Woke up at 7.30 and still tired so tried to get back to sleep - but failed and so got up and spent some time in my room catching up on writing my diary and blog. The lovely hotel owner bought me hot water for my coffee so that I could sit and drink coffee and eat fruit for breakfast without having to leave the hotel. He really has got western hospitality sussed. :-)
I left the hotel about 11 to go and check my bike in on the train with plenty of time before the train departure at 2. I am very glad that I went early because the people at the parcel office said that they could not check my bike on to the train I was catching. I had checked that I could check my bike on board when I had originally booked my train ticket and they said that it would be absolutely fine. It turned out that the train I was catching had already been sealed and was not accepting parcels a the station that I was leaving from. If they were to open up the train for parcels then it would delay the train departure for everyone. They said that the only option was for me to get off at a much larger city called Ahmedabad rather than the station I was booked to (Palunpur) and then get my bike in Ahmedabad (delivered on a later train). I would then have to make my own way to Palunpur from Ahmedabad by a later train or bus.
My bike and I were supposed to arrive in Palunpur around 4am. As I could not get my bike on this train they explained that I would have to get off at Ahmedabad at 1.30am and then pick my bike up in the morning when the parcel service opened at 10am and then make my way by train or bus the extra 3.5 hours (only 135km - would be faster to bike ;-)) to Palunpur. The organisation of all of this took hours and loads of supervisors were called in and I had to go back and forth to different offices. Eventually I left my bike there, checked in and went to get some lunch (a lovely mutton fry) and collected all of my bags from my hotel (I could not check these in with my bike so had to carry all 6 bags on my own about 0.5km).
The train on time at 1.40. I was already all hot and sweaty getting on to the train with all of my bags. I have not travelled in a sleeper carriage in India before and I was apprehensive to find out what it was like as I have heard horror stories from other travelers. A porter had helped me with carry a few of my bags to actually get on to the train. I was worried as I am not sure how reliable these guys are. At times it was so crowded that I could not see him and I was not sure how likely it is that they run off with peoples belongings. It is difficult sometimes in India to know who to trust. As the porters all have official clothes and badges I think that it is unlikely.... but I really an not sure???
I had the upper bunk of the sleeper carriage. There are several classes of train carriages - sleeper is the cheapest. There are 6 people per carriage and the carriages are all open plan i.e. there are no door to the corridors. The sleeper carriages are cooled by fans but are often extremely crowded and so can be very hot. During the day only the upper bunk and lower bunk are down and the middle bunk is attached to the wall so that people can comfortably sit up on the lower bunk and have enough head room. At night time the middle bunk is dropped down leaving 3 sleeping compartments (none of which you can sit up on).
I was actually really quite stressed about the whole experience having spent 3 hours trying to sort out how to get my bike on the train and then having to carry all of my 6 bags and find my bunk etc on a very busy train. There were no other westerners anywhere near and I was concerned about the safety of all of my bags, even though the Indians in my immediate vicinity seemed very friendly. Therefore, when I arrived I just put all of my bags up on the top bunk (leaving me very little room) and hid away and caught up on diary writing for a couple of hours.
It was extremely hot up on the top bunk and I could not really sit up properly. The main fan which was supposed to point at my bunk was broken. I was a sweaty as hell. It was not too hot to be uncomfortable but getting that way (I normally don't mind the heat).
After a couple of hours I took out my camera to have a break from my blog and to take some photos of the people in the carriage. It was the best thing I could have done as all of a sudden the people around me became really friendly. They had given me a welcome reception when I embarked but then left me alone when I hid away. They all wanted their photos taken and then to look at each shot and they gestured for me to join them on the bottom bunk. Only one person spoke any English and he translated a few things for me but mostly we just communicated by hand gestures. There where 3 different families on the surrounding bunks and they had each bought picnics with them for the journey. Each separate group generously offered me food.
So there I was with a good camera and catching up with my blog on a laptop (so obviously had money) traveling in sleeper class with a large number of Indians (with holes in their clothes) and the 3 different families next to me were having a competition to see how much food they could give the foreigner. I have found on this trip that often the people that have the least give the most. On the train ride I was given: 4 chis, 1 ice cream, 1 bottle of water, 4 chapatis, endless different curries and pickle and 2 different sweet things. I tried to buy everyone a Chi but they were having non of it.
After short period of time I felt much more comfortable on the journey and started to actually enjoy the experience. I was happy to leave my things and pop to the toilet and to carry on catching up on my blog and read my book. I could not see very much out of the windows and so did not take in much of the countryside but it did look pretty flat and dull.
It is not unusual for Indians to take 2 day train journeys. It is the fastest, most comfortable way to travel long distances in India. At major stations the train stops for about 20 mins and many people get off to smoke and get food etc. There are always young lads walking up and down the train selling fried things and chi during the journey and then at the stations people can buy full take away meals, water and ice cream. There is a bad smell of urine around the toilets but they were not as horrendous as some toilets I have seen in India.
The trains run at their maximum capacity and there is always more demand for seats than there are available. There is a waiting list system where if you book about 2 months in advance then you might get a confirmed ticket but otherwise you are put on the waiting list. As the departure of the train gets nearer some people with confirmed tickets change their minds and people on the waiting list are then moved to being confirmed. It is normal to buy several train tickets on several days as it is likely that one journey will become available and then cancel the other tickets. This system works well for a system that is running at full capacity. It means that there are very few empty seats when there are people to fill them.
When it got to about 9.30pm everyone started getting ready to sleep and the lights were turned off. Many people slept on the floor in the corridor and between the bunks. I am not too sure how this worked with tickets i.e. whether they had paid for their travel. They might have been on the waiting list but did not have confirmed tickets. None of them were thrown off the train when the conductor passed through.
I could not go to sleep as I needed to get off at 1am and I did not want to miss my station. I read my book once my laptop power had gone and listened to some music. The journey had been better than I had thought it would be :-)
I was tired when I got off the train at 1.30 (slightly late) and there were no porters around and so once again I had to carry all of my 6 bags. I found a Rickshaw and asked to be taken to a cheap lodge for 400RS ish. Unfortunately, the city was really busy and we were driving round for about 1 hour before we found a lodge with a spare room. Even at 2am the city was very busy.
The feel of the place is very different to Southern India. It was more how I imagine a city in Pakistan or Afghanistan would be. The Rickshaws are a different colour and the men dress very differently. Many of them have turbans. I was too tired to take in much and just accepted the first hotel that had a room available even though it was a shit hole. It was past 4 by the time I got to bed. Long day.
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