Where should I start, and when will it end?!

It's hard to remember back to where I left off. That was the start of India!

Today, at least. The tour is officially over. The group had their final dinner last night (minus four people who had earlier flights) and Vince and I left early. I saw Sandy in passing this morning and nodded hello/goodbye, we left him no tip.

OK, so where was I...

The train ride...

Day 17
For my last post, the final coments were "Hopefully the train ride is un-eventful and flea-free "

Well, there were no fleas. Day 17 we boarded the train. There were 4 seats available in A2 (second class) and the rest in A3 (third class). Of the four A2 seats, 1 was confirmed, 3 were pending; all but one of the A3 were confirmed. Vince and I got on and went to our section. There are three beds in A3 - one forms a seat during the day, the middle one is strapped to the wall, and the top one is unfolded above. We found our seats and a family of 3 sitting on them. THere was some confusion, not sure what happened but before long I was snuggled in the top bed and Vince in the one below. There was a priest of some sort in the bunk across from us, and the guy in the bunk at the foot of the room had his finger and toe nails painted pink. I am not sure why, I never got around to asking Sandy.

Day 18
Vince and I both slept well. At about 6.30 in the morning I was awake, as the ticket man was turning on lights to check for tickets in each cabin. The train wasn't moving when I woke. I went to use the train toilets, passing through A2 in order to get to the Western Style ones and said hello to the four who were given A2 seats. They were huddled in a nice little cabin/section. In A2 you get curtained off areas. They said, though, that during the night they were split up, and the whinged about the trip. Blah, blah, blah. I saw Sandy brushing his teeth as I was on my way back to my seat - loads of people were brushing their teeth, I was amazed at the amount. I asked why the train was stopped and he said we were waiting for another train to pass us. Fair enough, I went back to my top bunk and read. Vince put his seat up and sat down to avoid getting a headache.

We had a few visitors throughout the day. Steve 2 came down looking for a deck of cards (couldn't help) and Steve 1 came up to say hello. He and Christie were seperated last night, and I believe Christie lost her seat at some stage (she must have been the one unconfirmed). Sandy never came down and we were not told which seat he was in so there was no way to figure out what was happening. After a few hours the train started moving - backwards. After 15 minutes it stopped. We ate some chips and choccies and read. Sandy came down at around 12.30 and said we had to get off the train. Vince asked how long we had, he said "Right now". So we scrambled to put away sleeping bags and books etc and get out before the train took off again!

We got to the platform and the group shared stories of their night. Same sort of thing - a lot of people had to share their seats and were seperated. Vince and I had i the best from all accounts. One of the girls was in a cabin where a man had a heart attack, but we think he was ok.

Sandy led us out of the station, while we tried to figure out what was going on and where we were. Someone said that we had to go back in the night because the train hit a cart and pinned a man, and that we were actually at a station before Varinasi - so we'd gone backwards! Eventually we were taken to a really dodgy looking place and Sandy said we could eat there. I asked if it was safe, he said he wasn't sure, as Geekos hadn't tested this place yet. We ended up going inside the "bar" next to it, after standing on the street for a while. I was livid at this stage. Accidents happen, you can't help public transport, but I was furious at the lack of communication that was going on.

It turned out we were in Kanpur - a tiny town of two and a half million that made every shop, house, street corner and speck of dirt in Woomera look like Royal property. Kanpur doesn't get a lot of tourists, and the 4 drunk Indians in the bar were not in a very good mood... Christie asked for a drink and was yelled at saying that they don't have a licence to sell to tourists. Lucy blew her nose and was yelled at because it was rude (meanwhile these people are spitting on the floor). The ring leader sat and chatted to Kathryn and told her she should go upstairs for a sleep, and that Steve2 looked very innocent (?). All these stories came out later while I was in the bar I was reading and being in a bad mood so not paying attention. We had bread and chip sandwhiches for lunch. Sandy left after we entered the bar to organise transport, not that he told Vince or me about this. While he was gone (for 3 or 4 hours) the men became more and more irritated with us, helped by the drinking. There were a few times when the group were on the point of heading out to sit in the streets. Finally Sandy came back and Steve2 went and told him that the guys inside were not happy, Sandy told him to tell the guys that he spoke to the owner of the hotel and everything was ok. Thankfully we left before any major issues came up and nobody got hurt. I heard a rumour that the reason we had to wait so long was because the cars Sandy had arranged were coming from another town, to ensure we had good drivers, however I am not suer if this is true, as we were never told by Sandy, only heard it from others.

There were two five-person cars and one truck. Vince, Steve, Christie, and I were in one car. I was pretty calm by now, by Christie was furious. We watched them try to jam one more bag into the overflowing boot infront of us, as Sandy opened the back seat and asked Vince, me, and Christie if there was room in the back seat for one more. We said "No" and Christie shut the door.

Eventually we were off, bound for Agra at last. The drive was long, but I can't rememer how long. I think in the region of 5 or 6 hours. We got into Agra at about 10.30pm.

Day 19
To the Taj! A mix up with breakfast times saw Vince and I early to the table. The food was nice there, and we were finished before the rest of the group found their way down. I wont go into huge details, but the group discussed what to do about the lost time. We lost an entire day, and if we were sticking ot schedule at that time we would be doing the optional trip to the Red Fort then going by bus to the next town around mid day, having seen the Taj yesterday afternoon.

The discussion went for 1 and a half hours.

The problem was that we would be missing out on an optional tour - either Red Fort in Agra, or birdwatching in the next town.



Ooops Gotta go, Vince and I need to find a new hotel room. Were trying to get a flight out of India today, fingers crossed.