The Train to Goa

Um? A 12 hour train journey? No AC? "Sleeper" car, what the hell man? I actually thought it was kinda fun. Sadly though, this was yvonne's first sort of sick day. Ouch. Kinda picked a bad day for THAT to happen. I should mention that sleeper cars, don't exactly have what we might consider "toilets." For me, being a man, it's not so bad, just pee in a hole in the floor. It just flows out onto the tracks anyway. But luckily after one day of recovering from my night of "worship" I was feeling much better. I had no stomach issues, because there really wasn't anything IN my stomach.

I had originally suggested we take an overnight train as the trip was 12 hours so we'd get to see the scenery for the second half of the trip. As it was, we decided for the train starting at noon and arriving to madgao, goa at midnight. We got to see the first half of the scenery in maharashtra. It wasn't quite as scenic as I'd have hoped. It was also really hot. REALLY, REALLY HOT. The breeze didn't exactly help. I quote a German friend of mine from chennai...

"The breeze is nice, but in Germany it would be considered a searing wind."
So it was with the Maharashtra "breeze." We were sitting in a section of 8 seats. Somehow, 11 people were sitting all around. I guess that was kind of fun. There were 8 places for sleeping. Sadly for me, being 6'4" (i.e. 8" - 10" taller than everyone else) my feet stuck WAY out into the isle. I got tapped a couple times by passersby upset that I was kicking them in the head. Ah well, it was the authentic Indian Train Experience. I got ripped off for 5 rupes here and 5 rupes there. The two tall foreigners hanging out on the train... We were a sight to see for sure. But hey, I ate some decent biryani, drank some boiling hot coffee in 100 degree heat, talked to some new people, saw some scenery, and read most of a book. A successful train ride for me. Of course, I know someone who might have preferred an AC car...