Time to move on make more experiences. Heading out to our first train ride, we walked fully backpacked the about 15 minutes into the train station. Luckily it had rained during the night, so the temperatures were comfortable in the mid twenties. Humid enough to sweat though, of course.
We arrived at the station well in time and surprisingly found in an instance the display that our train will leave from platform 13 of this head end station. The train was already there but as we had more than 45 minutes to the scheduled departure at 8:40 a.m., we sat down on a free bench in the waiting hall. Not a minute passed and an Indian lady said hello and asked me, where we came from – as it happened to us countless time before – even though it was only the third day in India. Often the people wanted only to present their Knowledge of some German words and cities, others wanted to start a sales talk.
Mostly we responded, also here, and a clear “Guten Morgen wie geht’s?” came back to us. The lady, maybe in her sixties, introduced herself as Sally, working for the tourist department. Just as the day before in the restaurant, where a lady explained the menu to us, also here we ran into the right person, or rather she into us. Explanations on when to board and which coach was ours were not the only service. She even took the 10 minute walk (one way) with me to the coach, just to make sure we are feeling comfortable on our trip.
While passing coach by coach on the platform, Sally – greeting other persons with name here and there – shared a bit of her life with me. She was born in Birmingham, England but her mother died three days after the birth, her (Indian) father had her put to India to be raised. She complained “why didn’t he put me in an orphany in England, then at least I would have stayed there.” She appeared to be serious but at the same time not bitter. She told me that next month she would retire after having worked the last 26 years in the company and that she intends to travel to England in the next year, for what she saves every extra money. This time I asked for a selfie with her and then she set off with best wishes for our journey.
Meanwhile it was time to board the train. When I mentioned traveling by train to my friends in advance of of our trip one responded “are these the ones where you sit on the roof?” We entered an air conditioned and nearly empty coach. The interior could well have been from the 1960s but there were power outlets, inclinable chairs as well as fold-out tables and – more remarkably – at 8:40 and 4 seconds a horn sounded and the train started moving.
Let me add that over the next few stops nearly all of the seats in the coach the train became occupied and we saw also trains stuffed so much that people hanging out of the opened doors.