You know what I need ... or maybe you don't

Saturday 22 October 2008
Jaipur – Bombay

Stop wasting my time
You know what I want
You know what I need
Or maybe you don't
Do I have to come back flat out and tell
you everything?
Gimme some money

Gimme Some Money – Spinal Tap

Well I managed to get a relatively OK amount of sleep during the night. There was still noise early in the morning, and the light came through the small, curtainless window to conspire to wake me up early. But I felt OK.

There wasn't much to do in the morning. I wanted to go to the station early to make sure I boarded my train in time and for some reason Raj didn't seem to share my concerns. I think there was a language breakdown again. At any rate we arrived on the train in time. However it meant that I'd wasted the morning in the hotel, when I'd wanted to book my Goa train ticket as well as do a few other bits of admin. Oh yeah, and have lunch.

So I said goodbye to Raj. He still owed me the money. Well, some of it had gone on paying for my hotel in Bombay, he said (can you guess how that one works out? Find out in the next post. I'll give you a clue though – it doesn't). So with the amount remaining that he owed me, I gave him the rest of what I was going to pay him. Goodbye Raj. I won't be recommending you to any of my friends, like you asked. A slightly short termist mode of thought for him I think.

So I was on the train. In the seated section. When I booked the holiday all the way back in Delhi, I'd asked for a sleeper carriage, and not a seated ticket. They'd told me that there were none, and the seats would be fine. Well, from what I could tell, all but 3 of the 20 or so cars were sleepers, and I was in one of the three seated cars. Thanks, Sanjay.

I asked around for an upgrade, but it wasn't happening. Well there was no use complaining now, I just had to deal with it. Luckily on the three seats in each row, there were only two people on mine, unlike most of the other rows.

But oh yeah, I hadn't had lunch. Remarkably I wasn't feeling hungry, given that it was now about 4 and all I'd had all day was one Aloo Parantha (a kind of dry pancacke with bits of onion and potato in a layer in the middle) all day. I think the general random timings of my meals so far this holiday has given my body different expectations when it comes to food.

So, where could I obtain some food from? I'd heard tales of sumptuous offerings being provided on some train services, and indeed in Thailand they came round with a menu for your dinner and subsequent breakfast. But this wasn't Thailand. You're in India now, boy. Anything could happen, and just like Formula One, it usually does.

About an hour into the journey people started coming through the carriage with edible substances on offer. Amusingly, the service was called Meals on Wheels. At first it was only chai tea. But then after a while there was someone with crisps. Result! So I had a hearty lunch of crisps. And then another came past. He was selling sandwiches. I had one of them – it had some unidentifiable substance in the middle, I think it was fish-based, I couldn't be sure. But it didn't taste bad and it didn't make me ill, so I think I can put that one down as a success all things considered.

Basically the routine would continue where every half hour or so someone would come by with another box of something, and I grazed in this way continuously. As time went on the food became more meal-like. There were two sausage-shaped things that were to all intents and purposes an onion bhaji, with two pieces of bread and a sachet of tomato sauce, and quite tasty for it as well.

The pièce de resistance was the biryani served last. It was a biryani! Although it was mainly just rice with some small bits of veg thrown in. There was a bag of curd that was served with it. I don't know why Indians are so mad for sour milk. It tastes crap. Anyway, I ate it all despite that. When in Rome.

After that the trick to sleeping in relatively uncomfortable situations is to not to bother trying to get to sleep. Let sleep try to get to you. There was no chance of sleeping well, it's just a case of sleeping as well as you can. It actually helps if you haven't slept well before, as then you fall asleep more easily. So eventually around midnight I fell asleep. I was woken up as we reached various stations throughout Gujarat and more people joined or jeft. I kept having to move my legs or arms as the blood stopped flowing or the joints started aching. Also it felt right to stretch out my neck nice and long. But the counterpoint of that is that the muscles start to ache. But anyway I slept well enough, and I was on my way to Bombay.