May 1, 2009 - Bombay, India
I left Jodhpur yesterday afternoon at 3 p.m., I arrived here in Bombay this morning at 10:30 a.m., a little 19-1/2 hour train ride. --I came to travel!
My train was a "3AC" coach. That means that it was AIR CONDITIONED and had three layers of berths, just like the "sleeper coach", (but the sleeper is not AC'ed), and sometimes they let too many people on a sleeper coach.
When I left Delhi for Jaisalmer, I had told you I was in a sleeper coach. I did not tell you that there were also 5 men on each lower berth (basically the seat for the three who have a berth,) and then 4 or 5 in the aisle, plus 2 in each overhead (top berth)! The middle berth is not lowered until everyone is ready to lie down. The train - the sleeper - was basically used as a commuter train for the first 4 hours, and finally everyone was gone, and the three of us left on each side -- got in our berths. As they say in Honduras - NO PROBLEMO !!! Just smile and live it!!
I tell you all that to say that in 3AC they do not overbook the coach. That's nice.
On 3AC the passenger also gets 2 sheets, a pillow, and a blanket. No towel , like on 2AC.- So it's a pretty nice ride.
I must admit I'm tired of the food here. Most all of it is brown - fried, or noodles or rice and they are sometimes brown. Before the train left the station, I bought a pack of salt biscuits (Ritz crackers) to take as emergency rations. Then I ate a couple of fried brown things -dough and small green peppers and mashed potatoes. They're filling - but I'm not sure I can eat any more!
Then on the train a man came through taking orders for "the meal". I said I wanted one, paid him 35 rupees (70 cents), and he continued on taking orders.
About 2 hours later - which was soon enough, he returned. He brought me two tin foil bowls (like frozen chicken pot pie) and a sack with flour tortillas, and a bag of yogurt. In the foil bowls - they were actually rectangles - was 1.) gravy - and 2.) rice and vegetables. - and a little bitty spoon. I poured the gravy in on the rice and stuff, and it was pretty good, and the tortillas were good. Here they call them "chipatti" or "roti". No one knows what a tortilla is.
The lady across from me poured her yogurt in a little bowl provided , and ate it as a side dish with her dinner. I didn't see that until I had just bitten the end off the bag and sucked the yogurt into my mouth.
So - now I'm in Bombay - and I want to give a special thanks to everyone who has "adopted" a room, because the extra funds are now going for AIR CONDITIONED rooms!! Thanks very much. I am in a very nice hotel today - very expensive - $23.00. It does not have an attached bath, but the shared baths are very nice, ...AND... this hotel is the first one I have had in India and Nepal that actually has a lock in the door. All my rooms have had a bolt that has most times been hard to slide, and then a padlock that must be locked with the key - not just pushed closed, and that can sometimes be very frustrating, when it just won't lock!
So when your bathroom is down the hall, it's a real pain sometimes to lock and unlock the door!!
But at the "HOTEL WELCOME" in Bombay, they have real locks, and all I have to do is to push a button on the inside handle, and just pull the door behind me - and it's locked!!!
Be happy there for small things!
Hotel Welcome also has "tea time" free, at 5 p.m. - so gotta go get my share, and then in morning a free breakfast. I don't expect much at either - but I paid, and I want to at least see it.
Tomorrow afternoon I leave for Bangalor, on a 2AC coach. Don't know how long that takes.
will type you from Bangalor
Johnny
My train was a "3AC" coach. That means that it was AIR CONDITIONED and had three layers of berths, just like the "sleeper coach", (but the sleeper is not AC'ed), and sometimes they let too many people on a sleeper coach.
When I left Delhi for Jaisalmer, I had told you I was in a sleeper coach. I did not tell you that there were also 5 men on each lower berth (basically the seat for the three who have a berth,) and then 4 or 5 in the aisle, plus 2 in each overhead (top berth)! The middle berth is not lowered until everyone is ready to lie down. The train - the sleeper - was basically used as a commuter train for the first 4 hours, and finally everyone was gone, and the three of us left on each side -- got in our berths. As they say in Honduras - NO PROBLEMO !!! Just smile and live it!!
I tell you all that to say that in 3AC they do not overbook the coach. That's nice.
On 3AC the passenger also gets 2 sheets, a pillow, and a blanket. No towel , like on 2AC.- So it's a pretty nice ride.
I must admit I'm tired of the food here. Most all of it is brown - fried, or noodles or rice and they are sometimes brown. Before the train left the station, I bought a pack of salt biscuits (Ritz crackers) to take as emergency rations. Then I ate a couple of fried brown things -dough and small green peppers and mashed potatoes. They're filling - but I'm not sure I can eat any more!
Then on the train a man came through taking orders for "the meal". I said I wanted one, paid him 35 rupees (70 cents), and he continued on taking orders.
About 2 hours later - which was soon enough, he returned. He brought me two tin foil bowls (like frozen chicken pot pie) and a sack with flour tortillas, and a bag of yogurt. In the foil bowls - they were actually rectangles - was 1.) gravy - and 2.) rice and vegetables. - and a little bitty spoon. I poured the gravy in on the rice and stuff, and it was pretty good, and the tortillas were good. Here they call them "chipatti" or "roti". No one knows what a tortilla is.
The lady across from me poured her yogurt in a little bowl provided , and ate it as a side dish with her dinner. I didn't see that until I had just bitten the end off the bag and sucked the yogurt into my mouth.
So - now I'm in Bombay - and I want to give a special thanks to everyone who has "adopted" a room, because the extra funds are now going for AIR CONDITIONED rooms!! Thanks very much. I am in a very nice hotel today - very expensive - $23.00. It does not have an attached bath, but the shared baths are very nice, ...AND... this hotel is the first one I have had in India and Nepal that actually has a lock in the door. All my rooms have had a bolt that has most times been hard to slide, and then a padlock that must be locked with the key - not just pushed closed, and that can sometimes be very frustrating, when it just won't lock!
So when your bathroom is down the hall, it's a real pain sometimes to lock and unlock the door!!
But at the "HOTEL WELCOME" in Bombay, they have real locks, and all I have to do is to push a button on the inside handle, and just pull the door behind me - and it's locked!!!
Be happy there for small things!
Hotel Welcome also has "tea time" free, at 5 p.m. - so gotta go get my share, and then in morning a free breakfast. I don't expect much at either - but I paid, and I want to at least see it.
Tomorrow afternoon I leave for Bangalor, on a 2AC coach. Don't know how long that takes.
will type you from Bangalor
Johnny
posted by Johnny at
2:50 AM
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