Shaken, not stirred..... (Dec 2)

The watch alarm went off at 3:30 am. There was a time in my life when I'd just be getting home... not getting up! Things change I guess.

We got up, got organized and headed down to the lobby. All the lights were off so Brad used his flashlight to get us safely down to the lobby (he's such a boyscout). Our friendly hotel boy was sleeping on the floor behind the desk. There was a large steel roll up door pulled down over the entrance and he had to let us out. (I guess there's no emergency exit?)

The cab wasn't there yet so we waited. The hotel guys started to get worried. They made a call and an autorickshaw arrived a few minutes later. The cab they had arranged was not arriving so they'd called in reinforcements. We piled in and a young man, still wiping the sleep from his eyes, started us barrelling down the roadway. My recollection had been that the road was pretty much straight until we hit Gaya so I wasn't sure where he was going when he turned left.

We pulled up and picked up his father (the owner of the rickshaw I guess). Time was a-wasting! They asked what train we were on and off we went. We were in a bigger rickshaw than on the way there (it was a hard-top) so you would have, maybe, hoped for a bit smoother ride. Let's just say there was a thick pad cushioning the roof of the passenger compartment - you can use your imagination from there.

Luckily there was no traffic and the driver was quite familiar with the route. We pulled up to a staircase leading to a pedestrian bridge that took us right to our platform - the train pulled in 60 seconds later. Talk about cutting it close!

We are riding in 2 tier sleeper again but this time we have bunks 5 and 6. Bunks 1 to 4 are in a berth that runs perpendicular to the windows so the people in 2 and 4 sit on the bunks of 1 and 3 during the day and then climb up to their bunks to sleep at night. Bunks 5 and 6 are directly across the aisle, one over the other, parallel to the windows. The bottom bunk splits and folds up into two seats facing each other during the day.

The seats were great, except for the roaches. I guess our car hadn't been fumigated in awhile and the roaches were taking over. We'll have to build some serious positive karma to make up for all the stomping we did.

Our train is scheduled to hit Haridwar at 4:12 am. Hopefully someone will be awake to let us in. At one point, looking out the window, we travelled over the River Son. It to was vast and very, very dry. This place seriously needs some rain.

Brad had hopped off the train in one of the stations in search of samosas. I was reviewing my digital photos while two young chai wallas came by. They saw me and were quite excited - they wanted me to take their photo. They were so cute, how could I not?

Getting tired after a long day, I crawled into the top bunk (hoping there would be fewer roaches) and went to sleep.