The Trouble With Trains

Leaving Hampi, we headed to Mysore via a series of transports. First, we arrived early only to wait over an hour in the nearest train station in the small, rural town of Hospet. Seriously, I know Charlie and I are interesting, but we are not that interesting. And yet, we continue to get a crazy amount of attention from the locals. At one point Charlie left me with the bags to go make a phone call and when he got back, exasperated that he had been swarmed by locals curious about him, he found me surrounded by - not joking - 20-30 people, mainly men, and all standing far too close. They were entranced by me working on a "Codeword" puzzle book. (It is kind of like a crossword puzzle.) It was quite scary to be surrounded so quickly, although I do realize that the overwhelming majority mean no harm and are mainly curious. At some point, I could seriously lose it and just may bite the nearest onlooker. So be warned.

Next, we traveled on a local train without a reservation. The train was packed and Charlie sat in the overhead baggage rack. The 4-1/2 hour train ride was definitely an experience. We chatted with people who knew a little English, and otherwise were surrounded and stared at the whole way. Running out of things to talk about with the folks who speak English, I fish out a penny and give it to the little boy in this picture. This completely makes his day. The penny gets passed around to everyone in the crowd gathered around us, as the boy fretfully watches on scared that he will lose his treasure. The boy's dad asks me how much the penny is worth in rupees, and I reply half a rupee. The father asks whether people/businesses refuse to accept a penny - it appears as though he is shocked to find out that the US has a coin worth less than a rupee. I confirm that the penny is widely used. Then, the father reaches for his wallet and takes out one rupee to very kindly "pay" me for the penny I have given to his son. I assure him that the penny is a gift and no payment is necessary. At one point, a young woman who has just gotten married (but for some reason not her husband) gets on the train and everyone shuffles so that she can sit next to us, as though Charlie and I and this new bride are the guests of honor. All the while, everybody squeezes in to all available sitting areas, for some lengths of time, I am jabbed with elbows, shoulders, hips and/or have people basically have people sitting on top of me. Experiences such as these are what make our India trip, but at the same time they leave us mentally and physically exhausted. I would gladly ride a local train without a reservation again, but not for 4-1/2 hours.

Finally, arriving in the nowhere town of Hubli, we changed trains and boarded the 9:30 pm first class AC sleeper to Mysore. I was in the bunk above Charlie and I knew something was wrong when I was overwhelmed with the lung-burning smell of our DEET spray. Charlie poked his head into my bunk and said, "If I have something disturbing to tell you, do you want to know?" I said, "No. Don't tell me." (I already just kind of assume that there are all kinds of bugs on the trains - mosquitoes, roaches, possibly also bedbugs. I don't want to know about any of it except the bedbugs. I am able to delude myself enough that, if I see a roach and am able to kill it, the problem is solved.) Charlie ignores my protestations and tells me that he found at least 5 roaches in his bed, including some in his sheets, and some were babies, which means we were near the nest. He does not sleep a wink that night and now refuses to travel the trains in India at night. I kept a lookout for about an hour or so but saw no roaches in my bunk and so was able to delude myself that the problem was concentrated only in Charlie's bed. I did put earplugs in my ears to keep them from crawling in, just in case. Gotta protect those orifices.

We then proceeded to check in to a $100 a night resort in Mysore, and had a most relaxing and vermin-free stay. I told Charlie, "We can go back to India tomorrow. Today, let's take the day off."