Trains!

Trains in India are really fun.  John and I have made a few train trips and each one has been unique, enjoyable, and cheap.  Truly, I don't think any trip to India is complete without experiencing the fun of a train, but that's just me.  In addition, trains go pretty much everywhere, so travel is easy and affordable for everyone in the country, not just those who have money.

Our first trip by train was from Indore to New Delhi.  Since it was our first trip, we got a ticket on AC3, my dad having insisted that we needed to be on an AC class.  In AC3 there are three tiers of bunks.  Our friend Matt from Barli told us that the top was the best one because you can go up there whenever you want to during the trip.  If you have one of the bottom 2 bunks, you have to wait for everyone else to lay down before you can.  The bottom bunk doubles as a seat for the 3 people to sit on.  

The day we left Indore, we made ourselves 4 peanut butter and banana sandwiches on chapatis and packed them up as our dinner.  It may sound strange, but it's a lifesaver when there is no other safe food to eat or it's too spicy, which happened quite a bit at the beginning.  Others on the train had also brought their tiffins of food on the train.  Every now and then people would walk down the aisles yelling, "Chai, Chai!" or "Coffee!" or "Tamater Soup!" or whatever they happened to be selling.  The train made many stops where you could get off to grab a quick bite of whatever they were selling on that platform or a bottle of water or whatever.  John got off at one point and brought us back five hot and greasy samosas for 20 rupees.  They gave us sheets and a pillow and a blanket to make our bed and sleep with.  It felt like one big slumber party.  We had a blast.

All of our trips since then have been on sleeper class, the main differences being that it is way cheaper, no sheets provided, no AC, and not quite as well kept.  When we rode AC3 we froze under the AC and figured it didn't make sense to pay more for something that made us uncomfortable.  Despite what some may say, sleeper class is great.  We had absolutely no problems.  The only thing I would say is that one of the sleeper trains had more men than women and children so had I been alone, I would have been very uncomfortable.  So if I was traveling alone, I'd probably take a better class, but with John with me sleeper is just fine for us.  

One morning, our train arrived in Jodhpur at 7 am.  We were awoken at 6 am by the sound of two men singing and playing the drums.  We were like "Where are we?"  It was kind of surreal to wake up to that, but in a very good way.  They were really good and they set the mood for our trip through Rajasthan.  They then further set the tone of the trip by hitting us up for money.

We've taken a total of 4 trips and still haven't hit the 100 dollar mark.