Lumbini-Delhi, India
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Just done a grinding series of travel from Nepal all the way to
Delhi in two days. Thank God I booked the 2nd Tier Sleeper train (comfortable and only one other person to share with) cause everything else was absolute shit. The whole way during the journey I kept trying to check my email and everywhere from
Lumbini to
Delhi has failed to connect me to the internet. So frustrating b/c Tina and I are finalizing last minute details of our upcoming travel. I left Pokhara in the morning of the 17th, arrived in Lumbini after a very long cramped bus ride. Then whipped around the Buddha's birthplace on a cycle-rickshaw. Good start to the place but give it 30 years to mature. Then booked train tickets from Gorakpur to
Delhi. I decided to skip Varanasi to maximise my chance of getting a cheaper ticket to Jordan or Israel. Next day I went to the border town of Sonauli, only to find my train ticket wasn't ready and cooled my heels for 5 hours at the travel office. No internet was working. Finally crossed the border and got on a shitty cramped little mini-bus, that I paid too much for, for a 3 hour drive to Gorakpur
. The dense fog rolled in, and after reading today's paper I found out, shut down most of the transport in the north of the country. We got to the train station at 10:30 pm. Train supposed to be at 11:45 pm. No working internet to be found. 11:30pm. No train. Found a Frenchman taking the same train and found out its going to be an hour and a half late. Drank a cup of chai. Went to platform 5 and sat down to wait. Watched cows wander around the station. Read book. 2am. Dense billowing fog rolling into the station. Getting cold. No train. Was talked to by an Indian engineering student who was convinvced all Muslims are bad people and India will soon overtake China in GDP growth. At 330am I am delerious with exhaustion and chill. I put my bags between my legs and on my chest, tell a nice Indian family man to wake me if the train ever shows up and drift into a haze of half-sleep sitting up. At 5am the train finally rolls in. After some bunk confusion I zip into my sleeping bag and pass out till 12 noon.
The train ride was fine. I read a lot and had only one pleasant Indian man in the bunk across from me. But of course we were late. I arrived in
Delhi at 1am. I went into the auto-rickshaw scrum like an NFL linebacker with an attitude and got a rickshaw for what I think is the right price to Sunny Hotel. I am currently sleeping in an overpriced tiny cell of a room. But at least they have a hot shower. Of course I wake up today and charge into the city to book tickets. Only to find the whole city is asleep and its Sunday and I can't book anything till tomorrow. So now I am sitting here writing this in a sort of limbo.
