Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Arrived in Jaipur following the train ride from hell. The carriage was packed with noisy kids of every age, everyone on the train seemed to know each other. They'd spread their stuff out everywhere, turn on all the fans and lights to a compartment, then walk up the train leaving that section empty. A few minutes later they'd return and sit with 5 other people in the same section, overcrowding it. Ten minutes later they'd all leave again, making as much noise as possible. A few minutes later they'd be back. And so on. By 11 pm,when you're lying there trying to sleep, knowing you're up in a few hours, it gets a bit much. And just to compound things, you know you won't sleep well anyway. As anyone will tell you, there is no guarantee that the train will get to your station on time. It may be late. It may also be early. If it's early it won't wait for the timetable to catch it up, it'll just go. So you have to set the alarm half an hour early anyway, and you wake every time the train stops.
As it happened the train arrived an hour late. This suited better than being on time as for that hour we were at least lying in a bed on the train, rather than sitting at the station waiting for hotels to open.
