So far I've travelled six times in a train (together 80 hours) and my last train ride from Goa to Delhi is already booked. Expectedly it will take 38 hours, but probably it's gonna take a lot longer (Maybe 50), because Indian trains are even more delayed than German trains. (In the end it was exactly 38 hours and just a few minutes more - I was very impressed!)
Another impressive thing, because I find it really progressive: When you get your train ticket, you have to say whether you are a doctor or becoming a doctor, in case an emergency happens in the train.
Every train ride is kind of special.
A few things though are always the same:
Most trains have 5 classes. AC 1,2 and 3, which are similar to German standards (so far as I could tell looking into it from the outside) and are the more expensive classes. They can be even more expensive than German trains. (The comparison to make you get a better idea of it.)
Then there is the Sleeper class and the General class. Sleeper looks like this:
I mostly travel in this class. You get a seat/bed reservation and it is quite cheap. Often people pass by who sell peanuts, samosas, water, chains, wallets and all different kinds of things, but mainly food.
Three times by now I also experienced ladyboys passing by, sometimes really looking like a woman. But the manly voice and the compliments and the stroke of the face given to an old man, gives it away. This can't be a woman. Sometimes they also ask for money like a beggar. They can be really rude. One ladyboy actually opened the hands, clapped twice and said in a harsh way: "Come, come, money!" I was impressed by so much impudence (Dreistigkeit).
Actual beggars pass by as well, sometimes Indians give small change, sometimes not.
When you enter the train you find your seat number written in black and your bed number in red:
The upper bed stays always a bed, but the middle and bottom beds build the seats. Bottom to sit, middle to lean on it.
Luggage you put under the seat or on the top beds while noone sleeps there. When I sleep, I always keep my whole luggage as a pillow under my head, because I already experienced robbery. Another idea is to use a chain to lock your luggage onto the seat, but I rather just use it as a pillow.
A train ride means sometimes nice views and a good opportunity to get to know locals. I had some nice conversations so far and met cool people.
And it's very interesting to see what people do in trains - basically everything. Eating, sleeping, reading, sewing and more. One woman even did henna (2-week-tattoos) on her own hands (which must be hard, 'cause the train is obviously moving a lot). But I like that attitude. I stiched my pants once during a train ride. It's perfect to kill time and you get things done.
If you travel in sleeper class, you can't be afraid of mice though. I already had them three times tickleing my arm or foot and I almost screemed the first time, but luckily I made it to hold it in - that would have been embarrassing. Anyway you get used to it. Now I'm rather worried about them eating my luggage.
The general class is a little different, but not too much. You don't have a reserved seat, you have to run to get one. Better not travel in it on your own as a girl. Indians don't just stare here, if you're on your own, they'll touch you.
This was in the night in the general class. You see a guy in the back sleeping at the luggage racks. Giani, Yang and I are sitting on a luggage rack. Giani and Yang are in the very front of the picture. At the seiling Shoes are on top of the fans to save space.
There is something like the bottom bed where people sit squeezed in, as many people as fit. And a top bed without mattrass so it's rather a rack for the luggage. On one of these we sit and the guy sleeps on the picture. There could be a middle bed, but noone puts it out, because it takes too much space.
I wanted to film or take more photos there, but it is not even too different than the sleeper class. It's rather the atmosphere and a lot more packed with people, because there is no "full" general class. You always get a ticket.
A different kind of people are in this so called 'second class': Poorer, which means you have to look better after your stuff and it's dirtier. That's also a reason why I didn't want to get out my camera, giving a target/an idea what to steal, while I'm asleep. So I better kept it for me.
Now to the tickets and what you do if the train is per definition "full".
There are a few tricks you understand after a time. You can buy a general ticket and then sometimes find a free seat in the sleeper class and either bribe yourself into sleeper class or pay the fine or somehow you get away with it and don't have to pay extra at all. I made it once from Ajmer to Agra for 140 rupees (2€) in the sleeper class with a general ticket for six hours and my nice neighbours said something to the ticket officer in Hindi, which I didn't understand, and afterwards he would leave me alone. I'm quite curious what they told him...
Now to the individual train rides:
The first one was special of course. It's the first one.
What made it actually special was when we suddenly stopped after half an hour already.
Nobody knows why. Nothing major probably. The train goes on and an amazingly loud and uncomfortable noise starts. As if stones or metall sticks would be thrown against our coach's floor. The train stops again and it turns out a buffalo had run into us and was now under our cabin. It wasn't stones, nor metall sticks. The buffalos bones had bumped continuesly against our cabin's floor. Just the thought makes a shiver run through me.
Three Muslim men next to us, who we already got to know earlier, went out and put the buffalo away from the tracks.
Blood on their hands and just a bit of water to wash them. "Handsanitizer everyone?", I get one out of my bag and distribute it generously. (I was so happy to have it!) Thankfully they take it, look at and smell it curiously, not knowing what it is.
Very nice guys by the way. We had a good chat more or less with the hands, because their english was little, they looked in my travel guide for a while and when we had dinner, they gave me some of their meat. So nice of them! My answer was: "Shukria" (means 'thank you' and I actually know that because of my brother) The reaction was priceless - they were so happy that I knew something in Hindi!
Another funny thing to me was that they prayed so often. Took out the little carpet, opened it on the floor and one after the other prayed on this miniscular space on the floor between the seats.
This was the train dinner.
When the night came it was amazingly cold - (for the next train rides I was prepared) - I almost couldn't sleep at all. Also because from time to time an amazingly ugly smell came into the train for minutes. India isn't even as smelly as everyone says, but this... I had never smelled anything as bad as this before!
Still it seems like I had slept for a little bit....
Next morning. Nay wakes me up - I should come to the toilet. Why that, just let me sleep. Finally I come and find my bag there, a lot of my things all over the floor. I was still lucky, nothing major got stolen, all my valuables were with me. And one Indian actually got his whole bag stolen. So I was still lucky. I'm just clueless when it actually happened, because I can't remember sleeping at all.
The second train ride was not really special. Udaipur to Jaipur.
The third one a little. I went six hours during day time to Agra with a general ticket for 140 instead of 300 for sleeper class and I got away with it, because of my nice neighbours on the train - but I already mentioned that.
The forth train ride was special again, because I actually went in the general class. Now not alone - Giani and Yang with me. From Agra to Varanasi. 15 hours for 180 rupees, which is 2,50€, 600-700km. General class is really proper cheap.
We were lucky to get "seats" on the luggage racks and could take turns to sleep.
But even more of an adventure was how we almost not got into the train.
We stored our luggage in a locker to see some more of Agra before the train goes. One hour before the train comes we come to the locker and Giani lost the paper, which proves that it is ours. It was so important to have it, we didn't get out of it - no way. But there is a way out. The locker guy tries to explain. After 10 minutes explaining we still don't get at all what we have to do. Finally we understand: We had to go to a shop, where they give you a paper (apparently you need two wittnesses), you copy it and come back and it's all good. We didn't get, why this paper, what shop it was (small shop, looking like a copy shop) and what the hell this has to do with our bags.
Anyway, we had to do it. The locker room guy gave us the address of the shop, saying every rickshaw driver would know where - obviously noone knew. Being in such a rush finally we find one who also doesn't know, but is willing to help and turns out to be extremly good manovering through the traffic and therefore super fast! You can't describe it, that was literally mental how he drove! Even for Indian style. I had never seen anything like that. The time was still running really fast as well and after asking around and around and around - me already completely sure, we're not going to make it - we find the shop - like a miracle. We get the copy (no wittnesses asked for), find the way back, get our luggage and arrive at the platform one minute spare - train 15 minutes delayed. That was lots of adrenalin and not really realistic, that we made it. This was real India. You had to get a paper at a shop somewhere noone knows where and you are in a hurry and don't know what shop, what paper and even after you made it, you don't get it... Logic.
The fifth train ride was nothing special. From Varanasi to Mumbai.
But the last one from Mumbai to Gokarna again almost left without us. This time because we simply miscalculated the time and had to catch some local trains to the train station first and they took way longer than expected. Again with a few minutes left we made it.
This is it for the first six train rides.
Let's see if the next and last one to Delhi in 10 days will be an adventure!
Another impressive thing, because I find it really progressive: When you get your train ticket, you have to say whether you are a doctor or becoming a doctor, in case an emergency happens in the train.
Every train ride is kind of special.
A few things though are always the same:
Most trains have 5 classes. AC 1,2 and 3, which are similar to German standards (so far as I could tell looking into it from the outside) and are the more expensive classes. They can be even more expensive than German trains. (The comparison to make you get a better idea of it.)
Then there is the Sleeper class and the General class. Sleeper looks like this:
I mostly travel in this class. You get a seat/bed reservation and it is quite cheap. Often people pass by who sell peanuts, samosas, water, chains, wallets and all different kinds of things, but mainly food.
Three times by now I also experienced ladyboys passing by, sometimes really looking like a woman. But the manly voice and the compliments and the stroke of the face given to an old man, gives it away. This can't be a woman. Sometimes they also ask for money like a beggar. They can be really rude. One ladyboy actually opened the hands, clapped twice and said in a harsh way: "Come, come, money!" I was impressed by so much impudence (Dreistigkeit).
Actual beggars pass by as well, sometimes Indians give small change, sometimes not.
When you enter the train you find your seat number written in black and your bed number in red:
The upper bed stays always a bed, but the middle and bottom beds build the seats. Bottom to sit, middle to lean on it.
Luggage you put under the seat or on the top beds while noone sleeps there. When I sleep, I always keep my whole luggage as a pillow under my head, because I already experienced robbery. Another idea is to use a chain to lock your luggage onto the seat, but I rather just use it as a pillow.
A train ride means sometimes nice views and a good opportunity to get to know locals. I had some nice conversations so far and met cool people.
And it's very interesting to see what people do in trains - basically everything. Eating, sleeping, reading, sewing and more. One woman even did henna (2-week-tattoos) on her own hands (which must be hard, 'cause the train is obviously moving a lot). But I like that attitude. I stiched my pants once during a train ride. It's perfect to kill time and you get things done.
If you travel in sleeper class, you can't be afraid of mice though. I already had them three times tickleing my arm or foot and I almost screemed the first time, but luckily I made it to hold it in - that would have been embarrassing. Anyway you get used to it. Now I'm rather worried about them eating my luggage.
The general class is a little different, but not too much. You don't have a reserved seat, you have to run to get one. Better not travel in it on your own as a girl. Indians don't just stare here, if you're on your own, they'll touch you.
There is something like the bottom bed where people sit squeezed in, as many people as fit. And a top bed without mattrass so it's rather a rack for the luggage. On one of these we sit and the guy sleeps on the picture. There could be a middle bed, but noone puts it out, because it takes too much space.
I wanted to film or take more photos there, but it is not even too different than the sleeper class. It's rather the atmosphere and a lot more packed with people, because there is no "full" general class. You always get a ticket.
A different kind of people are in this so called 'second class': Poorer, which means you have to look better after your stuff and it's dirtier. That's also a reason why I didn't want to get out my camera, giving a target/an idea what to steal, while I'm asleep. So I better kept it for me.
Now to the tickets and what you do if the train is per definition "full".
There are a few tricks you understand after a time. You can buy a general ticket and then sometimes find a free seat in the sleeper class and either bribe yourself into sleeper class or pay the fine or somehow you get away with it and don't have to pay extra at all. I made it once from Ajmer to Agra for 140 rupees (2€) in the sleeper class with a general ticket for six hours and my nice neighbours said something to the ticket officer in Hindi, which I didn't understand, and afterwards he would leave me alone. I'm quite curious what they told him...
Now to the individual train rides:
The first one was special of course. It's the first one.
What made it actually special was when we suddenly stopped after half an hour already.
Nobody knows why. Nothing major probably. The train goes on and an amazingly loud and uncomfortable noise starts. As if stones or metall sticks would be thrown against our coach's floor. The train stops again and it turns out a buffalo had run into us and was now under our cabin. It wasn't stones, nor metall sticks. The buffalos bones had bumped continuesly against our cabin's floor. Just the thought makes a shiver run through me.
Three Muslim men next to us, who we already got to know earlier, went out and put the buffalo away from the tracks.
Very nice guys by the way. We had a good chat more or less with the hands, because their english was little, they looked in my travel guide for a while and when we had dinner, they gave me some of their meat. So nice of them! My answer was: "Shukria" (means 'thank you' and I actually know that because of my brother) The reaction was priceless - they were so happy that I knew something in Hindi!
Another funny thing to me was that they prayed so often. Took out the little carpet, opened it on the floor and one after the other prayed on this miniscular space on the floor between the seats.
When the night came it was amazingly cold - (for the next train rides I was prepared) - I almost couldn't sleep at all. Also because from time to time an amazingly ugly smell came into the train for minutes. India isn't even as smelly as everyone says, but this... I had never smelled anything as bad as this before!
Still it seems like I had slept for a little bit....
Next morning. Nay wakes me up - I should come to the toilet. Why that, just let me sleep. Finally I come and find my bag there, a lot of my things all over the floor. I was still lucky, nothing major got stolen, all my valuables were with me. And one Indian actually got his whole bag stolen. So I was still lucky. I'm just clueless when it actually happened, because I can't remember sleeping at all.
The second train ride was not really special. Udaipur to Jaipur.
The third one a little. I went six hours during day time to Agra with a general ticket for 140 instead of 300 for sleeper class and I got away with it, because of my nice neighbours on the train - but I already mentioned that.
The forth train ride was special again, because I actually went in the general class. Now not alone - Giani and Yang with me. From Agra to Varanasi. 15 hours for 180 rupees, which is 2,50€, 600-700km. General class is really proper cheap.
We were lucky to get "seats" on the luggage racks and could take turns to sleep.
But even more of an adventure was how we almost not got into the train.
We stored our luggage in a locker to see some more of Agra before the train goes. One hour before the train comes we come to the locker and Giani lost the paper, which proves that it is ours. It was so important to have it, we didn't get out of it - no way. But there is a way out. The locker guy tries to explain. After 10 minutes explaining we still don't get at all what we have to do. Finally we understand: We had to go to a shop, where they give you a paper (apparently you need two wittnesses), you copy it and come back and it's all good. We didn't get, why this paper, what shop it was (small shop, looking like a copy shop) and what the hell this has to do with our bags.
Anyway, we had to do it. The locker room guy gave us the address of the shop, saying every rickshaw driver would know where - obviously noone knew. Being in such a rush finally we find one who also doesn't know, but is willing to help and turns out to be extremly good manovering through the traffic and therefore super fast! You can't describe it, that was literally mental how he drove! Even for Indian style. I had never seen anything like that. The time was still running really fast as well and after asking around and around and around - me already completely sure, we're not going to make it - we find the shop - like a miracle. We get the copy (no wittnesses asked for), find the way back, get our luggage and arrive at the platform one minute spare - train 15 minutes delayed. That was lots of adrenalin and not really realistic, that we made it. This was real India. You had to get a paper at a shop somewhere noone knows where and you are in a hurry and don't know what shop, what paper and even after you made it, you don't get it... Logic.
The fifth train ride was nothing special. From Varanasi to Mumbai.
But the last one from Mumbai to Gokarna again almost left without us. This time because we simply miscalculated the time and had to catch some local trains to the train station first and they took way longer than expected. Again with a few minutes left we made it.
This is it for the first six train rides.
Let's see if the next and last one to Delhi in 10 days will be an adventure!
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