.: Valentine’s aboard a rickshaw, a bus, a train and almost a plane...

Valentine’s day has arrived and instead of planning a romantic dinner and being pampered Lee and I are starting our voyage to the final destination of Port Blair. To get there we had to leave Patnem via rickshaw and get to Chaudi, where we had to catch a Bus to Margao, from there we had to catch a train to Chennai (formally known as Madras.) Most of the beginning of the trip was pretty uneventful…until we boarded the train! We were advised to chain (yes, chain) our bags to the seat we were occupying, which doubled up as a bed. The ac system aboard the train was totally modernized…fans chained to the ceiling!

AC system

There were venders walking up and down the train selling all kinds of things such as food, toys and chai. The funny thing is they walk up and down shouting tempting offers of their wares, but when they see anyone pale skinned they raise the decibel by about 20, just in case you didn’t hear (of course they don’t realize that you can hear them, you just don’t understand their accent most of the time!)

Motorbike injuries, but still trying to sleep

Most liquids you buy are brought in plastic bags which means when Lee and I purchased Kerosene (paraffin) for fire dancing it was given to us in a small plastic bag. Chai tea was sometimes also sold in little plastic bags. Have you ever tried to pour the contents of a small packet into an even smaller container? A little tricky!

Lee holding our packets of chai

Lee and I being South African girls are pretty good at finding a solution, so when faced with the problem of no bowls for breakfast one morning, we decided to convert our empty juice container into a bowl, which meant ripping the container in half (as neither of us travel with scissors) once we had achieved our goal we poured coco pops and milk into our makeshift bowls, only to discover we had no spoons! Hmmm…

Makeshift breakfast bowl

The train journey was super loooong! It was pretty exciting to be travelling through the Indian country side but after 20 hours on a train, many millions of stares and more than one trip to the bathroom…I was about at my limit and ready to be done with the super long journey. While sitting on the train we became entertainment for most of our fellow middle class passengers. Most people stared openly at us without showing any social graces of hiding their long lingering looks. A few people approached us and asked us where we were from and what we were doing in India and then my favourite question and one of the reasons I loved my time in India “What don’t you like about my country? And what can we change for you?” I loved this question because even though there are down and out people in India, they still have faith in their country, and faith to me is one of the most beautiful traits to posses.

Some of the sights on the way

On Indian trains there are no exact times for anything. So when we stopped at various stations we were never sure how long the train would be stopped, which meant that we took turns to stand on the platform and stretch our legs. One person remained behind to both watch the bags and to make sure the train never left without both of us on board! When we did try to ask the conductor about times he just gave us what we will now refer to as the standard ‘Indian Head Wiggle” which basically means…well I’m still not entirely sure what it means. I would say it is probably equivalent to the South African saying of “Yes,no well, fine”

Dinner on the train (because we were too scared to venture too far from the train)

Bathroom trips on a moving train are slightly more challenging than peeing in a standard bathroom, it’s a big adventure! Not only are you dealing with the fact that you are peeing into what is essentially is a hole in the ground, but you are doing it while trying not to pee on your own shoes and trying not to fall over because the train is moving sideward’s as well as forwards!