It is a short 48 hours since my last post from Rishakesh. Since then we had our last drive with Anil. Dropped into Delhi overnight and then took a twenty two hour train ride to Gaya and then to the ground zero of Bhuddhism, Bodhaya. This is where Bhuddha attained enlightenment under a bhodi tree.
Anil thought getting a train would be super easy. He talked to one of his travel agent friends and came up with some proposed tickets for 8000 rupees. Thank God that all fell through. There happens to be a big Hindu festival at Allalabad where five million or so pilgrims congregate on the banks of the Ganges. This puts a tiny bit of pressure on the transportation system.
We went to the tourist office at the train station and and a very gruff bureaucrat explained our options were thin to none. Then abruptly he said " I book you sleeper class, leaves at six thirty from Anand Vihar, twenty kilometers away. I save you lots of money. Buy your wife something nice! That will be 1410 rupees for both of you. Now go pay at other desk." With those ominous/ reassuring words we were off.
The next morning we lurched out of our hotel room at 0430 hr. A roving tuk tuk driver spotted us and we were off like the Indianopolis 500. The streets were uncongested so he could really wind up the rpms.
We arrived at another monster railway station and our first adventure in sleeper class began.
Sleeper class is one step higher than unreserved general class. In unreserved general class you see mad rushes to the doors and fights breaking out as people try to secure a seat or patch of floor.
Sleeper class sort of has reserved seating. Though the system breaks down as the train progresses and more people join the train. As a general rule almost no one speaks any English. The seats are hardish benches. There are options to fold down sleeping platforms. Things are definitely more grubby and run down. The bathrooms get worse and worse. One nice option is that the windows open though there is a stout set of bars over them. When the windows are closed the view is either very murky or non existent.
As we clacked along from one station to another, more and more passengers boarded and started crowding on to our bench seats.For a few hours it was definitely uncomfortable. The bench seat seemed to be boring into my ass and it was becoming obvious that that we were falling hours behind schedule.
Thank God we had a smart phone and gmaps so at least we had an idea where we were. Most of the stations have sign posts in Hindi so without the gmaps things would be a lot more stressful.
We pulled into Gaya Junction about 0200 am, five hours late. A tuk tuk driver seeing our dishevelled state negotiated a hefty fare of seven Canadian for the 15 kilometer trip to Bodghaya.
We arrived at our hotel which had a reception area the size of the Whitehorse airport terminal but no reception staff. There were a couple bodies sleeping on the couch. They promptly ignored us and went back to sleep. I called the hotel number and got a person on the end who gave me a torrent of instructions that I could not understand. I gave the phone to one of the sleeping bodies who happened to be the cook. He got up and rooted around for awhile until he found a key. With key in hand we headed up to our room which has some faults but for the most part most things work, like the twenty or so lights and switches.
I am not exaggerating when I say you could throw a frisbee a fair distance in this room. Any ways after four or five hours sleep we headed out to find some food and decent coffee and were wildly successful on both counts.
Anil thought getting a train would be super easy. He talked to one of his travel agent friends and came up with some proposed tickets for 8000 rupees. Thank God that all fell through. There happens to be a big Hindu festival at Allalabad where five million or so pilgrims congregate on the banks of the Ganges. This puts a tiny bit of pressure on the transportation system.
We went to the tourist office at the train station and and a very gruff bureaucrat explained our options were thin to none. Then abruptly he said " I book you sleeper class, leaves at six thirty from Anand Vihar, twenty kilometers away. I save you lots of money. Buy your wife something nice! That will be 1410 rupees for both of you. Now go pay at other desk." With those ominous/ reassuring words we were off.
The next morning we lurched out of our hotel room at 0430 hr. A roving tuk tuk driver spotted us and we were off like the Indianopolis 500. The streets were uncongested so he could really wind up the rpms.
We arrived at another monster railway station and our first adventure in sleeper class began.
Sleeper class is one step higher than unreserved general class. In unreserved general class you see mad rushes to the doors and fights breaking out as people try to secure a seat or patch of floor.
Sleeper class sort of has reserved seating. Though the system breaks down as the train progresses and more people join the train. As a general rule almost no one speaks any English. The seats are hardish benches. There are options to fold down sleeping platforms. Things are definitely more grubby and run down. The bathrooms get worse and worse. One nice option is that the windows open though there is a stout set of bars over them. When the windows are closed the view is either very murky or non existent.
As we clacked along from one station to another, more and more passengers boarded and started crowding on to our bench seats.For a few hours it was definitely uncomfortable. The bench seat seemed to be boring into my ass and it was becoming obvious that that we were falling hours behind schedule.
Thank God we had a smart phone and gmaps so at least we had an idea where we were. Most of the stations have sign posts in Hindi so without the gmaps things would be a lot more stressful.
We pulled into Gaya Junction about 0200 am, five hours late. A tuk tuk driver seeing our dishevelled state negotiated a hefty fare of seven Canadian for the 15 kilometer trip to Bodghaya.
We arrived at our hotel which had a reception area the size of the Whitehorse airport terminal but no reception staff. There were a couple bodies sleeping on the couch. They promptly ignored us and went back to sleep. I called the hotel number and got a person on the end who gave me a torrent of instructions that I could not understand. I gave the phone to one of the sleeping bodies who happened to be the cook. He got up and rooted around for awhile until he found a key. With key in hand we headed up to our room which has some faults but for the most part most things work, like the twenty or so lights and switches.
I am not exaggerating when I say you could throw a frisbee a fair distance in this room. Any ways after four or five hours sleep we headed out to find some food and decent coffee and were wildly successful on both counts.
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