June 14th, 2009 -- Riding the Rails... Indian Style

Last morning in Pelling and for 5 brief minutes, the clouds cleared up and we saw the peak of Kanchenjunga. Breathtaking! It was like he was throwing us a bone for hiding from us the previous 3 mornings.

We hired a driver to take us to Siliguri for our overnight train trip to Patna. The 4'10" driver was CRAZY. Dude had a lead foot and was all about playing chicken with bigger trucks. To add to the fun, the Jeep's suspension was shot so you could feel all the bumps in the road. Was very stressful comin' down the mountain. About halfway through the trip he got into an argument with Ramu about stopping by his uncle's house in Siliguri before dropping us at the train station. the driver was basically a punk, so it was karma that his jeep broke down ~2 km from Ramu's uncle's house. His uncle picked us up from the roadside mechanic and took us back and fed us at his place.

The train trip was quite the experience for Po and in some respects me as well. We were on the overnight train to Patna that left @ 3:30pm in an AC 3 tier car. The smells in and around the bathroom (in between train cars) were awful. We would get a whiff every time someone opened the door for more than 10 sec.

There were 6 people in our berth with 2 others on the side. There was a couple that seemed recently married. The women was NAS-T. After dinner, she wiped her hands and mouth on the window curtain to clean up. On top of that, everytime she was on her cell phone she would shout... very annoying.

Across from us was a mom and her young daughter. She was very interested in us Americans and our MP3 players, journals, conversations, etc. I didn't see it, but Po told me later that her kid urinated on the seat while she was asleep. The mom tried to wipe it up, but she got off @ her stop shortly after the incident. I felt bad for the Sahara TV reporter who took her seat for the overnight portion of the train ride.

Po and I didn't eat much on the train cause we were worried about eating some bad train food and getting sick. I really wasn't that hungry due to the transient aroma of urine and the hygiene of our fellow travelers.

Ramesh and I did poke our heads outside the train and got some great views of the UP and Bihar countryside as the sun set. Reminded me of the train scene in Slumdog Millionaire.

At one of the train stops, workers came onto the train to wash out the bathrooms. The hose they were using clean the toilets apparently got loose and water leaked onto the floor of our cabin and onto my shoes and Ramu's bag. I really hope the water was clean, but have no idea.

Po's mom gave him this sweet bad of essentials (bandages, anti-diarreha, purel, Airbone, Tylenol, etc.) for the trip. One key item was a bottle of Lysol disinfectant. Po used it all over his bed sheets, pillows, etc. I admit I used it as well as was thankful that Moms Patel packed it for us.

I was on the top bunk across from Po (on the top bunk as well). As we were falling asleep, the married man stated choking on water, spit it out on the floor/Ramu's shoes, then spit on the floor and promptly went to sleep. I looked over at Po and he was just shaking his head in a look of resigned disgust... I think he wanted the train ride to finish as quickly as possible.

Riding the rails in India is an adventure in itself.