Slow train to Allahabad and... not more tombs

Trip Start Nov 04, 2006
1
34
125
Trip End Mar 2007


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of India  , Uttar Pradesh,
Thursday, December 7, 2006

Got up at 6am after not a bad nights sleeps despite the horns of lorries and buses from the busy road outside. I had to leave my earplugs out in order to hear the alarm. I couldn't leave the hotel quick enough and took a speedy auto rickshaw driven by a lad who was no older that 13 or 14 to the station along with his 2 mates. My train was due to leave on platform 8 after inquiring at a counter as it was displayed anywhere. I headed over the footbridge but the platforms only went up to to number 7. I walked back to the counter and said where was platform 8 as there were only 7. A guy pointed me in the right direction and said that platforms 8 and 9 were at the end of platform 1. I walked down to the end of platform 1 and there indeed were platforms 8 and 9 and my train waiting at platform 8. I got a coffee and water and got on board in the only A/C carriage on the train. The carriage was made up of seats and not berths. I found my seat next to a guy who worked for Suzuki who had teamed up with some Indian motor company Cakes
Cakes
 . He told me how much basic cars were here - about 2,500 - 3,000 pounds. Considering the average wage here is about 750 - 1000 pounds per year, they are still pretty expensive. I told him how much the average wage is back home and how much cars are.
 
The journey took 6 hours to do just the 200km (120 miles) not helped by stopping at 2 stations for half-an-hour at each, the last one just 10km away from Allahabad itself. I took a cycle rickshaw to the nearby Hotel Ramkrishna (the right one this time!) but was told they had no rooms. I was a bit shocked by this news as Allahabad is certainly not on the tourist trail. So I took the same cycle rickshaw to my second choice, the Hotel Tepso along another MG (Mahatma Ghandi) Road, where they had rooms. The first room he showed me was just behind reception where I instantly said no before he opened the door. He then took me through to the back where rooms opened out on a small courtyard. He opened the door on one where a guy was watching TV and who jumped up as we entered. I looked at the manager with a questionable look of what's going on here and he said that he was just a hotel worker who then switched off the TV and walked out. I checked in and unpacked before heading to only the second McDonald's I've seen in India which I went past on the cycle rickshaw from the first hotel. Most people were just eating a burger without the fries as prices for a burger meal are Rs99 (more than a pound) Tombs 1
Tombs 1
 . This is about 2 or 3 times what you can pay for a simple Thali lunch. Everybody was well dressed, the best dressed I've seen in India. I think Allahabad is a bit of posh place as it has a good university. After consuming my chicken burger, fries and coke (specifically asked without ice), I walked along MG Road which is lined with hotels, restaurants, ice cream parlors and bakeries selling western cakes. Everything was far better than in Lucknow. I went back to the station in order to reserve seats on 2 trains but the queues were long so I headed over the footbridge and out of the main station and just down the road where there are three Islamic tombs in a walled park lined with trees. I walked back to the station where I had a slice of cake and a Pepsi before heading back to the hotel. That night I ate at the New Jade Garden restaurant which was a posh one just outside the hotel where I had a nice mutton roganjosh which I warned was spicy by the waiter but wasn't that spicy when it arrived. I then managed to track down an internet cafe as mentioned in LP which was very cheap at Rs20 (24p) per hour.
Slideshow Print this entry