Train Travails

For someone with even just a cursory knowledge of India's geography, it's likely obvious that the country is immense. In visiting India, whether for the first, third, or umpteenth time, most people like to explore different and disparate places. The reasons are fairly obvious: with such varied geography and culture, one gets to see a different “India” in each region. As those of you who have been following the blog know, we decided to take a trip to Varanasi. From here, we headed West to Rajasthan to see a bit of desert life and scenery. We (namely Jo and I the trip planners) wanted to expose our traveling wards to the culture of train travel. Let's just say we've had easier train trips, but this way they got a pretty real taste of train travel.


Jo and Gail bored to tears 2 hours past the train departure at 1 am


Dave reading a student's dissertation while waiting at 2 am....



Getting to Jaipur from Varanasi should be about 17 hours. Just a nice simple overnight ride. Why did ours take 25? Well, the Jhats, a disadvantaged group have been protesting the government, and shut down many of the rail lines. As a result we all got to spend some very quality time together in the train!




Personally, when the trains run on time, I love traveling by train. If you're an obsessive doctoral candidate, you can get work done.



Or maybe a bit of relaxing, watching the scenery and daily life fly by...






or when you're held us for several hours you can just play banjo between the train cars with the doors open, letting the wind blow and living out some hobo fantasy....




Lesson learned....train travel can be a great way to see the country if you have some time...and lots of patience.