We are sitting in a restaurant in Agra, after another killer train journey, this time 23 hours, claimed a day of our trip.
In some ways this journey was a bit better, in that we knew what to expect, that it would be verylong, and that we had very quiet, polite and respectful cabin mates - a young Indian lady who helped us out a bit, and a young Chinese guy who never said a word, and slept a lot. But the thing that made this journey SO much worse was the fact that there was NO food at all on board. Since they were constantly selling food, coffee and chai on the previous trip, we assumed the same would be the case for this train. Lesson #1 - never assume anything in India.
I slept really well and only woke up at 9:00 the next morning. We soon found out we hadn't gone all that far, and knew we were in for a long trip. By 12:00, still no food or chai had been offered, and the last time we had eaten was 15:00 the previous day.
At around 14:00ish we pulled into a small station, and
Werner went off to try and find food. Where we were parked, there was not even a platform... Werner spotted a bunch of Indian guys running over the train tracks, and saw one of them was eating something. The hunger overshadowed all reason, and he decided to take a risk and run over the tracks to see what could be found. After jumping about 3 or 4 tracks, and dodging many landmines, he found some informal traders and hastily bought some biscuits and water, before running back to the train, exhilarated and out of breath.
The biscuits lasted a little while but we still hoped for something better. At the next station, a much larger one, we both hopped off in a quest to find something edible. There was one vendor on the platform, but he was already crowded with tons of people shouting and waving money. I thought 'don't these people know how to queue?' Werner joined the back and tried to purchase something, but before he had even had a chance, the train was suddenly moving and people were jumping into its open doors. Then I understood the haste. Although I still couldn't understand why the train would stay unmoving sometimes for hours on end, but couldn't just give five minutes more when the was an opportunity to buy snacks! We jumped into the moving train, another exhilirating experience.
We finally had luck at the station before Agra - Werner managed to buy 4 tasty spicy Pakoras from a vendor just outside where our cabin was. This would at least tide us over until Agra. And then, before we knew it, everyone was getting up and packing and the journey was finally over! We got off at about 18:00, and were pleased to find the trusty Mr Narender waiting for us, the poor guy had been waiting all day. He took us to Hotel Bhoomi residency, very close to the Taj. This has been the best hotel so far, with very clean rooms and impeccable bathrooms. The only funny thing is the usual Asian style shower - no shower doors or curtains needed!
We woosed out over dinner - should have tried a local restaurant, but we really just wanted a shower, and so decided to just try the hotel restaurant. We ordered chicken tikka masala and veg jhalfrezi with rice and naan. Pretty good, Rs810...
Time for bed as we will be starting our day at 8:00 to see the Taj and Agra fort, before driving 6 hours to Jaipur!
- Nix
Ps, for now. Can only post photos actually taken with the iPad! Maybe in a future place I'll be able to download and post more interesting images!!
Location:Agra
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