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Published: August 9th 2017
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Geo: 13.0615, 80.2478
After finding that trains were booked out on the original route we were going to take, we had to change our plans. This seemed an easier way for both of us seeing as we weren't backtracking. So our new plan was to head east to Chennai and then fly to Calcutta.
We left Hampi around midday where we caught a train to Guntakal which was a stopover for the night due to having to catch the train at 6.30 the next morning. The train ride to Guntakal was not a enjoyable one, it seemed to be overbooked and people were cramming in our carriage. We arrived in Guntakal with no accommodation because we couldn't find any information about the town, it wasn't even mentioned in the lonely planet. But we asked around and found a place. Later that night i got to see Leeds Utd beat Man Utd in the FA Cup live....haha go Leeds.
We arose early to catch the train to Chennai. After 10 hrs we arrived and got some accommodation.
Here's some of my observations on the India's Trains:
The trains are probably the best way to get around India, they run fairly frequent and go to most places.
They are also cheap, there's the air conditioned carriages which obviously cost more, but not really needed at this time of the year in India. There's also the 2nd class sleepers in which there is a booth which have 8 seats, during the day you sit on the bottom tier but during the night you pull the middle tier down for sleeping, so it ends up being 3 levels. When sleeping in the 2nd class sleeper, it's hard to have a good nights sleep. It's quite noisy even with the windows down, the train shakes a bit and the constant ear piercing horns from yours and other trains interrupt the sleep.
Seats are pretty hard and form a sharp 90 degree so its hard to get comfortable. As all of the carriages are linkable through the inside, there is constant human traffic back and forth, not to mention people trying to sell food and chai/coffee with their ear piercing and repetitive voices chanting "CHAI, CHAI, COFFEE, COFFEE, Argh its so annoying. In the 2nd class sleeper section, beggars are frequent. Whether it be children, old people, disfigured people or performers, it seems endless. There are even transvestites that move between
the carriages and stop and clap, I'm not quite sure why.
You probably will cover your nose a few times as the woft of urine from the toilets makes it's way through the carriage.
But my favorite thing to do on the trains is to hang out of the door and watch the countryside pass by while listening to some music and enjoying the landscape.
It was also back to the big cities but Chennai seemed quieter than Delhi and Mumbai. Even the traffic during the day seemed quieter. We grabbed some authentic Indian Breakfast and headed out for a walk along the main road stopping at various sites on the way. We stopped at a museum which housed old weapons, authentic clothing, coins and paintings. We then found the beach which was massive and full of stalls, but in the heat we opted to keep walking in the shade to another place which was closed. So we grabbed some Mexican food and proceeded to one of two temples.
The first being the Kapaleeswarar temple which is fairly big. I can't believe the detail every time i see these temples. The second temple, just further down the road, being the Ramakrishna Math
Sri. This temple was completely different to the normal ones we see, it just had one big room and people would sit and do some prayer or reflection to a statue of a person, dunno who he was.
We headed back for some dinner and took a stroll around the back streets. We had to get up early again as we had a flight to catch to Calcutta.
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