Day 106 - Small Victories

I have lived in NY and used every bus, taxi and train the city has to offer. I have lived in Seattle and navigated the bus system there. I have travelled rather a lot, and used public transporttion everywhere from Budapest to Berlin without hesitation. Catching a night train should not be a big deal.

But in India nothing is simple. Tonight we needed to catch a the train to Rishikesh from Old Delhi Station. We were approached by a taxi driver, but he wouldn't come down far enough on his price despite my best haggling maneuvers. A second tout approached us, offering to get a us a rickshaw (with a handsome tip in it for himself, no doubt), but we managed to shoo him away. We hailed an auto rickshaw (tuk-tuk). The driver refused to go as far as Old Delhi station. We hailed another tuk tuk. We agreed on a price. We headed off.

And into a spectacular traffic jam. Of Sri Lanka, my guidebook says that "If you suspect your rickshaw driver is not obeying any known traffic laws, you are probably right. " The same can be said of India. We dodged and weaved through the exhaust and flooded streets (did I mention that the monsoon season hasn't quite exhausted itself?). Our engine died a few times. We breathed more than our fair share of fumes. But we made it to the station in one piece.

At the station, We only had to shoo away a few touts and beggars before finding our train listed on the big board. We made our way to platform four (easy - labeled an eveything!). Where we waited. A train pulled up near the time ours was supposed to arrive. Incidentally part of the cargo of that train was an entire car full of crates of baby chickens. I had been joking with Cz that we would eventually ride in a train with a chicken, thought, "Ah here's our chance!" But no dice; the numbers on the side of the train did not match up with the numbers on our ticket. So we waited some more. While waiting we met a couple of other backpackers, and in comparing tickets, discovered that one of them had the seat next to ours.

The platform for our train was changed to platform #3. We and our new friends joined the mad crush of people and parcels changing platforms.

Our train arrived about 20 minutes after it was due to depart. A good bit of shoving later, we were safely ensconced in our seats and clicking our way toward the Himalayas. Once in place, the ride was surprisingly comfortable.

And I was very pleased with myself for having gotten us there.