The train now departing...????

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Firstly I'll finish off in Bombay. We met Balbu at 9.00am who promptly whisked off us around the city highlights - some of which we had already seen. However, we did have a stroll in the Hanging Gardens, and visited Gandhis house, which was of great interest. Later the heavens opened and down came the rain! Balbus little taxi has one windscreen wiper which didn't work, well at least not very often. He used his hand and soap! This was made all the more worse by the fact that everything kept steaming up! How he could see is beyond us! Anyway we had the obligatory you must visit this shop and we did and then another and then .... we said no, no more and escaped to the hotel!! We had afternoon tea in the Taj overlooking The Gateway, where David said he could feel the socialist coming out in him and me, well I just love it!!!! Tea was served and was delicious and I couldn't resist some cake!! Ah well such is life!!

How can I begin to possibly describe Bombay. It is no London, Buenos Aires or Rome. It is a city of people, sound and sensory overload. There are magnificent buildings, and fantastic streets but there is poverty and depravation everywhere you look. There is opportunism and happiness in the people and a sure fire positive, heads up were proud attitude. The city never stops, truly never stops and its people never tire, but you wish you could do more. It has to been seen, experienced and taken with a positive attitude, life here is better alot better than when I was here.

Ok so we got up at 5.00am on Sunday to catch the Mandovi Express to Goa. We found platform 16 and wandered down amongst the many people and found a spot to sit down on the floor. After about 10 minutes we realised the train was delayed - that being a 4 hour delay!! Oh my 4 hours on the platform in the heat - yikes!!! So out came the books and we settled in. Then after about half an hour in pulled a train and literally everyone on the platform made a run for it! Bags were pushed through the windows and children pushed on, followed by impatient parents. We carried sitting on the platform. I wandered off after another half hour and came back to David and said this is the Mandovi Express, the name was on every carriage. He was adamant it wasn't. Getting a little frustrated with eachother(!) he finally found someone who said yes it was our train!! So we piled onto our first class air con carriage - except the air con doesn't work when it's stationary! We then proceeded to sit there for four hours before finally we departed. Our seats were actually beds, so sitting comfortably was impossible. The cover of the foam mattress/seat was blue plastic, which as I had decided to where a skirt made life quite uncomfortable at times (but there was a good reason why I wore a skirt). The single seats on the opposite side of the carriage were unoccupied so we kept swapping over to those for a little bit of comfort. We left at around 11.00am and slowly made our way along. We stopped at various stations, milling with people and never really picked up speed. Express??? Nothing express about this train!! We had fond hopes of the 11 hour travel time being right ...ish - well we were wrong, very wrong, we actually got in at 2.00am this morning! What we could see of the countryside was stunning. Lots of palm trees, hills, paddy fields and very green. David kept going out to the door of the carriage and hanging off taking photos. After one session of him being out there, I thought he had fallen off, as he had been gone so long!!! Although I suspect I would have seen him going past the window! We had food on board. Lunch was served on something reminisant of the school dinner trays and was a mixture, of two vegetarian curries, rice, chapattis, and lime pickle. David ate all his and most of mine! I'm trying to be careful! Our evening meal was a vegetable biryani served in one big lidded metal dish. All very nice and currently we have lived to tell the tale with no major repercussions ... yet!!! The toilets on board were fine! You had a choice of western (ie our sort) or the squat sort! The western consisted of just the toilet leading straight onto the ground ... when in Rome!! But fresh running water was to hand.

As the day and evening progressed an Indian gentleman approached us and got chatting to us. His profession is a Train Inspector and he was very helpful in telling us what time the train etc would be in. We had phoned ahead to our hotel the previous day but we felt we couldn't really turn up at 3.00am for the room, although they had said do just exactly that! The inspector (sorry can't remember his name) told us if we carried onto Madogan there was a air con waiting room where we could sleep and then get the bus or taxi to Panjim when we woke up! He asked if we had sheets or a sleeping bag as there would be beds, well we assumed there would be beds - sorry I should say I was asleep at this stage and didn't here the conversation - so I take the we out of that for now. David repeated this all to me once I woke up and I agreed that it seemed a far better idea than trying to negotiate a taxi/rickshaw at 2.00am when we had been up since 5.00!! The inspector told us he was stopping there for 4 nights with his family, so you can see why we assumed, and it was for free as well because he could negotiate it - it was such a brilliant idea.

We got to the end of the line, and waited for the inspector (who was incredibly friendly and helpful) to get off the train. He took ages!!! Finally, finally at about 3.00am we entered the air con waiting room. Our hearts sank. Air con - yes, seats and sofas - yes, tv - yes, toilets/washing facilities - yes ...... Beds - NO!!!!

'Well Stanley, that's another fine mess you've got us into', I whispered - but we weren't complaining. We made ourselves as comfortable as possible on a 2 seater sofa and got as much sleep as possible, which wasn't easy as the inspector switched on the tv to amuse his children and then had some sort of set to with his wife!!!

At 7.00am we dragged our weary bodies out of the station and bagged a taxi to Panjim. The rains came down en route but then stopped and to date we haven't seen anymore. We've had a few hours in the hotel sleeping and then came out for lunch and an explore!

Boy its hot, very hot and humid!!

Panjim is very much like Cartagena, but infinately less well cared for and more run down. Very european, cleaner and very colourful. We had lunch just round the corner from the hotel, David braving a chicken curry, me a vegetable curry with chapattis. Davids meal was extremely spicy and he couldn't quite finish it! We have had to stop for drinks because it is so humid. I think I'm feeling it more than David at the moment, but it's a handy excuse to stop and have a drink. The shops here have become more modern - Domino Pizzas, Lee Denim etc are here. This is no doubt a reflection of the tourism industry over the last 15/20 years. There is more wealth here than we have seen anywhere in Bombay. And, we can get cold drinks - something I couldn't do 20 years or so ago! So life is changing slowly but surely!

We are off on an hours river cruise at 6.00pm and then we are going to Old Goa tomorrow. Then I think the plan is to head for one of the beaches.

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