On the train to Londa from Bangalore.
In Bangalore they seem to have realised that buildings look really good if you don't paint them. Its collection of stone buildings is very impressive and the many parks and gardens more than justify its other name, 'The Garden City'. We had some initial problems with bastard auto-drivers claiming that Cubbon Road (Church address given to us by uncle Frank) was 14km away. It was 1km.1 When we got there, the Sister we were trying to find who knew Uncle Frank was in hospital and the one we actually spoke to was so afraid of being confronted by two men that we made our excuses and decided to keep our bags with us.
Our auto driver (mark #2 because the one before him was incompetent) saved the day by offering to hide the bags in his boot while he took us on a sightseeing tour of Bangalore. To overcome our inhibitions/paranoia, he proudly showed us a collection of letters, addresses and photographs from foreigners all saying how wonderful he is. We agreed, reluctantly, after he pointed out that we could write down his number in case he stole anything.
Although it is a lovely town, there's not that much to do in Bangalore, but the buildings are lovely. Best was the Karnataka State Government building which proudly proclaimed 'Government Work is God's Work'.
Uncle Frank's brother, 'Flinders Steven' is pastor of St Mark's Cathedral, but we couldn't find him, either. The Cathedral was very nice though and not RC!
...
We've got 14 hrs on this train to Londa, arriving at 11am tomorrow, from there we get the bus to Panjim, the capital of Goa. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with the train this time, although the smells occasionally bring back waves of reminiscence about our first train journey to Madurai. Yet again I wonder about the immaturity of young Indians. There's a group of them here who can't be younger than twenty and they're behaving as if it's their first school trip or time away from home. Which I suppose, it probably is.2
- Oh the camaraderie of the auto drivers, all swearing blind that the guy was right, it IS 14km, no that map you have there with it clearly marked is wrong. The problem of course, is that you have to agree a price before you get in, before they will agree to take you anywhere and it's almost impossible to re-negotiate once you arrive. The difference in price between 14 and 1km is phenomenal, eventually we had to agree two prices depending on how far it turned out to be.
- Travelling on Indian Trains
The way our Round Trip ticket works is pretty weird. Firstly I made a list of places I wanted to visit, through careful studying of places you really should go to, and practicalities of the rail network. Then I was given a sheet of paper with Tamil written all over it, an official stamp and the station codes of each train station. On the train, the conductor writes on the ticket which journey we are making, and when we arrive at a place, we book our next journey. It doesn't matter when the next journey is, but the whole ticket is valid for two months. The good thing about this is that if we really like a place, we can stay for a few more days.
Where it is an overnight journey, we get sleeper cars and always travel second class. It is much more social and doesn't have the 'freezing cold with blacked-out windows so you can't see anything' problem. Someone comes along the train and takes your dinner order, which is invariably veggie curry. The good thing about this food is that the chef cooks it all fresh to order! There are a lot of deaths on Indian trains, due to going over a bump and the chef getting a faceful of boiling oil. The Chai guys are a Godsend at the station and of course by this time everyone's amazed that we're eating anything, being foreigners and all.
Bags get chained up if you're sensible, I used mine as a lumpy pillow as well, but you never really sleep, it's much too noisy.
