Ruminations upon Wednesday January 29, 2025 until Thursday January 30, 2025 travelling between Kahna, India and Agra, India
The boys really enjoyed their time at Aranyak Resort. Likely because they had so much downtime and freedom to play. They were sad to leave the carefree nature of the hotel behind. We packed up our bags and took the three hour journey back to Jabalpur.
Our tour company had us booked on an overnight sleeper train in the first class car from Jabalpur to Agra. We were excited for the boys to experience their first sleeper train, since the one we had planned to take from Prague to Venice fell through due to flooding. And, we had no idea what to expect.
Our driver offered to take us somewhere to eat before dropping us off at the train station. Stupidly, we declined thinking we would find food at the station. The station turned out to be a one room space with people strewn about, lying or sitting on blankets on the floor, and a few dozen plastic seats in rows. Seeing the state of the floor and as we had no blankets to sit or lie on, we opted for the seats. As we sat down, I noticed the chairs were designed with several holes right where one would place their bum. We settled in the best we could. The train wasn't scheduled to arrive for another two hours.
A little while later, we were suddenly overcome with the strong stench of urine. Curious to know what was happening, I looked around as surreptitiously as possible and noticed that a small, frail looking, elderly woman in the row next to us had urinated on herself in one of the seats. It was hard to ascertain if she even realized what happened. My heart went out to her. Except for a woman in her row who made sure everyone knew she was disgusted by the elderly woman and moved locations, no one else even batted an eye. After that episode, I believe the holes in the chairs serve a purpose. The urine had drained down to the floor and was mopped up after the elderly woman left her seat.
Returning my focus to our family, I noticed a man conspicuously taking pictures of our children and sending them to friends and family on his phone. The tension between respecting someone else's culture when in their domain and wanting to protect my children's privacy was exceedingly uncomfortable. The mama bear in me wanted to get up and shout, grab his phone, and demand all of the pictures be deleted. The other part of me wanted to ignore what was happening and trust all would be fine. In the end, I tried giving him the stink eye and telepathically sending him a message that said "Please stop." I doubt he received the message, but he stopped a few minutes later and returned to watching a show on his phone.
Our train arrived about twenty minutes before its scheduled departure. We found the first class car without issue, but had no idea how to open the car door. Thankfully, a stranger took pity on us and helped us open the door and get our bags on board. Without him, we'd probably still be standing there trying to figure it out.
Though far from luxurious, the first train car was a cut above the rest. Our private cabins included fold down beds, a vinyl cushioned bench seat, a small folding table under the seat, a large window with a curtain, outlets that could be used until 11:00PM, and an AC unit. The other cars had two columns with wooden seats that sit two apiece and a square cut out with wooden slats across serving as the window.
By the time the train departed, we were starving. We were down to two cans of tuna (for which we had to manufacture a utensil to eat it with), four bags of various Bizzli flavors from our Delhi Chabad shopping spree, and the raisins and pistachios from Old Delhi of which our children were becoming tired. Vendors came by to sell bottles of water and take food orders. With no food cars available, we could not understand how they were taking food orders. Finally, Chaim noticed that some of the vendors jumped off the train at different stops and brought food back on board with them to deliver to passengers.
Moderately full, we did our best to brush teeth and use the train bathroom before tucking in for the night. In all honesty, I preferred the pit in the outdoor hut on safari in Kanha that I had to use over the train bathroom. I went once on the train and then held in my pee for the next fourteen hours. This was the first time I truly appreciated all of the travel soaps and extra toilet paper we lugged around the world with us.
As much as I wanted to sleep on the train, I could not. Between the constant stopping, warning whistles, and pressure changes as the terrain shifted, I woke up after only a couple of hours. I spent the rest of the night reading, checking out the different stations as we passed through, and watching the sun rise in the hazy sky. It would be another exhausting day.
We arrived in Agra two hours late. I couldn't hold in my pee any longer and used the train bathroom just before we disembarked. Yuck.
