DAY 15: Train from Ahmedabad to Goa

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Train: Ahmedabad tp Goa. Journey to Goa Leg 2.

So we got on the train at 11am as planned (been quite lucky with delays so far, only had the one) and tried to get settled. We knew we wouldn't be put together in the same cabin this time, but Laura stayed with me until whoever was in my cabin arrived. It was so quiet- then an entire family tipped up. 3 sets of mums and dads and 5 kids all squeezed into a four man cabin. Laura made a swift exit to hers.

I'm using this holiday to catch up on my reading because I don't really get the chance at home. I've just started the Twilight books so I buried myself in that. About 4 hours later Laura pops her head round declaring she's had 'A bloody good feed' in her cabin. Whilst I've been sounding out the noise and screaming and imagining myself in Forks, she's been living it up with a business man and a woman and her daughter. She invited me round for some food around tea time. We were offered fried fish balls, a dip made of mint, coriander and coconut, some chapati style things called 'Debla' which had fennel inside and also some other pakora style things- as you can tell we didn't actually know what we were eating, just identified a few ingredients and went from there. The relief from Laura when they invited me round- not to see me, but so that she could pass some food on to me! The way to show hospitality is through the stomach and she was ready to pop. The woman even said it was a miracle we met on this train, you are guests as Gods on here.' The business man had been buying food for them all day and they were all fit to burst.

In the morning he bought everyone a cup of chai, then saw me and Laura to a rickshaw. From landing in Goa we had 3 buses to catch to get to Arambol. That took four hours. We've counted that from leaving Udaipur it has taken us 42 hours to reach Goa. We had not realised just how big India was. Luckily we have a flight booked from Goa to Delhi so we don't have any more train or bus rides ahead.

Everyone harps on about finding religion in India (there's way too many hippy types/ yoga places/ meditation centres for dirty souls like us!) We've just found out that we can keep our need for a pee in for hours more than what must actually be healthy- that and we can go without wine, cheese and in Laura's case, Leon's olives- for 3 weeks!

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