Life on an Indian Train

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well what can we say - pure hell! aarrrgghh! we had our first long train journey today of 7 hours going from Alleppey to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu (we are on our way to Ooty so had to go via Coimbatore to catch the mountain express).
we decided to take the cheap option and go sleeper class unreserved with all the locals. hmm. for a start the whole train had a stench of urine wafting through from the toilet. nice. we spent 2 hours with a seat each near a window which wasnt too bad, but then had to change trains....the next one we got on was already full to the brim so we had to wonder through many carrages with all our luggage and the few seats we did spot horrible men shouted at us and said 'NO you cant sit there!'. eventually we found a spot and shared half a seat between us. There were 4 of us cramped onto 2 seats next to each other. we were like that for the next 5 hours. it was like being cooped up like chickens! not the best experience at all! we were litterally curled up in a ball the whole time getting cramps. and to top it off, when we got off we were both mega itchy and to our horror we discovered we had flea bites all over our butts and legs from where we had been sat! grim.
as the train arrived at coimbatore we were so releaved, so we headed of into town to find a hostel for the evening. more horror and dismay..we checked into the most disgusting hostel in the world ever, it had cockroaches, bed bugs what were actually crawling on the bed sheets, a half naked, overweight, local in the next room with his door open scratching his balls, and just plain grimness! but alas we survived the night and the train and never want to talk about it again!

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