It Ain't Smooth

After my nearly slipped encounter while on the way to the bank yesterday, I had more problems with my pair of legs towards yesterday evening. It felt like I have been standing all day, the legs became very tired and painful. After dinner, I quickly went for a massage. It did help to ease the pain somewhat and I was able to sleep at night. My legs feel much better this morning but there's still pain.

I am hoping to restart my acupuncture treatment on my legs beginning next week. I am having some mechanical problems with my car. It should be sorted out by this weekend.

Pilgrimage To India 2 - More Booking Woes
This time round, I am facing more online booking woes. Firstly, the official Indian Railway online reservation would not permit foreigners to book online due to changes in the account verification method that only accepts the use of an Indian registered mobile phone and non acceptance of international credit cards for online payment. Secondly, some of the third party online portals like www.makemytrip.com also have similar restrictions for train bookings. While Cleartrip (www.cleartrip.com) does not have these restrictions, I found out that I was unable to book one particular train (Train No. 55150 - MUV GKP Express) from Sarnath to Gorakhpur. It did not show up when I searched for trains. Unfortunately this train was available at Makemytrip but they don't accept international credit card for payment. So, I am caught in a very frustrating situation. I wrote to Cleartrip and they have yet to reply. I also called them via Skype but could not get through. I am afraid by the time they reply, the tickets would be sold out. Meanwhile, I am booking for an alternative route through Cleartrip because this is the only place I can book. I am using the Varanasi station (in place of Sarnath) which is inconvenient but at least the journey is not affected. If we can't travel on this night train, the rest of the trip schedule would be all out of sync.

I just made another booking with 4 passengers but only 3 tickets were confirmed on AC2 class. The 4th passenger (which is a child) is on RLWL-1 meaning Remote List Waiting List. So I am not sure if the 4th passenger can travel. I can take a risk and wait for the waiting list to be confirmed later or alternatively, I will cancel the booking and book for 3 passengers. But then the confirmed tickets can be allocated to someone else who are next on the wait list and the 3 passengers may be on the wait list, worst off than before. The rest of us (4 or 5 people) will travel in another AC3 class (only 7 seats available) but I like to travel in one group but it looks like this may not be possible. This is really stressful.