Puffed out!

We were looking forward to the train journeys in India - we like travelling by train, it's environmentally sound & it would be a blessed relief from the terrible roads & insufferable car journeys - or so we thought! One can but dream........

Train 1 Varanasi to New Delhi
2-tier air-conditioned with curtains for privacy, sharing with 2 strangers - but we had the bottom bunks. Due to leave at 3.45 pm but departed at 6 PM. Arrived Delhi 7 hours late at 11.30 next day. It did save us from getting off at 4.40 am & we did miss the torrential rain outside, but it was a strange experience, particularly since no information is imparted to passengers other than a placatory "Oh, 10 minutes more only, Madam". Indians like to tell you what they think you want to hear & seem surprised when you get infuriated that they've not been truthful.

Since then we've had 3 more train journeys, each one worse than the one before.

Train 2 New Delhi to Chukki Bank
2-tier air-conditioned, bottom & top bunks - but you can't claim your reserved bunk until 9 pm & at 6 am you can be expected to share a bottom bunk (if lucky enough to have one!) with other passengers wanting a seat. You have to put up with other people lying in your bunk, on your pillow, till 9pm, if they get there 1st. Everyone is noisy - people getting on the train at midnight think it's fine to have loud conversations & shout loudly to each other or into their phones.

Train 3 Pathankot to New Delhi
3-tier air-conditioned, no curtains, middle & top bunks. Couldn't sit up straight in bunks, sharing with 4 complete strangers, not to mention everyone else wandering by.

Train 4 Lonavala to Margao (Goa)
3-tier air-conditioned. Only 6 bunks, middle & top, had been reserved for our group of 18. We were lucky enough (as oldest, as most outspoken...?) to get a 2 1/2 ft wide bunk between us, where we lay squished top to tail, whilst others had to perch on cases in the corridor by the unspeakably disgusting toilets for 10 hours.

We have now become desperate not to set foot on another train (or in another car!) so we'll be travelling by plane over any further long distances that we have to cover in India from now on.