ABD The neverending story, waiting for a train

---

Feeling incredibly sick in my gut, and still exhausted from a feverish night, I got up to pack my pack and get geared up for our last day on the beach.
Andrew and I went to our favorite little restaurant in the village “Emerciana’s” and I tried eating some toast while Andrew happily scoffed down an English Breakfast with bacon and beans and all things that made my stomach turn.
Anjali and Tim where already at Emerciana’s having Breakfast and Anjali, who had also been very ill a day before me, looked much brighter and was capable of enjoying a proper meal. “There’s hope for me yet!” I thought to myself and that thought alone gave me energy for the rest of the day.
That evening the 7 of us mounted our packs and head to the Train station at Madgaon. The train was due to leave at 7 so we arrived an hour earlier just to be informed that our train was delayed and would arrive at 9.
We decided to go and grab a bite to eat at the nearby town of Madgaon and turned to the Lonely Planet for suggestions as we where not familiar with the place. Belle, Bek, Andy and I jumped in a tuk tuk to “Café Coffee Day” while Anjali, Tim and Adam backpack sat.
With my stomach still going haywire, “Café Coffee Day” described in the Lonely Planet as “ideal for homesick Westerners, with lots of healthy (and some decidedly less healthy) goodies that are a struggle to find out in the sticks” seemed like just the place to go.
When our tuk tuk pulled up in front of a petrol station I wasn’t to sure we where at the right place. I enquired what we had stopped for and the driver grinned at me and pointed at a small deli like coffee shop. WE couldn’t believe we had landed in a Servo station. Still hopeful we paid the tuk tuk and went in.
The food was a nightmare. I would really like to meet that person who wrote that Lonely Planet review on this place. In fact, I will probably end up writing to Lonely Planet and include the photos of the food that we got served there. We ended up not eating a bite of that brightly colored spinach sandwich or that super dry veggie burger.
A little demotivated after our terrible dinner experience and still shocked by the exorbitant prices, we went back to the train station. Café coffee day was an example of western style food at its blandest worst. (ATD)
The train, we were told, was further delayed. Great! Another delayed train. Ok, so when is it coming? At 10:00pm. Ok - might as well go to the internet place to pass the time. Indeed we passed the time constructively, and inside the ‘cyber café’ (run by a particularly sourly young man) we found an ISD booth, from which I called Claus in Cyprus and asked him to be my best man.(ATD)
At 10:00 pm we were told the train is coming. We mounted our packs and rushed across the train tracks on to the other side (the one without proper lighting/benches), child in tow. On our way going through a ridiculously token ‘security check’, which in practice amounted to walking through a wooden arch and past a sleepy guard with a sub-machine gun recklessly resting in his lap.
At 11:00 pm we were sitting on our packs reading books, Belle watching “Charlie and Lola” on her daddy’s iPod.
At 12:30 am just as Anabelle was falling asleep on my big green backpack, headphones on with chill out music playing and covered with a multicolored shawl from Panchgani, the “late train” arrived.
We all got onto the train, exhausted and made our way to our bunks. The 7 of us shared a cabin.
By the time we arrived in Cochin it was late afternoon instead of early morning. Should we have expected more from the Indian rail system? (ATD)

---

Photos

the Cafe Coffe Day Toilet Sequence
Bored out of our brains

Woohooo!!!! ON the train
lack of enthusiasm due to long hours on train and at train station

Girl on Train
Anjali Brown soon to be Nelson only she didnt know that then....

th ususal foot foto (plus some additionals!)
Train to Kerala

Cafe Coffe Day calls this a Veggie Burger
The photo is actually flattering