Timekeeping on the Indian Western Railway
So boxing day began as Christmas day ended...on a train. I slept relatively ok - it was rather chilly up top but the other pair of bunks in our section of the train were empty so I borrowed a blanket! At around 6am I woke up, thinking that this was the time we had been supposed to arrive in Agra, but given we had left Varanasi around 3.5 hrs late, I wasn't expecting to be there for another few hours.
Looking at our location on the map, we were a bit surprised to find though, that we were in small town we were meant to have been in at midnight, running a good 7 hours behind schedule. Frustrating! The train trundled on at a painfully slow pace, and at around 9am we got ourselves some roommates - a much older Indian couple. These two made themselves at home and then decided to munch on some breakfast. This I found irritating for two reasons; firstly, we had not expected to need a meal on the train and had therefore brought only a couple of snacks which had long since been devoured, and secondly, their munching was of the horribly loud mouth-open variety and was followed by a bit of equally annoying burping. Breakfast evidently made them sleepy, and soon some loud, intermittent snoring added to the ambience.
I lay in my bunk, reading a book (finishing my fourth!) and dozing where possible. The temperature seemed to fluctuate between freezing and boiling (not unlike British trains I suppose) and the train's speed fluctuated between slow and stationary. We were running 8 hrs behind schedule, then 9 hrs, then....
With hopefully just a couple of hours to go, I started looking more keenly at the scenery out of the window (unavailable on the top bunk), sitting on the bottom bunk. It still seemed incredibly flat, with lots of rice fields and villagers going about their daily lives. Lunchtime came and went, and we bought pretty much anything that was being pedalled along the train at its regular stops, including biscuits, cake and some 7 rupee samosas. We were so desperate for food by this point that our carefulness surrounding street food had to be temporarily suspended!
Once (and thankfully) done with lunch, I took a small nap and awoke to discover that one of our roommates had in the intervening period somehow sliced off the end of his finger (I have a photo, it's not going on here...) and was casually dripping blood around the floor, his bed, the table, sheets etc. This just added to the general ambience of the train (although it did seem to reduce his snacking ability) making me incredibly glad to get off at Agra Fort at about 15:30 - just the 9.5 hours late...
Off the train, we were acutely aware we had missed most of the day earmarked for exploring, so we made a fast turnaround at our lovely looking hotel, and headed straight out to the Fort. This was a huge red sandstone Mughal Fort, lying between us and the railway station. It had been constructed for military purposes before being converted into a Palace by Shah Jahan in the 1650s, before his son seized power and imprisoned him in it, eight years later.
I'd imagine there are worse places to be imprisoned, as inside it was much more delicate and beautiful than it imagined. The mix of warm red sandstone and cooler white limestone gave a lovely character, and some of the features were both beautiful and technically well thought-out (such as various water systems using pressure head for flow, ventilation windows and cavity walls). Although the public can only see about a quarter of the Fort, I was impressed by the vast number of structures, arches and gates.
We'd hired a guide to show us around, and explored til it closed at sunset. Then, feeling extremely hungry after our epic 19 hr train journey, we had dinner at Joney's Place (recommended by our hotel) which was alright, if a bit mild, and then headed back to Taj Castle Homestay for a hopefully less broken night's sleep.
So boxing day began as Christmas day ended...on a train. I slept relatively ok - it was rather chilly up top but the other pair of bunks in our section of the train were empty so I borrowed a blanket! At around 6am I woke up, thinking that this was the time we had been supposed to arrive in Agra, but given we had left Varanasi around 3.5 hrs late, I wasn't expecting to be there for another few hours.
Looking at our location on the map, we were a bit surprised to find though, that we were in small town we were meant to have been in at midnight, running a good 7 hours behind schedule. Frustrating! The train trundled on at a painfully slow pace, and at around 9am we got ourselves some roommates - a much older Indian couple. These two made themselves at home and then decided to munch on some breakfast. This I found irritating for two reasons; firstly, we had not expected to need a meal on the train and had therefore brought only a couple of snacks which had long since been devoured, and secondly, their munching was of the horribly loud mouth-open variety and was followed by a bit of equally annoying burping. Breakfast evidently made them sleepy, and soon some loud, intermittent snoring added to the ambience.
I lay in my bunk, reading a book (finishing my fourth!) and dozing where possible. The temperature seemed to fluctuate between freezing and boiling (not unlike British trains I suppose) and the train's speed fluctuated between slow and stationary. We were running 8 hrs behind schedule, then 9 hrs, then....
With hopefully just a couple of hours to go, I started looking more keenly at the scenery out of the window (unavailable on the top bunk), sitting on the bottom bunk. It still seemed incredibly flat, with lots of rice fields and villagers going about their daily lives. Lunchtime came and went, and we bought pretty much anything that was being pedalled along the train at its regular stops, including biscuits, cake and some 7 rupee samosas. We were so desperate for food by this point that our carefulness surrounding street food had to be temporarily suspended!
Once (and thankfully) done with lunch, I took a small nap and awoke to discover that one of our roommates had in the intervening period somehow sliced off the end of his finger (I have a photo, it's not going on here...) and was casually dripping blood around the floor, his bed, the table, sheets etc. This just added to the general ambience of the train (although it did seem to reduce his snacking ability) making me incredibly glad to get off at Agra Fort at about 15:30 - just the 9.5 hours late...
Off the train, we were acutely aware we had missed most of the day earmarked for exploring, so we made a fast turnaround at our lovely looking hotel, and headed straight out to the Fort. This was a huge red sandstone Mughal Fort, lying between us and the railway station. It had been constructed for military purposes before being converted into a Palace by Shah Jahan in the 1650s, before his son seized power and imprisoned him in it, eight years later.
I'd imagine there are worse places to be imprisoned, as inside it was much more delicate and beautiful than it imagined. The mix of warm red sandstone and cooler white limestone gave a lovely character, and some of the features were both beautiful and technically well thought-out (such as various water systems using pressure head for flow, ventilation windows and cavity walls). Although the public can only see about a quarter of the Fort, I was impressed by the vast number of structures, arches and gates.
We'd hired a guide to show us around, and explored til it closed at sunset. Then, feeling extremely hungry after our epic 19 hr train journey, we had dinner at Joney's Place (recommended by our hotel) which was alright, if a bit mild, and then headed back to Taj Castle Homestay for a hopefully less broken night's sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment