Wohoo! - A succesfull train journey

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Summary: This blog turned out to be longer than I was expecting so just to outline things I've basically written a discription of what I think train journeys are like here, the sorts of things that you see and the people you meet.

As mentioned before, after the disaster of missing taxis in Darjeeling, the spectacularly late fashion of my train (over 9hrs) meant that I had finally managed to successfully book a train and get on it myself!

It's clear that the train journeys here are going to be one of the most memorable experiences I have here so I thought I'd make another effort to right down what they are like.

It turns out that trains don't travel overnight to Assam (This eastern region) due to bandits which would otherwise hold it up and rob everything so that is part of the reason my train was late. Why they schedule it to leave at midnight to go to Assam I have no idea. Anyway some other background on this part of India is that it has in the past been very unstable with riots and as the lonely planet book still emphasises 'massacres' making it very unsafe. My book (Footprint)mentions very little/nothing about any trouble here so it was a last minute shock when I read the warnings in the Lonely planet guide. As far as I can gather though things are a lot better now. I hear different things but I think Assam has it's indpendent status now (what people were fighting for) and although there are still some active groups theres not really a problem now. Especially in the regions I'm planning to visit so panic over parents.

Anyway back to the train journey.

As I piled onto the train in a state of flustered excitement waving my ticket in the air and checking with countless people that I was on the right train I was politely directed to my chair/bed.

There is basically six 'beds' to each compartment (no doors to the compartments) and two opposite them in the narrow corridor - I think you can see what they look like in an earlier photo. During the day people all tend to sit on the bottom ones with the middle one folded up out the way and so it's very important to get a top berth if you want to be able to lie down or get away from the hussle and bussle at all during the day.

Luckily I had managed to get a top berth and bundled into my compartment packed full of people who looked very confused to see me, who must have looked like a madman. I checked my seat, moved some stuff and jumped up.

A minute later things had settled down and I had a quick look at who I was going to be sharing the compartment with over the next 14hrs. It turned out to be one family of four, one man on his own and three mysterious Burmese guys who lived in India near the Burmese border (in Manipur) - the more astute people will have realised there are more people than beds. It wasn't long before one of the kids of the family, a 9yr old boy, was being told how to ask me what my name was etc. in English. He asked if he could come up and sit with me so I said sure and he spent the next few minutes looking at me with the curious fascination of someone who's just met an alien from Mars. As the time past I got to know the other people and it wasn't long before the family were sharing their food with me.

The whole time you're on trains during the day they are BUSY. It's not like everyone just sits around quietly chatting until they reach the destination, trains are in every possible way a busy market place with lots of shouting. Constantly (and this is no exhageration) you can hear people shouting 'Chai!, Chai! Chai!' or 'Chai garam!, Chai garam!' etc. They walk down the length of the train inside and out with big steel kettles filled with hot milk and a tray with tea cups and tea bags. Back in the day they always used cute little ceramic things (which I had on the last journey) but sadly I think plastic is taking over and that was all I saw this journey.

People are also always plying up and down the aisle selling various wares - whatever they have been able to get their hands on. Some examples are blankets, crayon sets, binoculars, walkmans, cameras, general clothes, random tacky toys and even electric keyboards!

The hive of activity doesn't just happen when the train stops (frequently) but even between stops there are vendors going up and down.

Two of mysterious Burmese buys in particular were buying heaps of stuff. While telling a story amongst themselves at one point (which I couldn't understand) the sinister looking one of the three was making distinct hand gestures as if he was pointing a gun at someone. He caught my eye at this point and I quickly averted my gaze. I must have been imagining it...

Anyway thats about all I have time for or can think of at this time so I'll leave it there as I have to go and buy another train ticket now 😊

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