Off to India - Jan 11

In a week, Joy and I are off on the long plane trip to Mumbai, India, via Toronto and Zurich. To say that trying to make arrangements for accommodations and travel in India from Canada are complex, is a complete understatement.
The visa application took the work of both of us for 6 hours and 3 phone calls. To the credit of the private company who handles this, they did get them back to us in 2 weeks, and that was over Christmas. One hint for folks in future, use Purolater as any other options adds confusion. Oh, yes, they do not answer e-mails?
We have been working for 10 days so far to try to arrange a place to stay. As we are "budget" travellers, we planned/hoped to stay at the YWCA in Mumbai for a few days to get adjusted. Although we followed their payment process using Visa for the required deposit on Jan 2, we do still not have confirmation of a room.
And then there is the train! Having heard much of India's much heralded train system, it seemed like a good idea to get a reservation for our first leg. Not so quick! I found a recommended site called "clear trip"that helps us tourists make these reservations. But you have to be registered with India Rail first and there is a form to fill out on-line. You are required to fill out a mobile phone #, but the kind folk at "clear trip" say just to fill in any 10 digits. This is convenient because Joy and I don't use cel phones. After filling the form I received the first of 2 required passwords (my e-mail password) but was told that I wouldn't get the mobile one (still not sure how I was to get that one) until I had scanned and forwarded a copy of my passport. This is where our lack of tech savvy and a broken scanner, comes in and none of our three attempts to do so have been successful. And, every time I ask a question or send an e-mail, I seem to be given a new case #, even when I try to inform them of a new case #. I just hope that Via Rail is more user friendly to tourists.
Jim