The Not So Nice Train Ride

Apparently I booked my first train ride for princess package. Not so this time, I booked on the cheap sleeper car to save money thinking it would be ok after everyone I talked to who rode it. What train did they ride????? Here's the journey in time blocks:

7:20pm leave hotel by autorickshaw for 1 hour 10 minute ride to train station. a vehicle that fits 12 nationals barely fits 3 north americans comfortably. driver nice, roads not.

10pm train leaves station 1/2 hour late. this is good considering this particular train is usually 5-6 hours late. we get on our car after running up and down the length of the platform (looooong), finally find ours marked in chalk, and find a family of 6 sleeping on our beds. i feel like a cheap white person until dave loses it and manages to get all 6 of them out with no hassle.

1am some loud obnoxious person is walking through our car, filled with maybe 200 people, clapping and yelling. it's a transvestite, might be pretty but very annoying. when she gets to my bed she fully wakes me with a slap to my head. i slap her back, she slaps me back, one more whack to her head and she goes away.

on the bunk below me dave is trying to sleep despite the family of three who are snuggling up next to his bum. he beats them off. andrew is in the bunk above and apparently unaware of the chaos below.

6am the chai, food, watch, electric-wallahs have arrived and go up and down the car repeatedly yelling their respective ware "CHAI CHAI CHAI CHAI" "PAKORA PAKORA PAKORA"

8am can't sleep anymore, a teeny tiny family of 10 jams into our area. the kids heads are shaved, i think it's because of head lice judging by how the cute little boy keeps picking at imaginary bugs on his head, placing them in his palm and smashing them with a satisfied "pow".

9am we make friends with the nice 15 year old sleeping across from us. two others shared his bunk unbeknownst to him.

the rest of the time we try to sleep, look out the windows, avoid the bathroom which can no longer be done due to 3 litres of water the day before. a squat toilet on a moving train is interesting. i'm tired and cranky until i'm walking back to my bunk when i discover you can hang out the side of the train and catch the views from there. all of a sudden traveling is fun again.

4pm have finally arrived at next major point of departure and catch a jeep, $2 for a 3 hour hair raising ride into the mountains, through tea plantations up up up on those roads you hear about in the news when buses plunge hundreds of feet, killing all inside. it's the best part of the trip in my opinion

7:20pm arrive in Darjeeling and despite being tired and smelling overripe, I am 100% in love with this place.