Delhi to Jaipur on the Ashram Express - New Delhi, India
New Delhi, India
Arriving at New Delhi station is a daunting experience. It is full of touts, aggressive tuk tuk drivers and (as we hear from a lot of people) con men. Old Delhi station however, is different. Within the old city, it still has the hustle and bustle, the food sellers shouting about their baskets full of samosa, the porters carrying luggage and the huge families walking 10 abreast along the platform yet it feels remarkably safer, slightly calmer and easier to navigate. Our train departed from platform 3 of about 18 platforms, and as it happens our platform was the furthest from the entrance. Think English stations, but in reverse. However, unlike the majority of things in India, it was well signposted, which came as quite a huge relief. We arrived at the station by Tuk-Tuk in the rain, about an hour before the train departed so we had chance to find the platform and what not. Turns out it was a lot easier than I had thought/feared. Our train was already in the station when we arrived so it made boarding even smoother. The 12916 Ashram Express train from Delhi to Jaipur was a reasonable looking train. I expected people hanging out of the windows and off the roof but all was rather calm and quiet. We found our carriage (2AC) and saw our names were on the seating reservation printout stuck to the side of the train (printed from what looked like a printer from the 1980s). Finding our berth was pretty easy. It consisted of 4 long bench seats, but squashy and nice rather than hard and wooden. One up and one down on either side. We had the top two beds so lumbered our little bags up and stored out packs under the bottom seats. There were also two bunks facing our compartment the other side of the aisle. So our compartment had a bit of a muddle up, the bottom seats were occupied by a man and his pregnant wife, but the mans seat wasn’t his, he was just occupying it to keep his wife occupied. (There is a story which develops out of this) Anyway, pregnant Indian lady slept a lot but she was very friendly whilst Indian husband was chatty and inquisitive but in a nice friendly way, not a Indian Tuk Tuk driver/tout way. Turns out, he worked for BT for a number of years! Pregnant woman’s mother also came along for the journey, and it played out like any family sitcom. It was rather funny to watch! They were all alighting at Ahmedabad, just south of Udaipur so they had a pretty hefty journey in front of them. The train departed at 3.20pm so everyone was up chatting and reading and as it grew darker, the partition curtains started to gradually slide across and slowly the lights started to flick out. Everyone has their own personal reading light in their bunk, but the majority of people were getting their head down. The bunks themselves have little packets with them which include two bed sheets, a pillow and a blanket. I’m not sure this is true for classes below this such as 3AC, but as the only tickets left for this train were 2AC, it was a nice addition! There is also a roof fan in each compartment which keeps it cool, but very cool in the evening! Thankfully there is a switch to turn it off because in the evening’AC’ becomes similar to a freezer. The man asleep on the bunk below was then woken by the man who’s seat it actually was. (They had arranged before that it was alright to swap as the man wanted to be with his pregnant wife) Turns out, the compartment next door still had its lights on, so the guy marched into our compartment, and without remorse woke the other guy up and kicked him out, before setting his bed and going to sleep! I joined the majority by trying to get some sleep in the nice, dark an arguably cosy compartment. That lasted all of about ten minutes before the conducted marched in (not saying a word or announcing himself) and turning all the lights on without warning. As you can imagine it was to everyone’s displeasure, but he checked our tickets and moved on. Eyes shut, drifting off again. “SAMOSA, SAMOSA, SAMOSA” “CHAI, CHAI, CHAI” “SAMOSA, SAMOSA, SAMOSA” We must have stopped at a station and the street sellers had boarded to sell their goods. A lovely wake up call every half hour or so! Even when everyone had lights off and looking like they were asleep, they would waltz through shouting about the stuff they had to sell. Quite interesting to hear and watch but annoying at the same time when your trying to drift off to sleep! We arrived into Jaipur at around 8.30pm and we got to enter the city whilst looking out of the open doors of the train. An exciting experience that induced some sweaty palms whenever another train swept past! Of corse we were set upon by the multitudes of Rickshaw drivers shouting “Oh you from England? Lovely Jubberly!” But we managed to get out of the station and to our hotel just fine. Overall, it was a surprisingly fun, calm and cosy experience. After hearing some horror stories, I was a little apprehensive but we turned out to have a great journey! Train journeys in India are a spectacle in themselves!