Back in New Delhi

We arrived back in New Delhi this morning after twenty-five and a half hours on the Rajdhani Express from Bhubaneswar. A very pleasant journey, I thought, although I'm not sure everyone else would agree. Gillian was feeling poorly and spent much of the journey in the upper bunk of the sleeper. Heather also spent much of the time in the upper bunk, although in her case I think it was mainly because of the attraction of clambering about like a monkey.

Getting the train tickets was actually as much a hurdle as the trip itself. We went to the station a couple of weeks ago and after one false start (there are two booking offices) we found the correct line, i.e. the one for: "ladies (self), VIPs, journalists (self), foreign tourists, handicapped" and a couple of other categories I've forgotten. After a lengthy wait in line we were third from the wicket when the clerk put up the "closed" sign and everything stopped for lunch. The unfortunate fellow who was mid-way through his ticket purchase had to wait half and hour to conclude the transaction. After the lunch break we did manage to buy a ticket but due to some miscommunication it was not on the Rajdhani Express but on a different train that took rather longer (thirty hours). It was also considerably cheaper, Rs 400 per person versus the Rajdhani's Rs 2200, which suggested it was considerably less comfortable. Further inspection of the ticket at home revealed that the four seats weren't together. A friend of Surya's went back to the station a few days later and exchanged the ticket for one on the desired train. On Thursday, however, after talking to someone about the train, Surya looked at the ticket again and ooncluded that the seats still weren't together. Once again a friend was dispatched to have the ticket changed.

After all the ticket worries our actual departure went off without a hitch, mainly because Surya came along and put us in the right place. We had four seats in a set of six. It actually looked as though the previous tickets would have been ok, as I think they would have been two adjacent facing pairs of seats. Anyway, the seating arrangements seemed fairly fluid. Our seatmates in were and older couple from New Delhi who had been travelling through Calcutta, Puri, Bhubaneswar and other spots and were now returning to Delhi. They were part of a larger party so with two seats free because of Gillian and Heather's ascent to the bunks we had a revolving set of visitors. Everyone was very friendly and pleasant although communication was fairly basic as they spoke virtually no English and we speak no Hindi at all (in spite of our purchase of "Teach Yourself Hindi".) They kept giving Jacob and Heather guava juice, which was very kind. Unfortunately, Jacob and Heather don't like guava juice and my capacity to consume it is limited so we finished the journey with enough guava juice to last us until our departure from India.

No sooner had we settled ourselves in our seats than things started to arrive. First a litre bottle of mineral water for each of us. Then pillows, followed by blankets and then by a packet of sheets and a towel, done up in a paper packet, whose label assured us that they had been laundered in a mechanized facility. Then came a request for our breakfast order, followed by breakfast itself. Some guava juice. Thermos of hot water, teabags, packets of instant coffee, dairy creamer and sugar. Request for lunch order (veg or non-veg.) There was a bit of a break til lunch actually arrived. Lunch was very good, consisting of rice, dal, veg curry or chicken curry, parathas, sweets, and more tea. [A dissenting view: Jacob feels that the chickent curry wasn't very good.] At four o'clock we had tea, consisting of a veg sandwich, a deep-fried stuffed disc-shaped pastry and a sweet. More guava juice was distributed at intervals. Dinner was much like lunch (although with a mattar paneer for the veg) but with ice cream for dessert. There were also packets of biscuits, although I've lost track of when they arrived. Between 9:30 and 10 pm set up the lower and middle bunks and turned. Jacob and I were on the middle bunks, which I found a bit of a squeeze, as there wasn't enough space to sit up without suffering a blow to the head from nobbly metal fixtures.

We arrived about 10:45 this morning, unfortunately on the platform furtherest from the main station exit. There is an exit from the rear of the station to tempt the unwary and we set off in the wrong direction. We were soon set right and climbed up the pedestrian overpass thing that crosses all the tracks. I'd forgotten how enormous the New Delhi station is. It seemed to take forever to walk to the other side. It's a fairly short walk to the hotel (we are once again in the Hotel Chanchal Deluxe) but the traffic was so thick it was difficult to make progress.

Anyway, tomorrow it's off to Singapore (for a few hours) then off to Thailand.