India - Sanchi to Jodhpur

I bumped my way on the bus to Jalgaon feeling like I was finally getting the hang of India. Made my way to the train station, bought a ticket to Sanchi and sat down in the station. A German couple, Felix and Christina approached me wanting to have a look in my guide book. We ended up down at a pub drinking pepsis and laughing at the craziness of India. They were heading way across the country to Rajastahn but there didn´t appear to be any easy connections there, so they started going North on the same train with me. Unfortunately they picked a bad time to follow me as I appeared to have picked up the black ribbed nobbler. The train left at 5.45pm from platform 3, so we waited until sure enough at 5.45 a train pulls in to platform 3. We all tried asking people if this was heading to Bhopal but had little success in any kind of response. The train started to pull out so we decided we´d better jump on. Unfortunately it was jammed full of people and we didn´t have a seat reservation, so we were shunted from carriage to carriage until we stood next to the toilets and started talking to someone that spoke some English. The train was actually heading to Madras, in the far South of India, pretty much the complete opposite direction of where we were heading. Fortunately the first stop was common so we were able to jump off and make it onto the right train. We still had no seat reservations though, I came close to making a deal with a dodgy looking guy who wanted to sell me his seat reservations but thankfully F&C weren´t keen on the idea. We actually managed to find some spare seats and reserve them through to Bhopal via the conductor so we could get a bit of sleep. Next thing I knew we were surrounded by an Indian family throwing their bags around and demanding to see our tickets. Of course our tickets didn´t actually have reservations, just some scribble from the conductor which I was trying to explain to the father of the family. It seemed the only thing he understood was Bhopal as he kept saying it. Then it clicked and I spun around to see a sign saying ¨Bhopal¨ as the train slowly pulled out of the station. The conductor had told us it would arrive at 1.30am and it was only 1am. Once again we shuffled our way to the toilet standing zone and contemplated what to do. Within about 10 minutes we had a couple of armed guards on us wanting to know what we were doing and where our seats were. After about 20 minutes of explanation they managed to find us a seat and explain that I had to get off at the next station then get the 3.45am train back in the other direction. F&C decided they´d stay on the train and try to make it all the way to Agra. So I bid them farewell, managed to get about 20 minutes of sleep between waking frantically every time the train stopped (which it did every 10 minutes for some reason). Sure enough I managed to find my way onto a train at around 4am heading back in the opposite direction, and eventually arrived around 5am. Unfortunately my destination was actually Sanchi, another 20km away not serviced until 8am or so the next day. I surveyed the station and found rows of people covered head to foot sleeping on the platform. I decided it looked like a good option at this stage and if I could cover myself completely they´d never know I was a stupid foreigner! It actually worked and I got an hour or two of sleep in between the incredibly piercingly loud train horns that were blasted as each train flew through the station. I later figured out it was probably to scare all the stray cows away.

Just to break up this neverending stream of boring text, here's a picture of what's happened to my arms after 2 months of constant sunshine. I don't think they've changed much in the last month through Egypt and Spain, they're just solid brown now. I think I look pretty silly with my top off.



The next morning I had one of the nicest moments of my trip in India. I had half a pack of biscuits left in my pack, which I decided to share with the homeless family that I slept next to. It was lovely sitting and eating with them. That day was the one and only day in India that I had my wish come true of never being approached by a beggar. I don´t think I´ve ever been so dirty, completely covered in dust from head to toe with a strange peaceful look on my face. I made it to Sanchi and had a great time wandering around the 3rd Century BC stupas dreaming of buddha while the rain slowly streaked the dirt down my clothes. When I returned to the train station to decide where to head to next I noticed a train leaving all the way to Jodhpur which was where F&C were heading to next. I decided I´d surprise them by meeting them there. I'll throw this photo in of a Hindu temple in the town I woke up in as it's almost unbelievable that such tacky theme park style decorations could be associated with a place of worship.



I had about 5 hours to spare so headed to the next town on the train line. It was really pouring at this stage and a funny looking man on a bicycle approached me at the station saying ¨market¨ while he signalled at the canopy behind him. Sure I thought and jumped in. I had to laugh at the situation, it was raining walls of water, I could barely keep myself dry in the back with my umbrella and the canopy and this guy was completely saturated, pumping away towards the market. After about 10 minutes we came to an intersection and he stopped, signalling to a liquor shop. I was confused, asked him about the market, he just pointed at the liquor store again. I shrugged then made the sign for food. He hussled me over to a run down shack on the other side of the road where I struggled to order anything and resorted in a Thali again. Drinks were a problem, they continued to pressure me for beer or whiskey. What the hell, I hadn´t drunk in weeks, so I returned to the liquor store and bought myself a long neck, then looked at the rider, water trickling down his chiselled face and bought him one as well, then decided I´d have another one. The rider signalled that he wanted another too, but I told him he was pushing his luck. We returned to the restaurant where I decided to order the rider some food too. We cracked the beers and he skulled his glass. I poured him another, he skulled it instantly. I slowly finished my glass, poured another each and he skulled again then poured himself another and skulled. Hmm, fair enough I thought. He ended up downing most of the beer himself. Then the uncomfortable time came when he wanted to take me back to the station again. I decided I wanted to walk, and couldn´t work out if he just didn´t understand that or he was demanding more money. He was asking for 20 rupees for the round trip. I tried to just give him 20, but he wanted me in his cab for some reason. In the end a street seller that was standing next to us just told me to give him 10 and be done with it! By this stage I had a crowd of about 20 people around me, this was a pretty down and out town in the middle of nowhere. I started walking back to the station, and ended up chatting with some of the crowd that had formed and were continuing in the same direction. There were a group of drummers from a band that were great fun but spoke very little English, I really wanted to hang out with them and watch them play but they didn´t understand. I managed to get them to give me a little demonstration at least. You can see one of the drummers here, along with the usual chaos of an Indian road.



It was a great walk, I talked with heaps of people along the way, but when I made it to the train station I realised I still had nearly 3 hours left to wait. So I jumped back on another rickshaw into town much to the bemusement of everyone that I passed on the way back. After a few hours of waiting in a restaurant thinking they couldn't have forgotten my order as I was the only one there, my train finally came. Alas the nobbler was still with me, a whole night of mistakes culminating in me sleeping on the train platform not enough to shake it. I was wondering why no matter what I said I didn´t appear to be able to get a seat reservation, it turned out there was only 2nd class available on the train. So I had to squeeze in to a small seat beside 5 others and start to hallucinate with tiredness. After a couple of hours I was staring at the floor, sloshing with water that had seeped through the windows, muddy and filthy from everyone's shoes, yet there were squares of dry ground where maybe I could rest my head. I cracked and bent down to embrace the muck when the man on the top berth tapped me on the shoulder and offered it to me. A gift from the heavens! The 2nd class trains in India have a top berth above the seats which usually just houses one person to lie down, if you're up there nobody seems to mess with you. I didn't realise how much of a gift this was until 20 hours later the train was still chugging through the now desert.



For some reason it stopped at every station for 10 to 30 minutes, I can't for the life of me work out why and it drove me completely mad. Finally after nearly 24 hours I arrived in Jodhpur to a very welcome shower and bed. The next morning I walked up to the imposing fort, the most impressive I've ever laid eyes on. This picture gives a bit of an indication of the immensity of it, the bluff it's built on is over 20 metres high, then they decided to build another 20-30 metres of castle wall on top of this. The fort was never taken by force.



The other great thing about Jodhpur is the rooftop terraces; sitting on the roof as the sun sets is an amazing experience. Here you can see why Jodhpur is called "The blue city", all of the houses have a light blue colour from the limestone paint used for cooling which also helps keep the mosquitoes away apparently.



I think I'll leave it there for now, I don't want to dredge up the horrible camel experience for a little while.