Train to Chennai
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2008
1
60
116
Trip End
Aug 01, 2009
Chennai (Madras), India
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Jim headed off to the hospital to take care of the billing issues that have cropped up. We think that the hospital has charged us three times about 500.00 when it should only be two times. We also need the papers such as diagnosis, treatment, and an itemized, final bill for all charges. This we had asked for on the first day, and had not left the hospital with it. This is of utmost importance if we are to be able to collect the money from the insurance company, which we know is always a bit of fun and games. Meanwhile Simon, Becca and I went off to try to get some shopping done. We are looking for some sanitary items like hand wipes and an iso-gel equivalent, something that we use religiously now but even before Simon became ill. We walked along the main road asking for these items and also for Nutella which would be our staple protein item for the train ride. It proved difficult to find, and after fulfilling our quota of cookies, toilet paper, chocolate bars, bananas and oranges we went back to the Shanti guest house for a quick bite in order to continue our shopping. We each had a banana from our train ride stash, a big drink, and went off to find some bread and Nutella. We needed to walk along the ghats to get to the German bakery and it is always hot along the ghats. You can walk in the narrow streets all day and hardly see the sun, bet the ghats are wide open and exposed. We easily found the German bakery and several baguettes, a loaf of brown, nutty bread, and thank goodness, our prize Nutella.
Jim and Becca went to say goodbye to Priya and her family, and found it to be a teary occasion. Jim hopes that there is something we can do to help Priya's 16 year old brother to regain his eyesight in his clouded left eye. Mick is due to come to India next year, so maybe he would be able to help deliver funds.
I am getting claustrophobic in Varanasi as we wind in and out of traffic at breakneck speed in our auto rickshaw. We have had to hop into two rickshaws due to the bulkiness of our backpacks. It is a squeeze for us to get into one when we don't have bags, with Becca sitting on my lap and the other three bums barely fitting onto the bench seat. I yearn for a street that is wide open and clear of traffic, but now is not the time. The streets are alive with celebration. Men are carrying floats depicting (I think) the God Shiva, chanting, playing drums, and playing music at levels that would be illegal at home out of huge speakers tied to a wagon and dragged along the road. They block whole lanes of traffic, no one can pass by the surging mass of excited humanity. We pass by six of these celebrations, and wonder what is up. Walking calmly along beside one of these floats is an elephant all painted up in the Indian tradition. It was so huge as we passed closely by, we were as tall as her knees! This was definitely a highlight, even though we saw her for a total of five seconds. Our driver must have thought that he'd make more money if he got us to the station faster, and I was feeling quite ill from the speed, pollution, and the many close calls we'd had with a variety of vehicles. Once at the station we relaxed a bit and waited with an hour before our train was due to arrive. I had a sick feeling in my stomach when I realized the train didn't start at Varanasi, but would roll in, stop for a few minutes, and then roll out again. My stomach was remembering the train 18 years ago in Calcutta clearly when we had a short time to board a train, and it pulled out as we tried to get on with our heavy packs and Jim had someone hanging off him as he tried to climb the stairs. My mind could not handle a repeat of this experience with the kids, so we had devised a plan if anything such as this should happen. I get on first, then Simon, then Becca, then Jim. This way if we get separated, we have two teams, each with a parent. We will communicate via the internet to tell each other where we are, and wait until the unlucky pair are able to catch another train to meet again.
The train was not difficult to catch, and we quickly settled into our compartment. It has a curtain for the idea of privacy and inside there are 4 bunks, a small table, with a light for each bunk. There is air conditioning in our compartment, a necessary part of travelling down south in India where the temperature even at this time of the year can be 35° in the shade. Much of the train will be without A/C, so we are some of the lucky few. It is definitely the dry season in India. Not only have we only seen a bit of a shower while we were in Delhi, but as we make our way through the countryside there are dry stream beds everywhere. Farmers have dug irrigation ditches around their trees, and we have seen irrigation spraying water over crops. One interesting dry stream bed was dug into raised beds with small green plants growing in each row. It has been very rural for the last 23 hours on this train. We have seen many tarp and stick buildings, water buffalo pulling wagons, goats out for grazing with their shepherd, and women carrying a variety of things on their heads.
Our second day on the train was comfortable, though the bed had felt a little harder this morning. I will be ready to get off when the time comes. When we woke up there were immediate differences from yesterday. Everything was wet from humidity, and there were banana's and palms, coconut, and papaya trees out the window. There is a lot of rice as well. We don't often associated India with rice production, but it is the primary crop all along the route that we took.
Jim noticed that the train stations seem to be a little cleaner than up north. 80% of the population in the south are educated when compared to 40% in the north. We arrived in Chennai at 12:30 after only 39.25 hours!! This meant that we could get a bus right away for Pondicherry, but our first job would be to find a taxi to take us to the bus station. This was very easy as there was a pre-paid taxi stand and it was a simple matter of paying the 110 rupee fee (100 rupees plus 10 rupee service fee) at the booth, and then paying the driver 60 rupees later. We checked twice to make sure we understood, and then we were off, it turns out with a maniac driver on a seemingly suicide mission. He laid on the horn out of what seemed like habit because there was no rhyme or reason to it's scream. He cut people off, and sounded the horn when sitting at red lights. Thankfully the drive was short, but the end of it was the beginning to a family communication breakdown. The driver demanded to have the 10 rupee service charge that we'd already paid. This was predictable as even the lonely planet states that drivers here are notorious for arguing over an agreed upon price. We didn't think that the tourist bus station would be well know to the driver so we decided to have him take us to the government bus station and then we'd walk across the street, but on the way we drove right past the place we wanted to go. There was a six lane road in between the two stations and at the last minute I asked if he could take us to the KPN station instead so we wouldn't have to try to cross the road. Meanwhile Jim had a look at the station and decided it didn't look like much. Our crazy driver insisted that "government bus - veddy goot - veddy cheap!!" It was impossible to argue so we got off and began the argument out of principle over 10 rupees (about .35 cents). I called for the tourist police and told Jim to forget it and walk away. Jim stayed and argued for a short time more, and we went to check out the buses. I firmly wanted to stick to the plan to take the better private A/C bus for 3 times the price or what would work out to be 6 dollars, but was overruled. The Australian couple from Varanasi had caught up to us and together we tried to find out where the buses to Pondicherry were. It is amazing how in India we could ask 4 people in uniform or sitting behind desks where to go and each in turn would give us a different answer. Finally we found them, and took the second bus which left a few minutes later. The Aussie's took an earlier one which didn't have room for us to sit together. The first five minutes of this trip was the weirdest ever experienced. The bus was almost full, and we wound our way around the bus terminal parking lot, and I wasn't sure if we had yet arrived at a road when the bus stopped and the ticket man told many of the people to get off!!! What the??? Suddenly the bus was three quarters empty and I had horrible visions of the bus stopping at every breathing human being on the streets to try to fill it up again. We did stop, but at bus stops and the refilling of the bus was relatively painless, except for our backpacks which there was no room for, and by the time we were within 30 Km of Pondicherry the aisles were full of standing passengers.
After three hours on the road we stopped for a pee break suitable only for men. The bus stopped at the entranced road to a church and many men filed off to pee into the wind. There were no bathrooms for the women, and nothing for the men to hide behind-it was a photo waiting to happen, but we resisted. We were suitably dehydrated so didn't need to go. Upon arriving in Pondicherry we hired a tuk tuk and he took us to place after place starting with ashrams, then hotels that were full. We finally settled on one that had a large room with beds enough for seven. It is not the best room so we will try to find another tomorrow.
