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Rosemary's Ramblings
After nainital I had a bit of a nightmare journey, firstly the journey plan was changed at the last minute instead of heading to Delhi I had to go back to Varanasi. I had left my credit card in the hotels safe! (I know what an idiot!) Secondly it seemed to expand itself at every available opportunity. So from nainital I took a bus to haldwani (2 hours turned to 3 as a prisoner had escaped so the bus was searched at each checkpoint) by which time I had missed the daily train to Varanasi. I got another bus to bareilly a larger transport hub where I would have no problem getting a train to Varanasi. This took a further 3 hours. Bareilly though marked on the map has no entry in the lonely planet, I was adopted by one of the many people I call guardian angels and escorted to the train station - he even helped me navigate the ticket buying. So I arrived in bareilly train station at 12:00 ish. The reservation computers were of course down, so after some negotiation I purchased a basic seat ticket and was given some train numbers, I could upgrade my ticket on the train after talking with the conductor. The first recommended train would leave at 1808. the station master well one of his colleagues spoke to me about which train I was going to get and assured me that they would be completely full and that I should get on an earlier train due to arrive Varanasi at 3am and leave shortly. I phoned the hotel and let them know that I would be arriving early and could someone meet me pretty please - of course came the response.
I waited in the ladies waiting room speaking to some Indian college students, one of them was getting on the same train as me so I could follow her if I wanted. I jumped at the chance of this assistance and so that was how I ended up on the train. In some ways it turned out to be the wrong train but its not something I regret or wish happened differently though I pretty sure most people would have rather avoided it. The train I eventually found out was the local train, for local people, which stopped at every local station. Watching the scenery wiz past was pretty amazing and observing the people (or being observed) was interesting. The people changed regularly, I was pressured by a rather large family so moved to the top bunk briefly to escape the squash only to find the temperature at the top rather unbearable, as soon as they got off I returned to my seat and resolved not to move too far again. In the evening four gentle men boarded and sat near me, they played a rather confusing card game, even after watching for over an hour I still had no idea what was going on but it seemed to involve slamming cards down in quick succession - but not necessarily in the same person order. The cards seemed a pretty random mix too, they fed me a fruit which I have seen about but not tried, not wanting to seem rude I took a couple but not being able to wash them I thanked them and blamed a touchy stomach for not wanting to eat them all.
After they left I fell asleep stretched out along the bench bed, the conductor woke me for my ticket, it was at this point I was informed I had the wrong ticket and would have to pay for the upgrade - no problem I replied (it had cost less than 2pounds anyway) then after looking a bit confused he said arm... you are on the wrong train! I checked that I was still going to end up in Varanasi eventually - yes he said but probably 7am. I could handle that, a couple more hours sleep. He then asked me to wait while he checked something and scuttled off. The fact I had the wrong ticket on the wrong train must have played on my mind in my sleep, at one point I opened my eyes to see an armed police man sat opposite me, looking intently. I closed my eyes again, it couldn't be real, then I felt something on my wrist and in my semi conscious state I though it had been handcuffed I slowly opened my eyes again and moved my ratter numb arm only to realise it was my bangles not handcuff. The policeman was really quite sweet and softly spoken and wasn't there to arrest me for having the wrong ticket. Later at a more reasonable 6 am the lady now sat opposite me tried to feed me breakfast after asking my destination she said it was too long to wait I should eat. That's when I realised that I wouldn't be escaping the train at 7! After much persuasion I took a roti that was being offered and passed round the numerous relatives thanking her and refusing anything else due to my mythical funny stomach.
Finally the journey ended back at Ganpati Guest House (Highly recommended if anybody heading in this direction!) at 11:30am 29 hours after I originally set off. The journey should only have taken 12 hours. I arrived at the hotel running with sweat, filthy tired and much later than anticipated. They had considered calling the police to log my disappearance but decided to give me until 12:00, I arrived just in the knick of time!
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