48 Hours of Madness
Trip Start
Feb 03, 2010
1
19
27
Trip End
May 30, 2010
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
Sunday, May 16, 2010
after our success with the first train we thought that actually this whole trip wouldnt be soo bad but as all Ian Tam fans would have it we were not without our adventures. in fact over this two day period we ammassed over 5 adventures through whihc i shall tell our story.
Adventure 1- Boarding the train this time was a breeze and although Myrtle was in another compartment smelling a lot like curry due to the family living there it was all good. in our carridge were 3 lovely candian girls who i obviously befriended in no time. the sad fact being that they were only staying on the train a paltry 3 hours. the first mini adventure came when we found that everyone else had brought a packed lunch and unlike the 1st train we would have to provide our own food. we had none. Kerry (canadian girl) and i volunteered to forrage for food both at the next train staion and in the sleeper compartments (the cattle class with no air con and overcrowding). the sleeper offered us nothing but when we arrived at the next station i found a shop with biscuits whihc i atemted to buy. unfortunatly during the process the train started to leave bring cries from Kerry next to the train and causing much ammusment for the Indians watching i ran and jumped on the moving (rather quite fast) train. a good start.
Adventure 2- Having got back on board the train successfuly we decied to have a little rest to calm the nerves, this involes the 'easy' process of unfolding the middle bunk to create more roomand an extra two beds. after about 10 minutes a small cry from Maud awakened our slumber and we found to a little amusment (which then faded with the smell) that the India woman below us had just vomited all over the floor. thankfuly we gave her a newspapaer we had bought and she cleaned it up pronto.
Adventure 3- The snak run that did pay off may not have been much of adventure but it did give rise to many an odd look from the Indians. basicaly we had left the Canadians in Ahambad so we didnt need so much food but still bought loads. we ran over to the kiosk and bought 5 packets of busciuts, 2 crips, and some sandwiches. then having dumped the food we went back for more but on the other side as to appear not to be coming for the second time. however being the only white people at the station it was very obvious and so we got lots of knowing smiles.
Adventure 4- the next unfornate adventure was missing our station Kalyan Junction. this was due to us playing crazy boardem games (such as g'day bruce, and what your taking to a picnic). so much fun was being had that we didnt really realse that we had missed it. on the up side it meant that we could see Mumbai a little earlier than expected. we arrived in CST or Victoria Terminus which as any train enthusiast will tell you is one of the most beautiful stations in the world. and they would not be wrong. at this point we had an eppifiany that we would not go to Hampi beacuse it would involve too much travel whihc at this point we really didnt want to do. and relaxing in Goa for a bit seemed a good option.
Adventure 5- this leaft us with a few options we could either go back 75km to Kalyan and cath the train to Hubli were we could then get a jeep to Goa, or we could catch one of the many sleeper coaches that leave mumbai to Goa. we decided on the later one and so as i was organising it with some nice INdian man all seemed to be going well untill at the last moment the girls decided to pull out so we had to cancell. my Indian friend was not very happy about this and wanted me to pay Rs 500 each for the seats he had booked. evenatully i manged to get him to go away but it is very diffcult to be mean to people. i got him on some english that i actually said to reserve the seats and not book them so i shouldnt have to pay anything as they are two different things. we now had reveryted back to the plan of going to Kalyan and cathing our orginal train.
Adventure 6- unfortunaty this leaft us with 2 and a half hours to get to kalyan some 75km away at about 5:30, indian rush hour. we could either get a taxi for a ridiculous Rs 2500 or a Rs 13 train ticket on the mumbai commuter trains. to buy s train tickey you have to stand in a queue like in england only this one was vast. myself and Myrtle stood in differnt Q's for a bit and then i left aas mine was slow. the indians have a poor idea how to Q at the best of time and even if you stand directly behind someone. antoher person will just nochanly some in and stand in front of you with feeling the slightest bit bad. it does really make me want to bat them over the head a little. however this is not possible to do in imortant Q's such as the one at the train station to you have to Q guardians (a police officer with a large stick) tbc
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[more to come soon]
