The journey started well.
Our train was leaving at 11 pm from Tundla Junction about 30 ks from Agra.
As it was a very busy road - and the day was a special Hindu holiday, making the narrow streets even more crowded - we had the driver drop us off at about 6 pm before it got dark.
The "upper Class waiting room" was reasonably pleasant with a fan, a table and chairs to sit on and just one Indian family and two Korean guys waiting for trains. We all chatted, Den and I played Scrabble, the Korean guys played ball with the Indian boy. Apart from dismissing several approaches by people with old Visiting books who seemed to think we should pay them to be in the waiting room it was pretty ok. Supper was Fanta and digestive biscuits again!
At about 10.30 we climbed over the railway bridge to the correct platform and waited....and waited...and waited. The |Station master had said the train was due at 11.45 ..... so it shouldn't be long. We then chatted to another Indian family who let us share their wooden bench when one of them stretched their legs. Half their family was sleeping on the platform on cotton sheets.
Most of the time we amused ourselves with watching hundreds of RATS !!
The railway lines themselves were crawling with them - thousands of enormous ones running around collecting all teh food wrappers which almost everybody drops on teh railway lines.
Looking across the lines to the Station Master's Office opposite, where he sat at his desk we saw a rat run into his office several times.
Worse still, we saw several running around on our own platform, and wondered about the many train passengers lying on the platform sleeping!
But the absolute worst were the rats who were running in and out of the refreshment stall on our platform !!
Rat on station platform at 4.0 am at Tundla Junction !!
The train eventually arrived over 5 hours late at 4.30 am - what a night !!
However just before that Den and I had a serious chat -
Throughout this trip I had been asking HOW and Den had been asking WHY.
For example - How did they build this road ?...Why ........?
How did they fight a battle here ? Why .........? etc etc.
This time I had to agree that WHY was the relevant question.
WHY were we standing exhausted on a filthy station platform at 4 in the morning watching rats ?
Maybe we should reschedule, and try to avoid a couple of the longer overnight train journeys where we were only in Second Class, as they would not be at all enjoyable if the trains were badly delayed like this ?
By the time the train arrived at our junction outside Varanasi, it was nearly TWELVE hours late, and instead of arriving at 6.0 am early morning, we arrived at dusk, 6.0 pm and had to embark on the hair-raising journey into the old part of the Ghats by the river Ganges in Varanasi in the dark !
Our train was leaving at 11 pm from Tundla Junction about 30 ks from Agra.
As it was a very busy road - and the day was a special Hindu holiday, making the narrow streets even more crowded - we had the driver drop us off at about 6 pm before it got dark.
The "upper Class waiting room" was reasonably pleasant with a fan, a table and chairs to sit on and just one Indian family and two Korean guys waiting for trains. We all chatted, Den and I played Scrabble, the Korean guys played ball with the Indian boy. Apart from dismissing several approaches by people with old Visiting books who seemed to think we should pay them to be in the waiting room it was pretty ok. Supper was Fanta and digestive biscuits again!
At about 10.30 we climbed over the railway bridge to the correct platform and waited....and waited...and waited. The |Station master had said the train was due at 11.45 ..... so it shouldn't be long. We then chatted to another Indian family who let us share their wooden bench when one of them stretched their legs. Half their family was sleeping on the platform on cotton sheets.
Most of the time we amused ourselves with watching hundreds of RATS !!
The railway lines themselves were crawling with them - thousands of enormous ones running around collecting all teh food wrappers which almost everybody drops on teh railway lines.
Looking across the lines to the Station Master's Office opposite, where he sat at his desk we saw a rat run into his office several times.
Worse still, we saw several running around on our own platform, and wondered about the many train passengers lying on the platform sleeping!
But the absolute worst were the rats who were running in and out of the refreshment stall on our platform !!
Rat on station platform at 4.0 am at Tundla Junction !!
The train eventually arrived over 5 hours late at 4.30 am - what a night !!
However just before that Den and I had a serious chat -
Throughout this trip I had been asking HOW and Den had been asking WHY.
For example - How did they build this road ?...Why ........?
How did they fight a battle here ? Why .........? etc etc.
This time I had to agree that WHY was the relevant question.
WHY were we standing exhausted on a filthy station platform at 4 in the morning watching rats ?
Maybe we should reschedule, and try to avoid a couple of the longer overnight train journeys where we were only in Second Class, as they would not be at all enjoyable if the trains were badly delayed like this ?
By the time the train arrived at our junction outside Varanasi, it was nearly TWELVE hours late, and instead of arriving at 6.0 am early morning, we arrived at dusk, 6.0 pm and had to embark on the hair-raising journey into the old part of the Ghats by the river Ganges in Varanasi in the dark !
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