When traveling between Indian cities it is guaranteed that you will emerge from the cramped, humid train car or bus with colorful experiences (most of which are funnier to look back on than they were in the moment) . Arriving at 8am, my (supposed to be) 7am bus rocked and rolled back over Snake Mountain; the packed old bus slowly climbed up the mountain from Pushkar and flew at what should be (and probably is) an illegal speed down past Ajmer en route to Jaipur. At one of the stations, a family climbed abroad and, due to the volume of people, had to join the crowd of others standing in the aisle. My love of babies got the better of me and I immediately reached out and offered to old their tiny baby in my lap until they got a seat. As they eagerly handed her over I thought, 'As long as she doesn't cry the whole way or puke on me, I'm happy to cradle her along the bumpy ride.' On the bright side, she didn't throw up on me. On the down side, she peed instead- and cried. A lot. After about ten minutes she started wailing and I was the object of many a you-quiet-that-baby-down stare that I have admittedly thrown at babies on planes. Mid- bounce as I tried to quiet her down, my lap was suddenly soaking wet. Great. The parents- and everyone else around for that matter, thought it was hilarious and were all the more thankful that I was the recipient of her accident. Just as I thought that it was probably better that I didn't hold her for the four hours (my own body heat is enough thank you!)- I saw her, wrapped in a little blue towel, being handed back to me as if she was a piece of luggage making its way to the back of the bus. Luckily, she slept the rest of the way and I think her parents were a little too serious about having me take her back home with me! Jaipur was a great city- the explored the monkey, Surya, and Ganesha temples and found myself lost in the huge bazaar. Yet, given the sprawl, the pollution, and worst hassling I have yet experienced here, I think I prefer the smaller option (Jodhpur is the second largest city after Jaipur in Rajasthan)!
I left Jaipur on a 6am for a whirlwind day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. With all of the hype surrounding Indian trains/stations, I will admit that I was slightly nervous as I approached the HUGE station weighed down with my growing backpack.. the gifts/fabrics/jutis (shoes), and gifts just keep finding their way in! With the exchange rate of gifts for clothes/toiletries as I repack my bag with each city, I will most likely arrive home with nothing more than the clothes on my back. I was relieved when finding and boarding the train was actually very simple and I found my berth among the hoards of Indian families enjoying their summer vacations. As much as I tried to hold it for fear of what I might be confronted with, after 5 hours I couldn't fight the urge to use the bathroom. To put it bluntly, it was nothing more than a hole in the floor with a platform for each foot that looked down onto the threatening tracks below. Hey, at least it controlled the smell! As I went to unlock the door and go back to enjoying the trance-y Hindi music I found in Pushkar, I realized the door wouldn't open. I tried again and again to yank it open.. maybe it's just stuck? But it was no use- the little handle on the other side had locked me in from the outside. At that moment, I felt as though my stomach had fallen right down the hole and had been run over by the train. No windows, extremely loud rattling of the train car, and closed doors between the berth area and the bathroom. I started banging the door and yelling for help- looking back, I may have gone a little overboard with the hostage-like pleading, but with Agra approaching and no one to notice if I didn't come back to the berth, the thought of being lost to the world in the train bathroom warranted emergency! After a few minutes of knocking and slapping the door, the door was finally opened to the faces of a concerned looking mother and her daughter. Flustered, I found my way back to my seat and started brainstorming ways to avoid the bathrooms on my upcoming 11 hour (to Varanasi) and 20 hour (to Haridwar) train rides.
I left Jaipur on a 6am for a whirlwind day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. With all of the hype surrounding Indian trains/stations, I will admit that I was slightly nervous as I approached the HUGE station weighed down with my growing backpack.. the gifts/fabrics/jutis (shoes), and gifts just keep finding their way in! With the exchange rate of gifts for clothes/toiletries as I repack my bag with each city, I will most likely arrive home with nothing more than the clothes on my back. I was relieved when finding and boarding the train was actually very simple and I found my berth among the hoards of Indian families enjoying their summer vacations. As much as I tried to hold it for fear of what I might be confronted with, after 5 hours I couldn't fight the urge to use the bathroom. To put it bluntly, it was nothing more than a hole in the floor with a platform for each foot that looked down onto the threatening tracks below. Hey, at least it controlled the smell! As I went to unlock the door and go back to enjoying the trance-y Hindi music I found in Pushkar, I realized the door wouldn't open. I tried again and again to yank it open.. maybe it's just stuck? But it was no use- the little handle on the other side had locked me in from the outside. At that moment, I felt as though my stomach had fallen right down the hole and had been run over by the train. No windows, extremely loud rattling of the train car, and closed doors between the berth area and the bathroom. I started banging the door and yelling for help- looking back, I may have gone a little overboard with the hostage-like pleading, but with Agra approaching and no one to notice if I didn't come back to the berth, the thought of being lost to the world in the train bathroom warranted emergency! After a few minutes of knocking and slapping the door, the door was finally opened to the faces of a concerned looking mother and her daughter. Flustered, I found my way back to my seat and started brainstorming ways to avoid the bathrooms on my upcoming 11 hour (to Varanasi) and 20 hour (to Haridwar) train rides.