Oct. 13,2001-Train Ride to Udaipur
Sat. Oct. 13,2003-Train Ride to Udaipur
Right now we have just left the station in Delhi for our 20 hour trip by train to Udaipur. I am quite tired and hope I will be able to rest some on the train.
It is now almost 5 PM...
We've been traveling for 3hours. Some of the sites are truly depressing along the way but the whole new landscape is opening up
before our eyes-.flat.. occasional clumps of green trees, stretches and stretches of brown/dusty kind of fields, people, huts and then houses and then real
houses with TV antennas and more stretches of nothing.
Shlomo is the most restless person I've ever seen...he is doing most of his traveling hanging out the door like the Indians who can't afford a seat..I just had
great chai and cookies I bought in Delhi and he stood out in the heat smoking and taking in the "scenery". He cannot be still...really sad. But that is his problem, not mine. So far I haven't had any problem with him.. We are different "speeds" but I think it will work out. He is basically quite accommodating to my different needs. He appreciates my taking care of all things for him.
Now almost 6 PM and starting to get dark. The train I traveled on with Darya and also with Amira was much more comfortable. The compartments were bigger and the attendants much nicer. This compartment is like an over crowded cell and it will be a little difficult for 20 hours. With Darya, we had a 4 person compartment to ourselves so we each had a lower berth. Here we are in a "deluxe" 2 person compartment so it is one up and 1 down and right now we are sharing the lower berth so really can't spread out. But we will manage.
This train left from a small train station in Delhi so we didn't have the horrible hassle of Old Delhi with the hordes of people and keeping up with running porters etc. We just got out of the taxi and onto the train.
I feel now like my real "travels” are just beginning in India and am actually quite excited. I no longer am afraid or tense and so it is also more fun than it would have been 2 months ago. I feel at ease and comfortable and no longer find dealing with Indians intimidating. I think we have a real nice hotel waiting for us in Udaipur and hopefully will be able to relax there for 4-5 days.
I was again feeling my peace and quiet flooding back. It REALLY was Delhi that did it to me. Just now noticed that my 2 day headache is also gone!! Too bad
I have to go back there again but there is no way to by-pass it when you travel here.
The scenery is changing a little but it is dusk now and soon will be dark. Some little hills (Shlomo says "mountains" but I"ve been to the Himalayas...these are not even foothills, just hills) in the distance but still basically flat. This would be a perfect compartment for one person if I was traveling alone but it is really cramped for 2. I am getting drowsy...I think I will eat something again and wake up...don't want to sleep now.
Sunday...8 AM
Well, it is now morning and in a minute I will describe the nite...but we woke up to a slight change in scenery...still the same beige color and trees but now interspersed with palm trees and every so often a clump of savanna grass which looks so much like the plains in Africa (from what I've seen on National Geographic) that you expect a lion to appear any minute...and the monkeys are back!! Also, the road is lined with some kind of cactus looking plant. Which also defines the fields. The trees are getting sparser and whatever is growing looks very wilted...like it is in need of water...or maybe it is the end of a harvest...I don't know. Yes, I guess it is after harvest as now I see many newly plowed fields ready for planting. But everything is so brown and dry. Not a drop of water to be seen. There is some kind of plant with lilac/pink large flowers on it growing at random all over also. Wish I knew what these were. They seem to spread out like bougainvillea which has nothing to climb on.
Just past a shallow pond of water.. maybe left over from the monsoon or maybe a very small natural body of water?? Now electrical wires have appeared so must be
houses someplace around here but don't see any. OH...here they are! A town!! Very plain and simple but clean...and colorfully painted houses. Sky is also nice blue...no pollution. I already like it here! There are many TV antennas and even a couple of satellite disks on what seem like shacks...very clean here!
We are now passing a grove of what looks like eucalyptus trees...small and straggly but eucalyptus for sure.
THE NITE; Well, as I mentioned, we could not get 2 lower berths and when it was time to go to sleep shlomo (who is quite big…weighs about 120 KG and is 1.96 tall)
graciously said he would go up but the bottom bed seemed wider and so I said I would try up. But when I got up there the AC vents shoot directly onto the top bed and it was freezing...so then Shlomo tried to go up but the space between the bed and the ceiling was too small for him to maneuver into...this was all very funny at the time. Soooooo...what to do... I could ask for another blanket or use my fleece but
then Shlomo decided we could both sleep head to foot together on the lower berth. So we got ourselves comfy but I was on the inside and the bed itself is
like a board and on the wall is a metal bar and my bones were in trouble. I couldn't stay in my one position for very long and also couldn't move as I was wedged in like a sardine. And when shlomo fell asleep which he did almost instantly, he forgot there was another body there and kept moving a little bit each turn completely on the bed mashing me into the wall and crunching my bones into the metal. After about 3 hours I realized this would not work. At one point I found a comfy position on my back but after I guess an hour my back bones started to complain very loudly. So I took out my wool shawl and went upstairs where I fell soundly and comfortably asleep until the morning. Not really enough hours but at least I slept. And Shlomo didn't realize I had moved until he woke up several hours later to pee.
Before going to sleep we played some cards and had supper which even the "king of spicy food" shlomo could barely get down so again I had rice, chapati and curd and then off to sleep.
Now we are waiting for breakfast which I ordered but I am taking no chances. Already ate apple, almonds and raisins and still have plenty of cookies left. We should arrive in Udaipur in 2 hours and all in all it was an easy and quite fun trip.
9 AM..
We just ate breakfast which I decided to take a chance and order from the station. This is my first time taking a chance on "street food" and I hope it will be OK.
It was quite good to my surprise...not spicy AT ALL basically 2 pieces of white bread with a little butter slightly toasted and 2 veg. cutlets which were basically chanuka levivot (latkes). Nice and greasy and crispy and quite tasty. And of course chai. Will know I guess by tomorrow if this was a mistake or not but it is very clean here and I'm sure it will be OK> Will do some Reiki just to be sure!
The difference between here and Delhi and even the North in cleanliness is quite noticable. Everything so far seems very orderly and clean. Quite a nice change. Even in McLeod no one really cared about basic order and cleanliness.
I'm going to write about a fairly indelicate subject
but it is part of the Indian experience soooo... I've been here 2 months exactly now and in the beginning even on the cleanest most comfortable toilet I had problems with BM and now 2 months later, with no problem or hesitation, just like at home after breakfast, on a moving train, no seat (not Indian either which actually makes it easier) just a dirty Western toilet, I did my stuff without a second thought!! I guess you get used to anything eventually. (although I still can't manage the Indian food...probably never will...
too bad, it is quite tasty)
Right now we have just left the station in Delhi for our 20 hour trip by train to Udaipur. I am quite tired and hope I will be able to rest some on the train.
It is now almost 5 PM...
We've been traveling for 3hours. Some of the sites are truly depressing along the way but the whole new landscape is opening up
before our eyes-.flat.. occasional clumps of green trees, stretches and stretches of brown/dusty kind of fields, people, huts and then houses and then real
houses with TV antennas and more stretches of nothing.
Shlomo is the most restless person I've ever seen...he is doing most of his traveling hanging out the door like the Indians who can't afford a seat..I just had
great chai and cookies I bought in Delhi and he stood out in the heat smoking and taking in the "scenery". He cannot be still...really sad. But that is his problem, not mine. So far I haven't had any problem with him.. We are different "speeds" but I think it will work out. He is basically quite accommodating to my different needs. He appreciates my taking care of all things for him.
Now almost 6 PM and starting to get dark. The train I traveled on with Darya and also with Amira was much more comfortable. The compartments were bigger and the attendants much nicer. This compartment is like an over crowded cell and it will be a little difficult for 20 hours. With Darya, we had a 4 person compartment to ourselves so we each had a lower berth. Here we are in a "deluxe" 2 person compartment so it is one up and 1 down and right now we are sharing the lower berth so really can't spread out. But we will manage.
This train left from a small train station in Delhi so we didn't have the horrible hassle of Old Delhi with the hordes of people and keeping up with running porters etc. We just got out of the taxi and onto the train.
I feel now like my real "travels” are just beginning in India and am actually quite excited. I no longer am afraid or tense and so it is also more fun than it would have been 2 months ago. I feel at ease and comfortable and no longer find dealing with Indians intimidating. I think we have a real nice hotel waiting for us in Udaipur and hopefully will be able to relax there for 4-5 days.
I was again feeling my peace and quiet flooding back. It REALLY was Delhi that did it to me. Just now noticed that my 2 day headache is also gone!! Too bad
I have to go back there again but there is no way to by-pass it when you travel here.
The scenery is changing a little but it is dusk now and soon will be dark. Some little hills (Shlomo says "mountains" but I"ve been to the Himalayas...these are not even foothills, just hills) in the distance but still basically flat. This would be a perfect compartment for one person if I was traveling alone but it is really cramped for 2. I am getting drowsy...I think I will eat something again and wake up...don't want to sleep now.
Sunday...8 AM
Well, it is now morning and in a minute I will describe the nite...but we woke up to a slight change in scenery...still the same beige color and trees but now interspersed with palm trees and every so often a clump of savanna grass which looks so much like the plains in Africa (from what I've seen on National Geographic) that you expect a lion to appear any minute...and the monkeys are back!! Also, the road is lined with some kind of cactus looking plant. Which also defines the fields. The trees are getting sparser and whatever is growing looks very wilted...like it is in need of water...or maybe it is the end of a harvest...I don't know. Yes, I guess it is after harvest as now I see many newly plowed fields ready for planting. But everything is so brown and dry. Not a drop of water to be seen. There is some kind of plant with lilac/pink large flowers on it growing at random all over also. Wish I knew what these were. They seem to spread out like bougainvillea which has nothing to climb on.
Just past a shallow pond of water.. maybe left over from the monsoon or maybe a very small natural body of water?? Now electrical wires have appeared so must be
houses someplace around here but don't see any. OH...here they are! A town!! Very plain and simple but clean...and colorfully painted houses. Sky is also nice blue...no pollution. I already like it here! There are many TV antennas and even a couple of satellite disks on what seem like shacks...very clean here!
We are now passing a grove of what looks like eucalyptus trees...small and straggly but eucalyptus for sure.
THE NITE; Well, as I mentioned, we could not get 2 lower berths and when it was time to go to sleep shlomo (who is quite big…weighs about 120 KG and is 1.96 tall)
graciously said he would go up but the bottom bed seemed wider and so I said I would try up. But when I got up there the AC vents shoot directly onto the top bed and it was freezing...so then Shlomo tried to go up but the space between the bed and the ceiling was too small for him to maneuver into...this was all very funny at the time. Soooooo...what to do... I could ask for another blanket or use my fleece but
then Shlomo decided we could both sleep head to foot together on the lower berth. So we got ourselves comfy but I was on the inside and the bed itself is
like a board and on the wall is a metal bar and my bones were in trouble. I couldn't stay in my one position for very long and also couldn't move as I was wedged in like a sardine. And when shlomo fell asleep which he did almost instantly, he forgot there was another body there and kept moving a little bit each turn completely on the bed mashing me into the wall and crunching my bones into the metal. After about 3 hours I realized this would not work. At one point I found a comfy position on my back but after I guess an hour my back bones started to complain very loudly. So I took out my wool shawl and went upstairs where I fell soundly and comfortably asleep until the morning. Not really enough hours but at least I slept. And Shlomo didn't realize I had moved until he woke up several hours later to pee.
Before going to sleep we played some cards and had supper which even the "king of spicy food" shlomo could barely get down so again I had rice, chapati and curd and then off to sleep.
Now we are waiting for breakfast which I ordered but I am taking no chances. Already ate apple, almonds and raisins and still have plenty of cookies left. We should arrive in Udaipur in 2 hours and all in all it was an easy and quite fun trip.
9 AM..
We just ate breakfast which I decided to take a chance and order from the station. This is my first time taking a chance on "street food" and I hope it will be OK.
It was quite good to my surprise...not spicy AT ALL basically 2 pieces of white bread with a little butter slightly toasted and 2 veg. cutlets which were basically chanuka levivot (latkes). Nice and greasy and crispy and quite tasty. And of course chai. Will know I guess by tomorrow if this was a mistake or not but it is very clean here and I'm sure it will be OK> Will do some Reiki just to be sure!
The difference between here and Delhi and even the North in cleanliness is quite noticable. Everything so far seems very orderly and clean. Quite a nice change. Even in McLeod no one really cared about basic order and cleanliness.
I'm going to write about a fairly indelicate subject
but it is part of the Indian experience soooo... I've been here 2 months exactly now and in the beginning even on the cleanest most comfortable toilet I had problems with BM and now 2 months later, with no problem or hesitation, just like at home after breakfast, on a moving train, no seat (not Indian either which actually makes it easier) just a dirty Western toilet, I did my stuff without a second thought!! I guess you get used to anything eventually. (although I still can't manage the Indian food...probably never will...
too bad, it is quite tasty)
posted by Jane @ 10:57 PM
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