Night Train to Hardiwar

Trying to Catch a Train

Well, last night I had my first experience of train travel in India. Once I settled in, it was pretty comfortable. Of course, before I did that, I found my way to the WRONG car (sleeper ordinary class, no airconditioning, and a couple of men fighting very loudly over a very large trunk that was taking up somebody else's seat. It was like a scene out of Abbott and Costello). It was about half an hour before the person I was talking to mentioned that there is another sleeper class. We looked at my ticket, and sure enough, I was supposed to be five cars up.

The car I was in was much nicer than the one I was in at first. I managed to sleep pretty soundly from 10 pm to about 4 am, then couldn't sleep because I wanted to make sure I got off at my stop. Few people spoke English, so I was wondering "how am I going to know if I'm there?" But I just took another deep breath and reminded myself that I have already successfully navigated the Jammu train station (no small feat) and the Kathmandu airport. I told myself, it will be obvious.

It was. So now I am here and will probably have a sleep before too long. There is lots to see here -- I will be tired before too long so I don't know how long I will be up. Found myself a reasonably clean hotel with a comfortable bed and modern plumbing (though I am realizing that the hot water faucet is more for decoration than anything). I had a shower and feel a little less grubby (I am perpetually grubby over here).

Yesterday's trip from Srinigar to Jammu was really stunning -- through the mountains, lots of things to see. I had a really amazing time in Srinigar .. though I am glad to be out of the militarized zone. There is a very strong military presence up there which can be offputting for us Canadians who don't have much of a military.

Back to Delhi on Monday morning. This internet connection is the pits, by the way -- if you've sent me an email I might not be able to answer it right away because things are so slow.

I mostly wanted to let everybody know that all is well.

Love
Victoria


Seeking Holiness in the Ganges