(1) How I Feel at the Train Station |
Now to continue from where we left off yesterday: After the guy ran up to us and told us to go to Platform 5, we looked around and realized we had no idea where that was located. We asked a few people but our ticket did not say anything other than the train number, the boxcar number, and the seat number, so no one was really able to help us. We scouted around and reconnoitered the lay of the land and finally saw a stair case rising over the tracks leading to a bridge that crossed Platform 1, which was where we were standing. It made sense that other platforms would follow on the other side of the magical rainbow, so we climbed the stairs and saw that on the bridge/landing, there were 16 platforms up ahead, like Concourse A,B,C,D…. etc. Still, our train number was not on any of the signs, which meant having to go to each platform to see if we could find our train number. We started at Platform 5, but when we walked down the terminal our train number did not show up anywhere. We quickly re-ascended up the stairs to the main terminal/rampart and started checking every platform for signage of our departing train. The place was packed with thousands of travelers and it was now 8 a.m. and our train was boarding.
(2) Which Way Do We Go? |
Elated that we had found our train, we rushed to the area that said our particular car was supposed to be at and walked directly to a pair of seats in the middle of the car and sat down. Then we checked our tickets for our exact seats and found we were sitting in them—synchronicity! We stowed our stuff and slowly chugged toward the Taj Mahal. Once we got going I started reading the local newspaper and I kept thinking I was seeing something move out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked the thing disappeared. A few minutes later Annie jumped and screamed as a cute little Feifel ran between her feet. That's right, the train had mice. My first thought was to step on the little critter, but then I remembered I was in India and that by doing so I would go straight to jail for killing someone’s grandma, followed by going straight to hell for killing someone’s grandma. Feifel was left unscathed.
Twenty minutes later, the train stopped and suddenly our car began filling up. There was a bit of a commotion as a young man insisted that he stow his luggage under our feet, which would have meant our legs being propped upward with our knees in our faces for four hours. This was an unacceptable proposition and Annie held her ground until he demanded to see our ticket as he claimed we were in his seat. We showed him our ticket and he suddenly said, “You are in the wrong car! This is S4 and you should be in S6!”
Dang-it, I thought, no synchronicity!
(3) "Your Wife is Not Here" |
A moment later Annie poked her head out of the car and said, “Where did you go?”
I asked her the same and we both ran up and down the terminal looking for our car, all the while hoping the train was not going to pull away. The problem with finding it stemmed from two sources: one, the conductor pointed in the wrong direction when stating which way to go; and two, the cars were all out of sequence.
(4) "Too Many Trains" |
We got back on with plenty of time to spare and chugged along the way to Agra.
To be continued…
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