Byzantine Bureaucracy

Things can be needlessly complicated here.  Getting anything done takes much more time than it should.  There's a reason why American companies calculate each Indian outsourced worker's productivity to be equivalent to 1/3 to 1/5 that of an American's.  Getting a straight answer, confirmation or follow through is rare.  It can be a bit frustrating but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

My first hassle of the day was the bank.  It was my second visit to try and open an account so I can carry an ATM card with me rather than a stack of cash.  You have to provide a photo for their files, a letter stating why you want to open an account, proof of residency in the US, photocopies of my passport and visa, a list of each bill you are depositing including serial number, and a change of signature form because some of the couple of dozen places I had to sign I used a slightly messy scrawl and both versions had to be on file.  Now strangely enough the red tape is really just a formality.  I signed form after form, but they were all blank to be filled in by the banker later.  Oh, by the way, interest on a checking account is over 10%.  The exchange rate was terrible though, I found out later.  It's all about as effective as the toy rifles they carry with the champagne cork in the barrel.

Train bureaucracy makes bank bureaucracy look simple.  There's a dizzying array of seat types.  When you get to the station figuring out the process of claiming your ticket is a bit of a labrynth.  There's a window for seeing if you made the list, one for reserved tickers, another for claiming your confirmed ticket from the waitlist, and a dozen others that I'm not sure what they do.  In another building is the information desk and in another section of that building a place to buy unreserved tickets.  I unfortunately discovered the function of those windows in the reverse order.  So by the time I got to the right window my ticket was canceled.

I ended up going to one of the non-AC assigned seats because the train started moving before I could make it to the end of the platform for un-reserved.  I sat until the first stop then had to stand for the rest as all the seats were taken.  Others in the train also didn't have assigned seats, or probably tickets, so they stood in the aisles.  The best seat seamed to be in the open doorway.  When the kids sitting there finally moved I swooped in and perched.  It looks a lot safer when someone else is doing up but was scary as hell when you are precariously balanced on the floor of a wobbling train with nothing between you and the tracks below but your own confidence.  But the breeze was cool and well worth the stomach butterflies.  The train ride itself was very interesting.  There is a constant flow of vendors offering tea, coffee, snacks, the occasional urchins that jump on and off (they aren't as pushy as other Asian or SF beggars)  The scenery is pretty cool too.  The train went up the West coast.  Along the way it's small villages, farms, rivers and a LOT of mosques and temples.