Southern India - 6 February 2012 (3)

 Journey to Trichy

I fell asleep for most of the return journey to the hotel.  We popped up to our room and found that it had been made up and cleared.  So as well as wasting another bar of soap and dirtying clean towels, Jen had lost her fleece and book, which she had left out for the afternoon train ride.  We went downstairs, where she complained at reception.  Luckily, they were able to return her stuff.  They also tried to return my t-shirt, but I had left it deliberately as the first in a trail of unwanted items to lighten the load in my rucksack and make room for souvenirs.

Our Train in Egmore Station

We all had lunch in the hotel.  The buffet only cost Rs425 and it was really nice.  There were a lot of vegetarian dishes and most had a fair amount of heat in them, which I love.  Even the deserts were OK, although these were not exciting.

Other Half of Our Train to Trichy

We walked to Egmore railway station, which was quite close to the hotel, and stepped over sleeping bodies to reach our platform.  Our train was in and on the first platform, but there was still some time before it left.  I climbed up the stairs of the overhead bridge to take some photos of the station and then walked down to the end of the train to take photos of people walking across the tracks.  They didn’t disappoint, although this may have been an official crossing area.  Walking back up the train, we saw lots of motorbikes being loaded.  They were brand new and wrapped in plastic.

Crowds & People Sleeping on the Platform

When I got back to my seat on the train, I saw a mouse running along the wall and back again.  I didn’t see him again, but some of the others did – or it might have been one of his friends.

Walking Across the Railway Line

I sat between Mike and a man from Sri Lanka, who was visiting his son in Chennai and family in Trichy.  We had a bit of a chat and he confirmed that you can get boat trips to see the blue whales which live off the coast of Sri Lanka all year round.  Mostly though, I chatted to Mike, and we spent a lot of time sharing holiday anecdotes.  He works for TfL on the underground and used to drive their trains.

Poor Sunset from Open Train Doorway

Andrew came along the carriage at one point, wanting to take photos of the sunset.  The big problem with that was that the carriage windows were very difficult to see out of as they were covered with advertisements on the outside.  Perhaps this would be a way for train operating companies to earn additional revenue in the UK.

Mike and I joined Andrew in his quest and found him by an open door.  I cast health and safety to the wind and stood in the open doorway to take a sunset photo as the plains of India sped by.  It was quite exhilarating, especially as there was nothing to hold onto except my camera.  I didn’t stand there for long enough though.  As you can see, I should have waited longer until the sunset grew more intense.  On the other side of the train, the moon was nearly full, so I left Andrew taking a shot of that too.

I spent the rest of the journey trying to read my book and dozing quite a bit.  Across the aisle, I could see that Kairan and Laurie had an i-pad and were playing games.  I was almost converted to the idea of an i-pad when I found out that they were able to publish a blog as they went – so much better than the huge delay I have with my blogs.

At long last it was time to get off.  It was a big crush to get along the platform and down the subway and reach the station entrance, but we made it.  Then we walked across a car park, taking care to avoid the tuk-tuks which pulled out in front of us with no notice, and found our bus waiting for us.  This was an innovation for our tour.  We kept the same bus for the whole tour and so did not have to carry rucksacks or suitcases on the three train rides, which made life so much easier.

From the station, it was a short drive to our hotel, the Breeze Residency, 3/14 McDonald’s Road.  Although a lower grade than the one in Chennai, this hotel was much nicer.  The bathroom especially was so much cleaner.

After unpacking, we went down to the café bar and sat with Bella, Steve, Pam and Reg.  I had a wonderful meal with fresh lime soda to drink for just Rs289.  We all chatted until late and then walked up to the 5^th floor as there had been a brief power cut just as we were going to call the lift and we had no wish to get stuck.

There was no warm water, but the bathroom itself was so warm that it didn’t matter.