NIGHT TRAIN......
Well, I can't say it was the worst night of my life, but.....
Text to Sophie, ' May I register with someone that I hate sleepers and am divorcing your father.'
3 minutes later, 'PS A mouse just ran into my foot!'
We had booked through a ticket office with little English - and the 'assistance' of a taxi driver - and the 1st Class A/C turned out to be 3rd Class A/C. This meant stacked berths 3 high, with no more than 2 ft between the two stacks in the compartment, plus a couple of berths at one side! There was no height either, once the middle bunk-thing was let down, no-one could sit up. Worst of all? We were apparently booked for midddle and top! The other people were really nice - just too many and too near! The mouse kept running around, and there were mozzies despite the A/C, but we chatted as if we were enjoying it.... About 10.30pm there was a move to settle to bunks, and a lovely man who was travelling with his daughter organised everyone in Hindi, then said that I must have the bottom bunk, Dave a middle and a young man on his own would go in the top. Profuse thanks!
We each had a blanket (nice, clean) and a paper bag with a pair of sheets in. Imagine my amazement when the sheets were beautifully, crisply laundered, and smelled of lavender! Apart from that, it was like being put away on a hard, narrow shelf for the night - in the dark, of course. Another problem: we were the only ones in the compartment going to Mysore; everyone else was going on to Bangalore. We would arrive in the dark about 4.30am - how would we know we were there? Long night.......some great mozzie bites by the end. Tried not to think what the mouse was up to. About 3.30am, with hushed whispering, we put up the middle bunk so we could sit upright and watch. In the end the guard came round and said in a most wonderful growl, 'Mysore, Mysore.' Relief! We reckoned he got the job because of the perfect voice for alerting people without waking others! We dragged our luggage as quietly as possible past the recumbent forms, and negotiated the massive drop down to the platform. Shan't be doing that again!
Luggage piled into tuc-tuc, swayed to hotel with Dave perched very precariously beside driver. Pulled up in dark gutter with rough sleepers. No, apparently they were staff - the doorman was awakened by the tuc-tuc horn and leaped up and let us in. It all looked a bit daunting, but we were shown to our 'super-deluxe' room, which was fine, even has a tub! Swig of coke, biscuits with spread cheese and tomatoes (nothing since lunch) and we crashed. Notice in the room was the first thing we saw - photo attached.
All looks much better in daylight, room very comfortable, staff lovely. After breakfast will venture forth and see who we can contact.