First AC for our Diwali trip to Kerala. Though at first he quashed my idea, a bit of emphasis on the speed of Duronto and the level of services offered in the First AC made him reluctant to agree with me. I managed to book four confirmed tickets for the Duronto scheduled to depart on 22nd of October with ease courtesy the super fast IRCTC website and the lack of patronage for Duronto, especially First AC.
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The day had arrived. Amidst the...
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service tax returns due date coming near and pressure to complete the work before dead line, I somehow managed to complete the work and leave the office at 4 pm. Quickly rushed to my home to pack my clothes. Quickly packed and set off to LTT by my car with my parents and brother. Reached LTT at 7 45, quite early owing to lack of traffic. LTT was full with passengers for other trains like Guwahati, Jnaneshwari and LTT Shalimar. We slowly started moving towards platform no. 3, from where our train was scheduled to depart. We made ourselves comfortable at a bench beneath the indicator which showed 'H1'. There was hustle bustle in pur adjacent platform, where Netravati arrived at 8 15, late by around 2 hrs.
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At around 8 40, our train was slowly shunted into the platform. The WDS 6 Kurla shed hauled the king to the platform. The train was super clean from the outside. The first thing that caught my attention was that apart from our H1 coach, all the other coaches were Duronto liveried. Only H1 had the Rajdhani livery. That itself made me happy.On entering the coach, we searched for our A cabin and quickly settled in the cabin. The coach was a 2010 RCF make. It was clean and smelled fantastic. Kudos to the CR
housekeeping. Though I must admit that the coach interiors were not as clean as the TVC Raj H1 in which I had travelled in May 12. Nonetheless, it was not at all bad.
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At around 9, the train departed, nearly 10 mins late. It was crawling till Kanjurmarg, after which the train started cruising at does over 80. In the meanwhile, the TTE came and checked our tickets. A well dressed person came to our cabin to great us and take
orders for dinner ( not included in fare) and breakfast next morning. We had our sumptuous homemade dinner and slept as all of us were quite tired.
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After a sound sleep, I got up at 7 30, and was greeted with bed tea along with some biscuits and some toffees. The cups provided were of a good quality and felt premium. At sharp 9, we were served breakfast. In veg., there were two options, cutlets and
upma. We had ordered 3 upmas and one cutlet. The breakfast was excellent. In the meanwhile, Duronto was cruising at speeds over 90 kmph and reached Madgaon before schedule.
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After the breakfast, we watched a brilliant malayalam movie in our laptop. The movie got finished by 12 30, after which we all took a short nap. At 12 50ish, the tomato soup along with bread sticks were served. The taste was too good. After the soup course, followed the main course, which consisted of phulkas, a paneer gravy, a potato dry vegetable along with dal, dahi and jeera rice.
The taste was fabulous. It was a pleasure to have the phulkas, a great substitute to the rubbery parantas served on most other trains in the same route. It felt as if I was having food in some plush restaurant serving tasty food. The main course was followed by ice creams.
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After a heavy lunch, I felt really sleepy and climbed up to the upper berth and slept. At around 3 pm, got a wake up call from the catering staff saying that the train was running before schedule and that it was expected to reach Kozhikode by 3 45. We quickly got ready for alighting. ( Kindly note that monsoon timings were effective during that period). At sharp 3 45, the train chugged into Kozhikode. We safely alighted.
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It was one of the most exciting and fast train rides in my life. But, due to tiredness, I spent most of the time sleeping. The remaining time was spent eating food. Hence, couldnt enjoy the nature's beauty in this trip. Another notable thing was that the staff don't ask for tips in this train.
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Overall a very nice trip. Food wise, this was my best train trip to date. The good served is much of an attraction for foodies like me. However, there interiors need to be kept cleaner.
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P.S. The trip was completed in October. However, due to professional commitments, couldn't post this review until date, though I had promised to post the same once in October and then in December. I apologize for the delay caused.