What would you do if .......

I remember arriving in Ahmedabad (India) late one night by train unaware there was a big political convention happening in the city, and everything was booked solid from the $4 flop houses to the 5 star joints. Two young boys who had borrowed their uncles tuk tuk for the night to earn some pocket money drove me around for over an hour looking for a place to stay and we must have checked out 20 different places.

In the end they actually invited me to stay at their place! but I opted for a return to the Railway Station where I shared the 2nd Class waiting Room with around 30 other travellers (strength in numbers). I've subsequently slept at a few Indian Railway Stations and have felt safer there than I have in some hotels.

But to answer your question, NO. I wouldn't pay an outragious hotel rate if there was a perfectly good Railway Station available, but then again 'outragious' is itself subjective. In India I consider $50 a night OUTRAGIOUS!!!

Hi,

BP I strongly suspect that you are not a lone female. I would not for one moment advise such a one to sleep on a station, most definitely in India of all places. I have done and still would do but even with the physical prowess I possess would still be a little wary.

I would not dare to sleep/rest in most, if not all of the train stations in Asia and other countries except perhaps for one or two such as Singapore and Avignon, France.

In Avignon, there were a couple of train police staff patrolling the station. It is well lit and there was an Ibis hotel close by. Should it become necessary, I would have suggested to tc to approach the Ibis front desk staff as to whether it would be ok for us to sit quietly in the lobby until sunrise.

In Asia, I would have always book ahead to make sure that I will have somewhere to stop over, even if it is for one night. In Asia, I would pay the $50 a night even if it is outrageous as it would be affordable but $50 a night would not even have got you a room in the youth hostel in Europe. :)

Not a train station, but an airport (Nadi International). Tried bunking down on the floor of the cafeteria, which soon brought a concerned cop over to check things out. He ended up getting me a cheap room in a place that had said they were fully booked. Not sure I'd try this in a train station, though, and, more importantly for me, it would depend on the country.

30 plus years ago, I was caught on an island in the Firth of Clyde by a snowstorm on the night before New Year's Eve. It had not snowed there for 25 years, and the people I was staying with were concerned that I would never get back to England if I got snowed in, so on New Year's Eve morning, they took me to the station by ferry and I got a train back into Glasgow.
Unfortunately, I missed the last connetion back across the border, as the trains were running very slowly. The only option was the Station Hotel, as the whole station was closed down for two nights, and no trains running on New Years Day. No ATMs or credit cards in those days, and I was fairly low on cash, but Glasgow was 6 feet deep in snow and there was nowhere else possible.
The station would not have been an option. I did not eat much fot the two days I was stuck there, though.