Chugga Chugga... Choo Choo.... (Nov 23)

We are catching the train this morning to Gaya.
We got up, crammed the last minute things into our bags and called for some room service. We gulped down tea, toast and porridge, loaded on the packs and headed down. One of the hotel boys got us a cycle rickshaw and we headed to the station.

I am still continually astounded by the constant, ceaseless, crazy traffic. We got to the station and a man directed us to the departure platforms. We went to the inquiry desk, who sent us to the booking office - we hadn't been assigned our seats when we booked so we needed to get them before boarding. We are traveling in 2 tier AC sleeper (our trip is 28 hours!)

We are in bunk 1 and 3 - which means that we are in the bottom two bunks in the first compartment of the car. During the day, the beds fold up to create a bench seat and there is a small table against the window between the seats. The seating chart indicated that there was one person in one of the bunks above us but when the train left the station, we were still alone. We figured they may be boarding at some later point in the trip.

The train pulled out of the station at 11:13 am and we were set to arrive in Gaya late afternoon the next day. Train rides are generally uneventful. Chugging along through the countryside, watching the scenery change. Stopping at occasional towns and villages to load and unload passengers and mail and cargo.

Some stops are longer, giving enough time for Wallas to jump on the train and sell snacks or newspapers or whatever else people may want to buy. The stops also give Brad enough time to jump off and enjoy a chai. One person he was chatting with while having a tea was riding in our car and had noticed him doing some yoga in our compartment. He asked about yoga and travels. His name was Vijay (a common name I guess) and he was traveling to a conference. He has three children who live in all different parts of the world - one son is a surgeon, one son is a manager and he also has a daughter. He told Brad he was a little saddened that they had all decided to leave India since he had chosen to stay and build his business here. He owns a car part manufacturing facility. He also travels quite extensively with his wife and three other couples. They have future plans to visit North America and Australia as well. He made an interesting comment - his English was quite good and he felt that English was the unifying language for India. There are so many dialecs that the only commonly spoken language in English - even more than Hindi.

Something that you have to get used to here is that it is not considered impolite to stare at someone. Another person Brad met in the car came and sat with us for awhile trying to carry on a conversation in broken English. (Side note - when people want to speak to us, they speak to Brad since he is the man. It can be annoying for a strong-minded, independent female but, at the same time, it does allow me to sit back and observe.) Anyway, the conversation sort of died out and Brad started reading. I was doing Suduko (very addictive). He just kept sitting there staring. I'm sure he was harmless but it was a bit creepy. He eventually left and went back to his seat but then he kept reappearing. I closed the curtain on our berth, hoping he'd get the idea. Since we were in the first berth next to the entry for the car, there was a great deal of traffic going by and our curtain didn't close all the way. I started to get annoyed with everyone (not just this guy) looking in - human nature I guess. For awhile he even sat in the seat across the aisle from us like some lost puppy that wouldn't go home. I eventually rigged it up so that the curtain would close with the latch on the bench seat and he went away. I am trying to practice patience and tolerance but I was tired and really just tired of being a display (being famous must be exhausting!)

We set up the bedding and settled in to sleep. It wasn't the most restful sleep but we definitely got more sleep than we had on any of the overnight buses. All the stops meant alot of coming and going and made for a long night sprinkled with intermittent power naps.