Metro or MRT or Subways are an excellent and economic way of seeing sights in a new city .
Most big cities have metros and now in India too there are many .
The MRT maps are available online
the coloured crosslines usually look a bit complicated specially with foriegn names but generally they are very user friendly .
The first ride generally gives the hang of it
Places like Hong kong Singapore Taipei have many lines but some are simpler .
Generally tourist cards available for one two or three days
This is best way to travel
of course the risk of being pickpocketed or mugged is greater in some cities .
Prague had an ancient metro deep in bowels of earth with dizzying depths .one had to go through steep escalators to reach train area and also had a lot of sombre tired brooding people slightly frightening .
Singapore Taipei and Hong kong were boisterous safe and fast .
All one needed was to know which side one was headed to , which coloured line , where one needed to get down and most important which exit was ones !
The last bit was little difficult for me in HK for a direction ally handicapped person like me .
Sruthi my daughter who came with me to HK is a born metro navigator all I needed then was to follow her like a little lamb .
In Istanbul metro the issue was language
As I alighted from the Airport i went to metro station inside it .
Information on routes prices were all in Turkish
All the questions answered by other busy passengers were also in Turkish. They even nodded in Turkish !!
Finally I did an ekalayvan
I watched one man carefully press the machine for his ticket so intently that he kept patting his wallet in his back pocket suspecting the slimy Indian behind who seemed to be very intrested in his posterior !!
And so after he got his ticket and turned back when I gave him a loving smile of gratitude he ran a mile !
Of course to my readers my views are strictly straight and I had no intrest in behinds the only one intrest then was to print a ticket .
I followed steps got a ticket and in two minutes was in a speeding train .
Then it dawned on me which station was I headed to ?
was it really where i wanted to go ?
I may land in another end of a big city .
So I showed the ticket to a walrus moush nearby , there was some movement behind the bush or moush who finally made me understand I could get down at the end of the trip almost an hour after .
I did that and when I walked out was delighted to see the Haga sophia , the very heritage area where I had booked my hotel .
Taipei too has a very good metro service
Singapore and KL these days I know pretty well
Of course I am yet to travel in world famous undergrounds like New york ,London , Tokyo and Moscow .
Above all Iam looking forwards the most to the metro in my home town Cochin which will start any moment and shortly it will come right up to my house in Thripunithura at Pettah .
Most big cities have metros and now in India too there are many .
The MRT maps are available online
the coloured crosslines usually look a bit complicated specially with foriegn names but generally they are very user friendly .
The first ride generally gives the hang of it
Places like Hong kong Singapore Taipei have many lines but some are simpler .
Generally tourist cards available for one two or three days
This is best way to travel
of course the risk of being pickpocketed or mugged is greater in some cities .
Prague had an ancient metro deep in bowels of earth with dizzying depths .one had to go through steep escalators to reach train area and also had a lot of sombre tired brooding people slightly frightening .
Singapore Taipei and Hong kong were boisterous safe and fast .
All one needed was to know which side one was headed to , which coloured line , where one needed to get down and most important which exit was ones !
The last bit was little difficult for me in HK for a direction ally handicapped person like me .
Sruthi my daughter who came with me to HK is a born metro navigator all I needed then was to follow her like a little lamb .
In Istanbul metro the issue was language
As I alighted from the Airport i went to metro station inside it .
Information on routes prices were all in Turkish
All the questions answered by other busy passengers were also in Turkish. They even nodded in Turkish !!
Finally I did an ekalayvan
I watched one man carefully press the machine for his ticket so intently that he kept patting his wallet in his back pocket suspecting the slimy Indian behind who seemed to be very intrested in his posterior !!
And so after he got his ticket and turned back when I gave him a loving smile of gratitude he ran a mile !
Of course to my readers my views are strictly straight and I had no intrest in behinds the only one intrest then was to print a ticket .
I followed steps got a ticket and in two minutes was in a speeding train .
Then it dawned on me which station was I headed to ?
was it really where i wanted to go ?
I may land in another end of a big city .
So I showed the ticket to a walrus moush nearby , there was some movement behind the bush or moush who finally made me understand I could get down at the end of the trip almost an hour after .
I did that and when I walked out was delighted to see the Haga sophia , the very heritage area where I had booked my hotel .
Taipei too has a very good metro service
Singapore and KL these days I know pretty well
Of course I am yet to travel in world famous undergrounds like New york ,London , Tokyo and Moscow .
Above all Iam looking forwards the most to the metro in my home town Cochin which will start any moment and shortly it will come right up to my house in Thripunithura at Pettah .
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