We chose to do Paulo travels on our trip from Pune to Goa - my husband and I.We booked ourselves on a Volvo Seater from Swargate in Pune.The bus left Pune at 10.30pm.To begin with, there were no blankets provided to any passenger.This is a normal procedure in all Volvo buses.Not so with Paulo.Then we see, next to the driver a sticker that reads'The following items can be purchased for use at the rates given: Blanket - Rs.75/- Shawl - Rs.50'.We didnt think we'd need one anyway.However, as the night wore on, we realized we had to turn down the air duct through which the AC worked.We have no direct control over the temperature as passengers and couldnt do anything.We, along with 2 other passengers repeatedly asked the helper to either turn off or increase the temperature, but to no avail.I was lucky enough to have had the sense to carry a shawl with me, else, I'd have reached Goa frozen.
Nextly, they made just one stop at a nondescript hotel so that people could relieve themselves and have dinner at around 11.30.Little did the women on the bus realize that that would be the last stop for using toilets on our way to Goa.The staff of Paulo didnt seem to care, anyway.
Somewhere after the first stop, I heard the driver pick up a nasty fight with the ticket dispenser at a toll booth.He was using expletives and wasting time unnecessarily.Soon, the helper pulls down a couple of blankets for all of them and one of the drivers sets forth to catch some sleep behind the bus, leaving us passengers to suffer in the cold.
Soon, around 12.30pm, they pick up a young couple in the middle of nowhere.Seems they booked themselves on the Volvo and were asked to come over at 6.30pm in order to board the Volvo that was suppsoed to leave at 8.30pm.When they reached, they were told that it was a normal sleeper bus they would be travelling on(all this despite having to pay Rs.1200/- per head).The guy was insisting that he wouldnt go on the sleeper bus after paying off for travelling on the Volvo.So he was asked to wait until midnight to wait for our bus to come.Imagine, they actually waited 6 hours to board the bus! After all this, the driver of our bus shouts at the guy asking him why the hell was he waiting far away from the main road where he couldnt be spotted.I mean come on, it was not exactly a city where they were waiting, it was in the midst of nowhere! That was really rude.
The rest of the journey was spent with random stops so that men alone could relieve themselves.most of the time the staff of Paulo were seen shouting at passengers asking them to return even before they could do anything!We finally reached Madgaon at 10am, after all the drama.
The return journey was the worst.We were asked to report to Madgaon at 6.15pm when the bus would leave.Luckily, my husband had the foresight to report earlier.We reported at 5.30pm and realized that the bus would leave at 5.45pm instead of 6.15 pm! Upon questioning, we came to know that this bus was just a pickup bus that would drop us off at Panjim.Rest of the details of the onward journey was completely unknown.No bus number, no location, nothing.
At Panjiim, we were dropped off in what looked like an enormous bus bay filled with buses travelling across multiple states from and to Goa.There were lots of buses belonging to Paulo travels, but we had to figure out ourselves which one of those would go to Pune.Finally we passengers spoke with each other and figured out that a bus from Raj Travels would do the job.There was so much confusion about the seat numbers and places that the helper and driver were seen shouting at passengers when they asked them about their seat numbers.The bus was a Volvo Sleeper and our berths were on the upper end.I for one thing got bitten by bedbugs.To make matters worse, it started to rain outside and water came seeping in and started collecting on my blanket in a pool.I thereby had no choice but to sleep wet and cold, throughout the night.We finally made it to Pune at 5.30am, cramped and uncomfortable.
Paulo travels also insist that all passengers MUST pay the driver and helper a compulsory tip of Rs.10/- per head.For what, God alone knows.
I would request all you sensible people out there to avoid travelling Paulo at any cost. Better take the train on the flight.
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.