Southern India - 16 February 2012 (4)

Overnight Train to Chennai

Back at the hotel, Jen was just coming downstairs, having had her shower.  She had done a shower rota and Chris was booked in next, so Chris and I went upstairs together.  Diane and Guilland had already showered and were in the room watching TV.  They had just seen a programme which told the same story as the Kathakali dance we had seen.  Diane pretended to be translating, but she hadn’t realised that they were on to a new story, so the commentary went a bit haywire.  The hero, who we think was a god, was given numerous lengthy close ups while the actor struggled to convey his strong emotions.  He installed protection around a house where a woman was giving birth, but it failed dismally as the baby was sucked up out of the roof by the evil demon.  Instead of getting on to it, our hero just stood there, looking distraught and enduring a good telling-off from the father.  We weren’t impressed with Indian TV.  Pat came up next for her shower and finally it was my turn while the others were eating.  Jen came back from eating in town and I packed up and went downstairs.

The hotel had finally got its act together and Lukose gave me the bill for the previous day’s lunch.  I gave him some money and he went off to pay it.

Eventually it was time to head off to the railway station.  It was quite a hike, but at least we had no cases.  As Mike had said, the train was in, standing on the first platform.  We got on board and dumped our stuff.  Then we got out for some last minute purchases to get us through the night.  I got two packs of Magic Massala crisps and an ice-cold mango juice.  I can thoroughly recommend Magic Massala crisps to anyone going to India as they are hot and spicy and very tasty.

We didn’t have the whole compartment area to ourselves.  Kairan and Laurie had the two bunks to the side and Chris was above me.  Opposite Chris was a young boy, whose parents were further down the carriage.  Below him were two men who said they were sharing a seat.  The guard came and found a bed elsewhere for one of them.

We wrote up our journals for a while and the train left promptly at 2030.  It was already dark and, eventually, people began to make up their beds and got inside.  I waited for Chris to go up.  The climb was quite difficult, so I was glad I had put in a request for bottom bunk.  Then I made up my bed.  It was too hot for a blanket, but the blanket came in very useful as a base to cover the plastic of the bunk.  Then there was the lower sheet and then the top sheet.  I kept my handbag and camera in the sheets with me and my rucksack was at my head, so I felt safe.  I tried reading for a bit, but the light wasn’t good enough so I gave up.