At the station there were thousands of people waiting on the platform while some peed off the platform onto the tracks. The people surrounding us seemed to take a certain interest in us; foreigners riding the train.
Dusk started to settle over Delhi and from a distance we could see a long blue snake approaching on the track. As it grew closer, we noticed the train was nothing like we had seen or expected. Did the train have electricity inside? we couldn't see any lights. The windows were barred and we could slightly make out the silhouettes of things inside... were we really supposed to ride this? We walked down the line to find our car, sleeper class, and climbed onto the iron juggernaut.
Inside, it was dark and getting crowded. We started recounting the stories we heard about people drugging you, stealing your bags, raping the shit out of you... ok, we didn't hear that last one. Anyway, we stumbled our way through and found our seats with 4 other Indian people. A couple, and possibly another couple but I'm thinking they were siblings. We waited there in the dark and thought the lights would come on after the train started moving. About an hour later the train disembarked from the station, however the light never turned on...
The first hour or so was pretty awkward, darkness, strange stares, and an obvious language barrier. The people who sat with us turned out to be very nice and the one guy spoke some English. The other guy seemed to be the friendlier of the two. With our limited capabilities, the 3 of us tried to discern where everyone was going. After a while, everyone started eating, and we noticed the massive amount of water people brought with them. Our puny 1 liter bottles wouldn't last the whole trip. Looks like we will have to hop off at a station to buy some water. Luckily, we didn't have to do this. At about every station people would hop on the train and walk up and down the car selling water, chai, and other snacks. Awesome...
But there was clearly an art to this. The first person to get on the train would undoubtedly be able to sell the most. So, they would jump on the train while it was still moving.
Eventually, we settled in and moved into the upper bunks. We were in a 6 person sleeper. Crammed into triple bunks, with a metal cage that separated us from the other sides. The beds were covered in the cake of other peoples sweat and dirt. Occasionally, we found bugs too. Sleep came soon in this noisy harmony of chatter, clanking, and chants of chai...
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