The Short-Lived Miracle of the First-Class AC Sleeper

From Palolem, we traveled inland. Our sadness to be traveling away from the glorious beaches of Goa was tempered by our delight to be traveling in the almost luxurious comfort of the first-class air-conditioned sleeper car of the Indian Railways and Transportation Corporation. The polite and efficient staff gave us clean sheets and a pillow and took our order for lunch and brought our somewhat greasy, but still quite tasty veg-thali lunch to us. We were beside ourselves to have a positive experience with some form of Indian transport. We did not even see a roach. I slept comfortably from 7:30 to 11:30 am and spent the rest of the 8 hour trip gazing out the window at the scenic Indian countryside and towns, full of lush farmland and rice paddies and frequent mining and construction sites worked by barefoot men and women. All fascinating.