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Published: January 27th 2006
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I dedicated the morning to a sightseeing tour of Patna, which encompassed the Golghar (a large grain storehouse) and the Gandhi Maidan (a large field on which a gazillion games of cricket were underway). Unfortunately some sort of renovation work was taking place on the Golghar, as it was covered in scaffolding which blocked the stairs half way up. I had an English misunderstanding with a young child, who shouted what I thought was "Weight, weight!" as I was staring up the steps - there was a set of scales there with a sign announcing it was Rs 1 to have yourself weighed, but I declined and carried on climbing. In fact he was saying "Wait, wait!" because he knew I'd be unable to get up to the top. Since he had already tried to persuade me to have some icecream (at 10AM on not the warmest of days), I had pegged him as a mercenary sort.
I killed a mosquito in my room that was so engorged with blood that the resulting red smear on the floor was more consistent with a fairly violent murder. In fact my days in Bodhgaya and here have covered me with a good
set of bites, so reluctantly I'll have to start getting the DEET out again.
The hotel was the first one I've been in so far that had 24 hour checkout (i.e. your checkout time is the time of the day that you checked in at), so I had to be out by 6PM, even though my train wasn't until 10:30PM. Oddly, the guy wouldn't take me up on my offer to pay a little extra to have the room for another couple of hours, even though there was no-one to move in that evening. I killed some time at the Internet cafe and also tried out quite a decent stab at fish and chips.
Since the train was only going to be at Patna station for 10 minutes, and I couldn't immediately find the conductor, I jumped on board and loitered at one end of the carriage. There were a few other guys there too, who I originally thought were queuing for the toilet, but on closer inspection it appeared that 2 of them had been arrested and were being detained by plain clothes policemen. One of the (alleged) criminals had been encircled by a luggage strap so
that his arms were pinned to his sides.
When the conductor finally appeared, the reservations manager at Patna station had been as good as his word, and my name was on the confirmed list. The journey to Siliguri was about 13.5 hours, and the other people in my cabin seemed to be travelling with a whole bunch of friends or family, as they packed out the lower berths and I was unable to sit with the throng for any part of the journey. I took advantage of this by sleeping/dozing for more than half of the way, a rare event for me on night trains.
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