Pictures, from the most intense (and authentic) train ride I ever took.

The night before... at a hotel near Chennai Central Train Station... Clearly very chirpy. The room has no air con (despite the suspicious presence of said machine embedded in the window), so everyone had their shirts off. The cricket commentator on TV is a CHINESE who can speak Hindi.


The room was crappy and Tim got a few mosquito bites. The hotel-owner clearly empathised with us when he pasted glow-in-the-dark stars and planets on the ceiling. Note the tell-tale white patches. We were surprised beyond belief when we switched off the lights to sleep, only to behold a galaxy of stars on the ceiling. For a moment we thought the room was so bad there was no roof.



Pre-train ride breakfast was masala dhosai with chicken curry. We somehow managed to order them from this indian uncle with no teeth at this coffee house near our "hotel". We ate with fingers. The beginning of an education in Indian hygiene. With live chickens on the floor near us.


Chennai Central station, with its crowds



The train. Its packed to the brim. Like a train bound for Auschwitz.



Before trip photos, looking happy and eager. ok not so eager.



Meet the natives. And the cramped interior of the train. People sleep both on the racks to the left and right, and some sleep on the floor.


Tim wanted to pose with him for a photo. But he was eager for a nice curry right at the back of the train.

Fascinated with his butt.

The view was...

OMG its the three holy men. Actually they are just asleep from the heat.


This guy is a real gentleman. He gave us one unripened green guava each to chew on, as well as a bottle of water to Tim, foc. We subsequently debated on whether the "guava" is indeed a guava or not. You can decide yourself after viewing its picture below.

Tim calls him our "night-riding buddy". He lasted the whole journey with us, giving us each a handshake after we reached Howrah.


Meal on the train... with hands and spoons. How did we dispose of the used utensils and aluminium boxes? Out of the window, just like the way the natives do it.

Another person that brigthened up our trip was "Lion". Yes he calls himself that. He offered us his dinner and it turned out to be really nice. The only problem is we had an entire mountain of rice to finish on top of the dinner we ordered, and we couldn't say we don't want the food because he has been so gracious to us. We took turns to finish the mountain, mixing fingernail dirt, saliva and curry together before scoping rice down our throats.





The rest of the people in our cabin were as talkative as "Lion". Ramu, the guy with the handphone, is a train driver with the Indian Railways. He was very eager to learn more about Singapore, and we talked about marriages, currency, handphones... almost anything. Rao, the guy to Ramu's left is also a train operater. "Lion" himself operated vehicles that caught tiger "phrawwnnss". We don't know who is the random indian guy to the extreme right.


Sleeping quarters.... Roger and I slept at the top while Tim slept at the second tier just below me. It was crammed and extremely warm and sweaty.

CAN YOU HANDLE THE TOILET? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TOILET. Actually the toilet wasn't too filthy. It was basically a hole in the train floor. Shit and piss went directly onto the tracks. Which might explain why it smells like that everywhere in India. Tim very graciously offered to enact a pose.


Crazy indian guy who woke us up, singing while playing a drum.


FINALLY, Howrah!




After trip photos. We were clearly very happy to be out of the pressure cooker.


The Indians are actually very nice people. The guy in the picture is really not thinking of robbing/raping/murdering us.

Finally, an interesting poster at the LAN shop we are at now:


Note point number 10.

More pictures tomorrow after our walk around Calcutta.