| January 24, 2008 - Final entry The second leg of our journey began with an adventurous overnight train ride as we headed south to Mumbai. It took some maneuvering to get all 40 of us and our bulging suitcases onboard, but once we got underway, I really enjoyed watching the Indian landscape unfold out the window and waiting for the vendors to come down the aisle repeating “Chai” or “Chips.” My first adventure was using the toilet on the train. It was a non-Western style, which we dubbed the “squatty potty” – basically a hole that went straight to the tracks with a place for your feet on either side. Luckily, there were plenty of handles or I probably would have fallen straight to the tracks as well. I was never brave enough to tackle the squatty potty in Indonesia, so this was a great travel achievement for me. Our second adventure was eating the dinner that the hotel had packed for us. I had been pretty skeptical about what was lurking in that plastic bag as I carried it onboard, but it turned out to be delicious noodles and rice and more naan than even I could eat. My compartment ate family style, just grabbing a fork and eating right out of the containers as they were passed around. And the final adventure, of course, was sleeping. But by my sheer exhaustion and the gentle rocking of the train, I fell right to sleep.
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And it was a pretty good night’s sleep except for the loudest snoring I have ever heard (really, I’m not exaggerating) coming from a gentleman in the next compartment. |
