Joshua, Heather and I woke up at 4am. It wasn't too hard. We are still jet-lagged and I think we got to sleep early the night before. A taxi driver picked us up at 5:30am. The streets were almost empty. In Delhi it's hard to watch the scenery go by in a taxi. We could never be familiar with the city, or it's layout. There are so many round-a-bouts that eventually everything in the darkness starts to blend in together and you soon feel like you are driving in circles. Eventually we took a turn onto what looked to be a parking lot in the middle of the road. The driver stopped the car. There are people, naturally, peeing the wall next to the car; You have to AVOID the "puddles" in the road.... especially in the dark. The entire "parking lot" smelled like one large latrine. The driver kindly escorted us to the train station and told us the exact place where he would pick us up later, 18 hours later. We didn't carry anything with us, other
than a small bag with guide books, journals and cameras.The floor of the train station was a maze of people.... really A Maze. People were camped out on blankets; Some sleeping, some not; Kids, older folks, adults.
To get to the platforms, you have to walk through a metal detector and pass baggage through a scanner.
The line was long. Some people were carrying large bags of stuff over their heads..... Not to worry..... the driver promptly escorted us to the front of the line, through the narrow opening between the line of people and the gate and past the security check point. No one seemed to notice or care - as if White Foreigners have special permission to do this all of the time. The driver then instructed us to the exact place to find our train car and told us to wait for the train.... Right..... then he was gone, like a ghost. And at 5am in Delhi... who knows, it could possibly have been a dream.
By the way, we handed this very nice escort our cash in $US, and he handed us an envelope with 2 photocopied pieces of paper. One train ticket to Agra, One back.
Then out of the darkness, and within minutes of our arrival, the train came out of nowhere, and on time. From the outside the train looked tired and blue. Inside, it was like an airplane. The rows were 2 seats on one side, 3 on the other. The seats were large, spacious and there was a seat-back tray to use. Heather and Joshua had 2 of the 3 seat section, I was across from them. I didn't have anyone next to me, so I had plenty of room. Joshua is a stubborn kid, he stayed in his assigned seat.
Like an airline flight, the ride included a snack and a breakfast. A tea and biscuit service was first, with a newspaper and a bottle of water. Then the breakfast. The breakfast was actually really good. It came on a tray with small cardboard packages sealed with a foil cover - remember school lunches ? We had a veggie cutlet or paneer (cheese) cutlet that looked like a perogi - loaded with steamed carrots, peas, coriander seeds, cilantro and green chillies. The cutlet looked fried on the outside and soft inside. Came with bread, butter and marmalade. The drink was a 7-up type of lemonade.
Having a window seat gave me an opportunity to see the landscape between Delhi and Agra. And there was a lot to see.
The fields along the route looked clean and very green, but I have no idea what was growing in them. Some of the fields were surrounded with large concrete or corrugated metal fencing. Large wood/leaf huts were scattered along the fields - for storage ? Egrets were standing in fields that appeared to be more water-logged.
The railroad tracks had a "walking path" next to it that ran the entire length between Delhi and Agra. It seemed like a highway, a major route to get between the small towns and shanties. Naturally, the entire length was strewn with trash; Run down with free animals, broken homes in partial construction, loose kids and garbage by the heaps. Herds of cattle and goats were eating out of large dumps of garbage - that were usually l
ocated next to a significant water source. I say source, because none of it seemed to be "in place", as if the garbage was the source of the water. People were also rummaging trough the dumps. Piles of cow patties were drying next to the tracks in heaps and stacks, a major source of fuel and income in rural parts of India.It's morning, so naturally people are awake doing their "personal" #1/#2 business, which regardless of the train moving or not, no one seemed to mind doing it - or seeing it - in the open. It's sad the way things are in this part of India... and it really makes me thankful for what we have in the U.S. . Working sanitation and clean running water.
