1

Based on my experience traveling in India last year, the Indian Rail typically has some last minute tickets you can buy at the train station a day (or two) before the trip. It is a bit more expensive but still very cheap by western standard. I did this for a few trips.

If need to, you probably can do bus from Delhi to Varanasi. And I'd look into flight to Bangalore--which can be quite reasonable by western standard and save you a lot of time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/youngadventure/sets/72157629191413595/

2

Next year because of the Khumb Mela at Allahabad starting from January 14th and continuing till end March getting train tickets to Varanasi ( which is on the way) could be a problem at short notice and you should consider flying. For Bangalore Kochi you can get his booked when you arrive in Delhi.

3

On some trains on the tourist routes, there is a Foreign Tourist Quota (FTQ) in certain classes. You can buy these only in person at specific train stations. New Delhi has it.

There is also a Tatkal or Emergency tickets available to everybody that are released ONE day before the train starts from its originating station. These go on sale at 10AM and can be booked online.

4

When I was in India I bought FTQ-tickets for Mumbai to Goa at the New Delhi station 3 weeks in advance, and they where sold out on all except non AC 2nd and 3rd class seats. So if the weather is hot and comfort is an issue I think I would try to book tickets in advance..

5

Foreign Tourist Quota and Tatkal are workarounds, but, as noted above, they work better on some routes / trains than others. Advance booking is much preferable.

Try starting over with a different E-Mail address, and follow this or this EXACTLY. Repeat, EXACTLY,

6

I don't know about buying last minute tickets but I may be able to offer you some advise about logging in to cleartrip and activating your account as I had EXACTLY the same problem but managed to fix it.

Solution was not to access cleartrip directly (eg through the browser, search history or google) as every time I did this and started to enter my details their system would send a brand new password to my mobile number (that doesn't exist because I'm not in India) which would then deactivate the original mobile password they had sent to me via email.

Instead, I opened cleartrip from the link contained within the email with the title
"SUCCESSFUL REGISTRATION of username XYZ for IRCTC Bookings‏"
the link text reads something like this
"In order to Verify for partner website and Activate your account please Click Here'

You will need to enter the last password they have sent you. If the last password they sent you was in fact to a fictitious indian cell phone number, you may need to ask them to send you another one. Just don't try to use it by opening cleartrip directly- open only through the link found in one of the emails you have received.

Hope this helps

7

I gave myself one more chance to register with Cleartrip, I emailed care at Indian Rail to request my email OTP and bingo it worked. After three months I've finally succeeded in registering.

Just bought myself a ticket from New Delhi to Varanasi 3AC for $15.

Thanks for all of your help.