PHOTO ESSAY: AN INDIAN TRAIN RIDE
Hi. My name is Daniel. And these are some photos that I took when I went on a train from Mumbai to Goa. I’m not a wealthy man, but I did treat myself to a comfy sleeper berth to make the 14-hour journey a bit more leisurely. You might think that I’m a bit bougie, and maybe I am, but when traveling the world for a year, one needs to know how to take care of oneself. And I like to take care of myself.
This is one of my fellow berth-mates – Is that what we call the people in the same berth?
His name was Narayan, and I liked his sandals and his smile.
The corridor where men would wander, selling chai and rice and chapatis and ‘chicken loli’. The chai cost approximately 10 cents (USD) per cup, and it was sweet and delicious.
VFR = Vegetarian Fried Rice (NOT: Very Friendly Rooster)
I love a good experiment, and had to restraint myself from testing whether or not this chain actually worked.
You might think this was a beautiful painting. But it’s not.
It’s a window with some Indian countryside rolling by.
Western style is like doggie style, but with more capitalism.
This is the western style toilet. The other option was simply a hole in the ground. Either way, my poop fell directly onto the rail road track.
Sorry for shitting on you India.
The train was chalk full of bandits. Myself included.
I sat in one of the doorways and stuck my head out to catch the breeze.
If I could offer you one tip it would be to watch out for tunnels!
Ouch!
That’s my vintage-Baylis-trucker’s-hat. I had a series of delightful naps with that pillow. She really put out.
In conclusion, I’d like to share with you two of my new friends: Narayan and Laxmi.
We talked about a lot of things, like India and Canada and our respective families.
And if I didn’t have great parents already, I’d probably ask them to adopt me.
Oh the good times we’d have…
* * *
I looks like MY kind of traveling.
“Western style is like doggie style, but with more capitalism” — that made me laugh loads!!
Hoping India far exceeds your high expectations. XOXO
ak
“Western style is like doggie style, but with more capitalism” – I actually LOLed. Consequently had to explain myself at work.
Vegetarian Fried Rice? *phew* Wouldn’t bode well to encourage roosters to be friendly, then eat them
Good to see that you enjoyed your train ride, but did you get a chance to see how the Sleeper class looked like in the train (you were travelling in 2AC, if I see correctly)? Sleeper is the place where one can see that India really is a billions country and at least 20 people fit in the berths meant for 8.