Trains, Planes and Automobiles!

Its only been 4.5 days since I left the United States for India and I have so many notes I better start blogging!  I left from Dulles Airport,outside of Washington, DC, on a United flight that was scheduled to depart at 545 p.m. on 4 August for Zurich, Switzerland, for the first leg of my journey to Rishikesh, India. Due to bad weather in our flight path, our departure was delayed for 2 hours. Fortunately, I had a 4+ hour layover in Zurich before departing for Delhi so that was decreased to a 2+ hour layover, once we arrived into Zurich. 

I've never been to Zurich before and would have loved to have spent at least a night there to explore.  It looks gorgeous--lots of trees, meadows, the mountains not too far away, and charming houses. And I forgot that I have a friend who lives there so we will have to catch up the next time!


Both flights were about 8 hours each and I have to do a sidebar here about a flight attendant that was on the Swiss Air flight from Zurich to Delhi.  A young girl sitting to the right and one row up from me got motion sickness.  Her dad or guardian was more freaked out about himself than the poor girl.  However, the flight attendant was so meticulous in the care she gave the girl and in cleaning up both seats.  I was totally blown away.  I just don't think that would have happened in the U.S.  I would love to be proved wrong but I don't think so.

I didn't have a seat mate on the first leg of the trip so got to spread out into 2 seats--nice! On the second leg I shared with a young man from Spain--yay Camino--who was spending his vacation assisting at an orphanage that a Spanish couple had started recently in India.

  

I arrived into Delhi airport around midnight local time 5 August. My train for Hardiwar, which is close to Rishikesh, left around 4:00 a.m. from Delhi Cantt station.  I went through immigration--can we say bureaucracy?!--where I observed the officials giving this poor young man the run around.  I later spoke with him at the luggage carousel and he told me that he is a refugee from Tibet and they didn't know how to handle his papers.  I than breezed through customs--which was 2 customs officials at the exit basically just letting most people pass through.  

I waited at the airport until 3 a.m., when a prearranged taxi driver picked me up. Interestingly, there wasn't the level of activity I was expecting outside the airport--mostly male cab drivers, I'm assuming.  Had my first donation experience when I was walking to the car with the cab driver.  This man came up and started assisting us with my luggage.  I just assumed he was working with the cab driver.  When the luggage was loaded, he came to me and said I needed to tip them $20 American dollars.  It sounded fantastical to me--I don't tip that much in the U.S. when someone assists me with luggage but given that at this point I'd been traveling over 24 hours with little sleep, I just gave him the money.  I'm sure he needed it more than I did.

Speaking of luggage, my son Bryan really questioned the number of bags I was taking.  I had talked with Sadhvi prior to departing and she said the amount was fine so I wasn't concerned.  Needless to say, I took more than the backpack I carried on the Camino, since this is a move and not a months sojourn.  I didn't run into any problems with the luggage except once I got on the train in Delhi but I'm going to come back to that.  I'm getting ahead of myself.

We arrived at Delhi Cantt station and I was a bit leary about whether this train trip was going to come off.  The lights were off at the ticket counter, there were a few people sleeping on the floor outside the ticket counter area, and once the ticket office opened, the man behind the window acted like he didn't know what I was talking about.  I had reservations for a sleeper berth and I assumed I needed a ticket of some sort.  Several of the men who were getting tickets were trying to be helpful but I got the sense most didn't really know what they were talking about!  We finally figured out the platform I needed to be on, one of the men directed 3 young men who were also going to be on the same train to help me with my luggage!  I said goodbye to my very nice cab driver and walked across the tracks to my platform with my assistants!  There were people sleeping on the platform.  I don't know if they were waiting for the train or just found it a good place to sleep.  I met another young man who was also taking the same train and he spoke more English than my assistants so he assured me that this was the right train and told me about his job in sales for a company that makes pressed wood items.

My traveling companions told me that the train stop would be very quick--now there were a lot of us--so once it came we had to make a dash for it.  So, of course, the train car I was on was one of the last ones and we were all sprinting for my car.  They threw me and the luggage on the car and dashed off to their car. 

I think I mentioned I had reservations on a sleeper birth.  Well, it also happened to be dark in the car and I had no idea how the numbering system went plus the aisle was really narrow and I had 3 large pieces of luggage in addition to my carry on and backpack!  I walked the length of the car and found a couple who were up and they helped me figure out the numbering system.  My berth, of course, was on top!  Now where to store the 3 pieces of luggage.  I got one under the berth below me. And then a man came along and helped me to shove the other 2 pieces under other people's berths.  Not sure they were very happy when he turned a light on so that he could see what he was doing. 

I climbed up to my berth and thought how am I going to lay down with my carry on and backpack also joining me in the berth?  I laid them down and used them as foot rests and used the bedding as a pillow. Can I say this reminded me of an albergue on wheels?! People making all kinds of bodily noises throughout the short night and early morning.  Plus, once it was getting light, vendors were walking through the car selling Lay's potato chips, chai and other sundry items.  I managed a few cat naps before I decided to get up and see where I could sit so I could see outside--my berth had no window.

This apparently is a very local train and it would take me about 8 hours to get to Hardiwar. We're talking a distance of about 120 miles!  But I have to say that I think the train helped me to leave the U.S. culture behind and start acclimating to the Indian culture slowly and so by the time the 8 hours were over, I was immersed! Kansas had definitely been left in the rear view mirror!!!  By the way, I never was asked for a ticket!

Some of my observations from the train, once I was able to see: lots of species of butterflies, many egrets in the fields, dragonflies, people in colorful clothing, people picking and carrying reeds, trash being swept onto train tracks from a platform or off the platform, lots of motorcycles, trucks and other conveyances at the railroad crossings, cows that were tied up, lots of people walking along the train tracks, labor intensive activity with people working the fields and on local construction projects, military person patroling the train, goats, big black bird with red wings, and so much trash along the tracks and countryside.

Countryside Between Delhi and Hardiwar

Women alongside the train route

Train crossing

Cows through the train not very clean train window!

Another train crossing

Women Caught My Eye

Just a few of the many butterflies I observed along the route

Indian Trucks

Shortly after noon on the 6th, my train arrived into Haridwar.  By this time I had been traveling some 30 hours. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get all my luggage off the train so that I could meet the driver from Parmarth, who was going to pick me up, when in dashed Hari--the driver and knight in shining armour!  He grabbed 2 of my roll ons and I took the other one and we zigzagged our way through the humanity at the Haridwar Train Station.  This time there were many people sleeping on the floor of the train station or just lounging and we had one man who was insistent on assisting with my luggage but we ignored him.  Hari clearly had done this before!  

I had begun to notice men in orange when I was waiting for the train and then their numbers seemed to increase the closer we got to Haridwar.  We ended up taking a couple of detours because of the continual procession of the men--yes, mostly men--in orange celebrating Lord Shiva.  They pilgrimage from all parts of India to the temple that's a few kilometres from Rishikesh for a month.  One road close to Rishikesh had no cars allowed but we were able to sweet talk the guard and that was a most interesting ride--the people just kept coming and there were cows in the middle of the road as well.  Smart idea to keep the road closed!  

Hari clearly drives here all the time, he is honking every other second at motorcyclists, cars, people, you name it.  Remind me not to drive in India and if I make noises about trying it, I have clearly lost my mind!  Due to the monsoons, many parts of the road have running water across it or are somewhat washed out.  Plus we took the back road so it was very curvy--had a few close calls! Between Haridwar and Rishikesh, one begins to see the lush foot hills of the Himalayas.  We drove along Mother Ganga and she is flowing fast and muddy these days due to the monsoons. Saw my first Indian monkey and a dead snake in the road.  We arrived in one piece at Parmarth and that's where I end for today.