Gorakhpur - ABD

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I arrived in Gorakhpur just as the sun was setting. The Jeep left me in front of the Train Terminus and the driver tried to con me out of an additional “luggage charge”. I literally gave the man the finger and walked across the street. A few rat holes are lined across the road from the main train terminus, calling themselves “hotels”. I didn’t have any illusions about the state of these establishments so decided that one was just as good as another I made it up the steps of the “Elite” hotel. Dragging my heavy backpack and suitcase along the dirty roads and up several flights of stairs to reach reception, I was in no mood to view the room and be picky about it. “100Ruppees?” My first question to the receptionist was greeted with a smile and a nod. Room 221. Great. We walked up another flight of stairs and down a urine lined corridor. He pushed the door of the room open and I was faced with my quarters for the night.
The walls peeling, a ceiling fan with black cobwebs hanging by a thin electrical wire, a small window facing the street, the sheets on the tiny wooden bed marked with big oil stains, the bathroom nothing more than a hole in the floor for a toilet and a pipe sticking out of the wall for a shower.” I ‘ll take it” I was far to tired to debate.
The night was crazy. Screams and arguments and music and traffic kept me with eyes wide open as I lay cocooned in my sleeping bag on the bed. Soon enough it was 5 am, I grabbed my bags and went to the train station.
Another nightmare but somehow I managed to get myself on the train to LKK.
The train ride was nothing like what I had imagined. I was stuck in the upper bunk with no window, there was no food wagon, so at every major station I had to hop of and get a quick bite to eat. I met a lovely woman named Kumud who was travelling with her 2 year old son Naman and we kept each other company throughout the journey.
It lasted 55 hours instead of the 48, due to a delay. The “late train” - our train - didn’t get clearance after our initial delay, at any other major train station, hours adding up and making it a 7 hour total delay.
When we finally arrived in Mumbai, I was a wreck and had no desire for anything but a hot shower and a warm comfy bed.

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