January 2

Yesterday I ended with us getting on our first train around 910 pm. This train took us from Hosapete to Madgao. Jeff and I, again, are in the same car. But he was assigned #9, and me #31. We arrived at this station one hour and 45 minutes late, at six thirty in the morning. 

We paid to go into the VIP lounge for two hours. Well, we had comfy chairs, a lazy boy type, but did not recline. Also the lounge had showers, but they were not available due to not having towels. Paid for a brownie each and hot choc/coffee. So all in all not to impressed with that lounge. Also they had us pegged to the minute to leave. We only had 15 minutes or so until our train was due anyway.

We are going to Mumbai (Bombay, India).

This train – our second, longest train ride, and last for this transition, left on time!! But it lost time rapidly. Our train would be behind and then make up time. It was crazy. We stopped at one place for over one hour (at least three trains passed by us – one coming the other two were from behind us)! Jeff bought first class tickets, because that was all that was available. But we had an actual compartment, that had a door closure, and we had it all to ourselves! This journey has lots of bridges and tunnels, which means very hilly and forested terrain.  We came up to train stops that did not seem anyone should be there, but there they were. At the empty stations we went through, someone was always standing in uniform with a green flag to signal okay, I think. But the uniform reminded me of going through train stations in Mongolia (except there, they saluted us going through!) There were also stretches where the terrain was terraced for farming on one side and the other was a big valley. So, the Railroad track acts as a dike of sorts. We also crossed rivers of all sizes and a few lakes.

Our lunch order was taken by the car attendant and he brought it to us. We had a hard-boiled egg rice and a chicken biriyani. Also, we were given a side bag of chex-like 'crackers'. Questions?? Do you put them crumbled on top? OR Do you use them as little scoops? The meals were not included in the train fare, and the attendant collected payment upon our food arrival. There have been plenty of opportunities to eat!! Men came up and down selling coffee, chai (tea), tomato soup, 'chicken lollipops' (it's really a thing).  🙂   This just names some items there was so much more.

It is an experience riding first class. It was not as grand as I thought it would be but was fun and nice to be just us – quiet, and could sleep when we wanted. 

We had a nice sunset out our window. Finally, we arrived in Mumbai at 9:32 pm (25 minutes late) and caught a taxi to our hotel, Comfort Inn Heritage. (Jeff booked it on points earned from a credit card). We were checked in and made it to our room by 10:15pm. We crashed!