Paulo Travels, never again!!

Anu and Myself with lot of enthusiam planned a trip to Goa in Febraury, 2007. I thought of booking bus tickets at Paulo Travels. When I went to their office, I was upset with the staff behavior who didnt have slightest of concern for their customers. At the counter, the person was talking to his colleagues and made me wait for 10 minutes for no reason. They were chatting and cracking jokes. Only upon my insistence he issued tickets grumbling. I booked for A/C sleeper.

The day of our journey arrived and we went to catch the Paulo Travels bus. We settled down in our place and felt lack of AC. We thought they may switch on once we start. The bus left the office at Race Course Road at 7.15 PM, 15 minutes late.

Still the AC was not on. When we enquired we were told that it is not AC bus. What a shock we got! They collected Rs. 100 per seat extra, pure day light robbery!

Our problems did not end here. The bus stopped at filthy hotel for dinner. We didnt even step inside the hotel. We just had the snacks we had got with us. Later on we slept hoping to reach Goa at the earliest next morning. However, we were in for a rude shock next morning.

The badly maintained bus broke down at 6 AM next morning. We were still 200 Kms away from Goa. The brakes had jammed. The driver and the cleaner were doing their level best to set it right.

Some passengers realised it would get late and arranged for alternate transportation. We thought its better to wait.

Finally around 7.30 AM, the driver removed the brake drums causing the jam and we set on our journey. After some time, we realised that the the bus was running with just around 25% brake efficiency. Driver was controlling bus by switching gears. We were travelling really slow. By the time we reached Goa it was 3 PM and our scheduled arrival time was 10.30 AM. A cool 4 and half hours late.

Imagine our plight, we travelled in an badly maintained bus for neary 20 hours!
The bus hardly had braking power anything could have happened to its passengers.

My request to you is not to travel in Paulo travels to any place.