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Published: January 13th 2011
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William’s education about unfamiliar forms of public convenience (and it has become something he has become fascinated by) has really benefitted from our stopover at Changi airport (with its choice of three different wc styles!) and then our trip overnight on the sleeper from Mumbai to Delhi. Guidebooks and websites alike had suggested that the best way to see India as you travel is by train, although they are also quite clear that westerners probably need to restrict their visits to the bathroom to the early part of the journey to prevent their senses and sensibilities from being assaulted (Jane Austen turns vigilante!) If the purpose of travel is to learn then our journey last night taught us much … yes, you do need to take your own toilet paper but not just for the obvious! All surfaces need careful handling (or non-handling) if Diana’s experience in the early hours of this morning is anything to go by …
Diana's face this morning when she had returned from the toilet on the sleeper train was etched with both fatigue and disgust. Attempting to hover over an open pit in the floor of the train as it lurches over the points
Mumbai central laundry ...
... built by the British for washing soldiers' uniforms is tricky enough, but doing it one-handed as you hold up your clothes so that they don't drag in the urine on the floor makes it a real challenge ... it doesn't help of course, that she went kitted out with toothbrush and toothpaste and found nowhere safe to deposit them.
Our meals on the train were good, and we have all avoided ‘Delhi-belly’ so far (Diana’s idea to take Bimuno before coming looks more and more like a good one) – Emily especially enjoyed her breakfast omelette and Pete made the most of the chai-wallah’s trip up and down the compartment. W and E loved the novelty of sleeping on the train and, although the openness of the sleeping compartments made their parents a little nervous initially, both seem to have got good nights’ sleep. We woke early and took in the view of what India looks like as it awakes … charcoal fires and open-air TVs huddled around by heavily-wrapped figures, long lines of homeless people changing their venue for the day ahead, cows and buffalo ambling slowly through village streets, all seen through a mist thick enough that it wraps itself around any vehicle that drives through
it.
Let's just say that the overnight sleeper was almost all of the travel adventure I hoped it would be – it was disappointing that we couldn't see clearly out of the windows and that there were few goats and chickens in our compartment but plenty of healthy pleghm-flobbing, belching and relaxed nappy-tossing made up for that ... I hope no-one heard William and his 'uggh - GROSS!'
Our arrival at Delhi Central Station was a much smoother transfer than either of yesterdays in Mumbai and we were soon at our hotel for the next few days … and the toilet has both a shower attachment and plenty of toilet paper …
Mumbai remains something of a jet-lagged blur for all of us, not helped by the no-show of our pick-up from the airport (GRRR!). No-one seemed to know of the hotel we were due to stay in and we had no contact number to ring … eventually tired of waiting we hired our own cab (and a team of five porters who suddenly jumped out of nowhere…umm!) Eventually, the driver managed to navigate the 1.5 km from the airport to the hotel with our luggage balancing precariously on the
roof, but had to stop and ask for directions three times. The streets of Mumbai at 4.00am were like something from a war-zone; all reconstruction work, rubble, filth, slums and mothers, carrying babies, tapping at the car window pleading for gold coins and chocolate. Emily sadly shook her head several times not being able to take her eyes off them and we were all glad to finally fall into bed. Similar chaos ended the day as it had begun when we only just managed to squeeze our luggage into the last few spaces in our compartment, moments before the train rolled out of the station for the sixteen-hour journey. We did get to see something of Mumbai on our way to the station, and this afternoon have ventured out by tuk-tuk into Delhi to grab something to eat. The traffic on both occasions has been like some crazy game of over-sized dodgems and yet despite the horns, the lack of lane divisions and five vehicles all trying to drive side-by-side along a single carriageway, everyone seems to get to go where they want. Tomorrow, we are off to see the sights of both Old and New Delhi with our driver,
Kuldeep, who wears something of a poker face as he bullies his way past whole lines of tuk-tuks.
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Mumndad
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Did you REALLY expect sunny, dry weather AND clean toilets! Great blog.................. avidly read by brothers, nieces and parents. This one went far to describe the atmosphere of India - we preferred it from the 5* tourist perspective. Always said you missed your vocation. Take a nice photo of the Taj Mahal for us - from across the river if you can. Lots of Love