Delhi, India
Never in my life did I think I would become a missionary for a year.
…and never in my life did I think I would travel to India.
…and never in my life did I think I would ride in a late 1940s model sleeper train in India for 41 hours straight.
I mean, I’d read the blogs and heard the stories about the dreaded 27-hour bus rides on the bumpy roads of Africa, but why didn’t anyone warn me about the train rides in India?
We arrived at the station with our packs and waited with a friend of our contact in Delhi to board the 9pm train. The place was packed. Hawkers walked past selling metal chains with locks to secure your luggage on board from being smuggled by professional thieves. Kids sold playing cards, anticipating the need to help us pass the time on the lengthy journey. We stood out like Michael Jackson in a family photo.
Alas, our train, the Karnataka Express (ironic isn’t it?), arrives for our boarding call. The seven of us pile our packs into a small space the size of a kitchen pantry. We think it’s safe to say that we had all envisioned something quite different when we heard we’d be traveling in the sleeper class. I figured we would have a small car with doors and windows that closed to spend the 41-hour ride in at least mild comfort.
I was totally wrong.
We shared a car with about 73 other people all piled in with their luggage, chains and all.
The first leg of the journey through the darkness of night wasn’t so bad. We woke up with the daylight and that’s when the heat set in. Alicia had a great way of describing the intensity of the heat…it felt like somebody was pointing a blow dyer straight at you, only it didn’t make us dry. We were so hot and sweaty that we could practically wring out our clothing.
Despite the heat, the food vendors who walked up and down the aisle yelling as loud as possible still sold hot rice and deep-fried samosas. It was rare to come across something cold since they really had no way of keeping it cold.
The toilet was an interesting concept. A sign hung on the wall saying to please avoid usage at station stops. At first I didn’t understand why that was the case, but when I looked down as the train barreled down the tracks, I put two and two together when I saw the tracks on the other side of the toilet hole. I guess that makes sense, though, since the the way they throw out trash is by tossing it out the window.
