Good to leave Delhi, if temporarily. The security and guns are omnipresent and a little depressing. Every time you go onto the Metro or enter a public space (cinema, hotel, cafe...), you have to go through metal detectors, bag scans and frisking (lady and men's queues) and security guards, police, secret service are everywhere, all overtly armed and jumpy. We are told that this is the price people accept for living next-door to Pakistan...
Leaving Delhi, catching a night train - all the remembered hassles of navigating platiforms and crowds, hanging on to bags and now new paranoia about getting separated from the children (we live by the Meerkat Mail maxim of 'Stay Safe, Stay Together' - recommended for avoiding jackals) but fairly efficiently, we made it into the right carriage and were watching Delhi disappearing into the night and chatting to our neighbours (returning from a family wedding, exhausted after 7 days and very hopeful we didn't want dinner and would want to hang up the bunks as soon as possible).
Arriving this morning, we felt so happy to see Rajasthan emerging out of a misty winter dawn from the train window. We'd frozen en route , as we'd been told we would, despite multiple layers (vests, T shirts, long sleeved shirt, jumper, fleece, etc) and I have to say it was W's hot 4 year old body got me through the night... He asks me from time to time, 'Are we still on Planet Earth'? Whilst I'd been snuggling with him, Wolfdad was winnning Heroic Dad prizes for keeping the girls cheerful through the long night, singing Raffi hits and shaking chunks out of blankets (see below).
W: We slept on the train. It was a diesel. I slept with mum and M slept on top and two Indian ladies on the bottom. Do you know who slept next to us? Dad and L. It was very wibbily and bumpy and noisy on the train. We had good snacks. I didn't sleep well because it was too cold and bumpy. It kept me awake (Wolfmum: For the record, W slept the very best of everyone...)
L: It was very dirty and hectic at the station. I listened to Raffi most of the night on dad's I-Pod. I was sick in the middle of the night on the train. (WM: L is well - we think this was simply travel sickness plus nausea induced by the smelly borrowed blanket) When we woke up we were in the middle of nowhere. Trees and bushes galore. There were lots of villages like Beckley. At last we arrived. The station was very busy with lots of other people arriving. We went to the hotel on a tourist taxi. Our hotel has a swimming pool but nobody swims as it is too cold. All the Indian people wear lots of clothes and scarves and say how cold it is, but it feels hot to us at least during the day. I've heard that it's been snowing at home. See you next time.
WD: Initially I was thrilled to be on a sleeper again, with the family - the peeling blue paint, sticky plastic seats, the grilled windows, the floor scattered with peanut debris and other rubbish, the chai-wallahs, the sound of points being crossed, the view of the train track through the hole in the toilet floor... Having spent so much time (hours, no days) travelling around India like this, how marvellous to be sharing the experience - until the girls were grey with fatigue and I had to apologise to our neighbours for the sicked-on borrowed blanket (social embarrassment is cross-cultural) But we did make it safely, and everyone slept at least a little. So, next time posh 2nd Class AC? Well that is dependant on waiting lists and quotas and, for me, 3 tier sleeper class remains 'cheap and best'.
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