An Indian railway tale.....

After our 'Escape from Delhi' (see an Indian weekend) experience Louise and I were understandably nervous about our next train journey to Kolkata. We had negotiated the entire width of Nepal (about 800km/500miles) by bus and the shared jeeps up and down from Darjeeling were a really enjoyable experience, apart from me having to avoid the drivers hand as he groped for the gearstick. So as we walked into the train station checking and re-checking our ticket with the announcements being relayed over the tannoy system we were pleased to hear our train being announced, albeit on a different platform from the information board, would be arriving shortly. We dashed over the bridge to the new platform and onto the train, squeezing through with our backpacks to our seats. We sat down to compose ourselves and were then asked the following question 'Breakfast? Dinner? You want?' We should explain our only experience of Indian trains at this point was the tourist train to Agra where you are given a bottle of water, fed tea and coffee and even a meal. We therefore presumed that this would be the case for all trains and answered 'yes' to the railway staff member in front of us. What was presented before us was cold, not included and a bloody rip-off!!!! Anyway, we learned our lesson and over the course of the past 10 days we have caught 4 trains, traveled 3500km and been prepared for every one.

The Indian railway is immense to say the least, the engineering involved is just simply mind boggling. It covers most areas of the country, which isn't that small by the way, and is very well used by the local population. Louise and I have had to make use of the foreign tourist quota quite a few times to ensure we get a ticket for our desired destination. The booking
system is quite complicated until you get used to it. You have to fill out a booking form which you collect from the ticket window, fill it out, re-join the queue, handover the form, see if there is any availability, if no availability re-fill the form, check again, if successful hand over your passports, pay your money (in cash of course) and get your ticket. I think the average time it has taken us to book a ticket is about 40 mins to an hour, and that includes the trying to book the 10km Darjeeling toy train ride specifically aimed at tourists.

We have to admit our guard is up quite a lot when people start talking to us, we are very reluctant to give out too much info and sometimes we end conversations prematurely to avoid questions we don't want to answer. We have discovered though that there is a great difference from those who are trying to deceive you and those who are genuinely interested in you.

The trains are a great place to meet people because you are in them for so long. Our journey times range from 7 hours to 18 and you are there with up to 72 other people. We met a lovely man who was traveling with his mother and young son the other day. His first questions were the same as all the others 'What country are you from' 'Where are you going' but then they diverse into 'what do you think of India' 'What is your country like' and just want to know about you and your life. The conversations we are having now with people are all about what we think of India, how can it be improved and, believe it or not, the frustrations they have with their own country! The Indians are a very proud people and usually wanting to do something for their country, they are just not sure how to go about it.

We have learned a lot on the trains of India, not just about avoiding getting scammed, but more about the Indian people. They are a nation of sharers, something which we learned back in the slums of Delhi. We have sat and watched as complete strangers share their food with each other, chat to each other as if they are long lost friends and even spreading this kindness to us and introducing them. We were invited to a random shop somewhere in Mumbai, even given us a mobile number when the mobile owner doesn't speak English?!? It's this type of random unawareness mixed in with the generosity that helps you really warm to the people and we are really starting to enjoy India.

These photos are a random collection from our travels in Kolkata and Varanasi so far hope you enjoy.