To Tiruvannamalai

The train trip from Alleppey, Kerala to Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu was as interesting as every previous train ride.

I originally had a confirmed Sleeper class ticket for this leg, but early in the Journey overall I started rebooking my Sleeper class tickets with AC class tickets because of the extreme heat.  For this specific leg, my AC replacement ticket was a high Wait List and I didn’t know if it would confirm or not.  As it turns out, I ended up moving from the Wait List into the RACs, which means I could get on but I needed to sit and not lie down.  The reason being, there were going to be two people sharing the berth, which means neither of us could recline.  That was good enough for me and I cancelled the Sleeper Class ticket for a partial refund (too late to get a full refund), and went the AC route even though it was an RAC.

I got on the train about 3:30p, and the we pulled out pretty much on time which was 4p.  It took a while for the air-conditioners to cool the place down (again, to an Indian level of AC, which is far different and hotter than a Western level of AC).

Immediately there was some conversation between me and a guy from Ponducherry (near Chennai and within 100 miles of Tiru).  He works for the Australian division of Kmart in QA.  Before that he worked for Pier 1.  It’s interesting to see how all these names we know have their toes in the foreign waters.  Economically, the world is more connected than we think.

We have a good conversation, and then a protective dad and mom get on (at some subsequent stop) with their daughter who is probably around 18.  They give me and the Indian a few once-overs before leaving the train as it’s pulling out of the station.  A few stations later and a separate whole family shows up and the boyfriend of the teenage girl keeps peering in the windows from outside the train, giving the equivalent of “I Love You” signals and whatnot.

Another brief conversation, this time with the other RAC guy sharing my berth.  I ask him where he’s “getting down” which is Indian-English speak for getting off the train.  He says Chennai, which is the last stop.  Mine is about 3 hours prior.  I tell him at least he’ll be able lay down after Katpadi, where I’m due to de-board.  He says, we’ll get confirmed long before then.  I’m thinking, what??

I thought once the train was moving, you were pretty much set, but alas this is not so.  As passengers who are due to get on the train at later stations fail to board, their berths open up and any RAC’ers will move into a full-on confirmed berth.  Sweet!

Dude’s prediction comes true about 4 hours into the trip, so he goes to a different section where he has his own space.  Which means mine is now all mine.  He leaves and tells me to “stretch it” with a smile.  I think he means fold down the seats into the berth (I’m again in a side berth, this time the lower).

Befpre I can get it converted though, a guy from a nearby section plops into the seat opposite me and wants to have a conversation about spirituality and the differences between East and West.  He’s a financial advisor and is very bright with excellent English.  He says he spent 5-6 years in Ontario, but came back because he felt like the West didn’t give enough credence to something it couldn’t prove with science or math.  I have a similar sentiment and we talked for about 30 minutes until somebody came by, I think it was the dinner man (he comes by and you order, then at another station he magically re-appears with your food, you only have like 2 choices each for veg/non-veg, though). 

Anyway, the financial advisor leaves, and after a little bit of jostling around, I get situated and start listening to some tunes on my phone with my earbuds and generally winding down.  Then I feel something on my feet.  Quick and light, but kinda on the soft side.  I think it’s either a mouse or a really big roach.  Instinctively, my legs jerk in the air, and then I’m trying to look like I didn’t overreact, because whatever it is is now invisible and the other people in the section are looking at me and smiling like I’m a bit loose up top.

I pull out my little flashlight and shine it under the seat to see if I can see anything, and also in doing give a statement like I wasn’t imagining it, but I don’t see a thing under there.

I’m doing this rail leg in 3AC, and my previous leg was in 2AC.  On that coach there were huge cockroaches on the floor and coming out of the windows casings every so often.  I felt them go over my feet, but it wasn’t dark out, so I didn’t jump like I did this time around.  I was trying to determine whether or not what I felt tonight was the same.

Half hour later, we hit some loud tracks and two furballs go screaming across the aisle into the section where the skeptics were.  I started laughing and pointing.  Then they were looking under the seats and whatnot.  At least I know it wasn’t a huge roach that had laid eggs in my bag; a little present for later.  The most I figure mice will do is chew a hole in my bag or put some turds in it, both of which would not faze me at this point in the trip.

I laid down probably around 11p or so as I wasn’t really very tired before that and set my alarm for 3:20a as my stop was at 3:33a.  I go through the whole ritual when I get up.  Taking the phone out of “airplane” mode (I usually keep it there on the train to conserve battery and turning off all the wireless/bluetooth/cell connections really helps), I pull up an Evernote note that I have with all the stops and the timings on each specific train that I’ve been on.  Then I cross-reference with the actual time, and pull up Google Maps, which with the cell tower info now live, it will give me an approximate location within a half mile or so (the GPS component is really spotty at best in India).  I then get a rough idea of where we are, and how late (if any) we are running.

In this case, we were about 20 minutes late or so, and end up pulling into the Katpadi station in Vellore just before 4a.

I get off and see some older men and ask them which way to the bus stand to Tiruvannamalai.  He tells me I want to go to the New Bus Stand and when asked, he says a tuk will get me there for about 10rs (or “bucks” as the natives tend to refer to the Indian Rupee).  I try to get an auto and two drivers walk away because they won’t come off of 100rs.  Another driver, however, will get me there for 70rs and I go with him.

I get to the New Bus Stand and there are buses everywhere, none of them labeled, and people standing around most of them.  One of them is pulling out and I stand just to the side of it and give a wave.  The driver stops.  I say “Tiruvannamalai?” He points me to a man on the ground who then points me to another bus a little further down.  In America, the bus driver would have acted like he didn’t see me.

I go over to the proper bus, confirm it, and they put me in the back seat.  It’s not very full at all, which I was expecting, because at this point, it’s about 4:15 in the morning.  I mean who is going anywhere at 4:15a?

About 20 minutes later, the bus starts to pull out, and the man in the back, who is in charge of bossing people around, keeps yelling Tiruvannamalai.  Nobody is coming.  We are now moving very slowly.  Some people start to get on.  The bus stops.  We start creeping a little further, more people are getting on.  What the hell, people.  Didn’t you hear the man yelling Tiru for the last 5 minutes?  Why after the bus is already moving do you now want to get on?  Give me a break.

This bus ends up more packed than the one from Khuri to Jaisalmer where my knees buckled twice.  On this one, people are actually hanging out of the doorways into the road.  At least I am not standing.  There are women getting on right and left and I am starting to resent them, because this is a two hour bus ride, and I figure I’m going to be displaced because they decided to stop the bus to get on.  However, the same rules don’t apply here as they did in Rajasthan, and it is egalitarian.  Whoever is sitting can sit, and the slackers who jump on after we’re trying to get underway, get to stand.  At least there was a bit of justice.

The bus ride was miserable.  I don’t ever want to travel on a bus in India again.  It sucks.  I’ve been on rickshaws, in Vikrams, in cars, in cabs and on the metro.  I’ve travelled in 1AC, 2AC, 3AC, and Sleeper class on the trains, and I’ve travelled by “Deluxe AC” overnight buses as well as State and local buses.  The buses have sucked the hardest.  It is really without comparison.  I mean Sleeper class gets crowded, and it’s dirty and loud and oh-so-hot in the summertime.  But at least you can recline and you don’t have people pushed up on top of you.

A man had his arm holding on to the side of the bus not 3 inches in front of my face.  It was so close, I could feel my own breath hitting his arm and returning.  The guy next to me is leaning into me and fell asleep at one point with his head on my shoulder.  I had a lady’s bag between my legs, and I’m smashed into the side window.  This time it wasn’t the window casing that was jamming my shoulder with every bump, it was the windows’ slide handle.

The guy who is snuggling me speaks some English, but so quietly, I’m not even sure he knows he’s speaking aloud.  We’re in a crowded bus with the horn and all that, and add in the road noise and the open windows and I can’t hear anything this guy is saying.  Every single time this guy talks I have to ask him to repeat it like three times before I can hear him.  Most of the time, I get part of what he’s saying, and just nod and say “ohhh” or “yeah” or “ok”…  Please God, get me off this bus.

The Snuggler says its especially crowded today, because it is an auspicious day to get married.  That’s what all the women are doing on here.  After he says that, I see that many of them have flowers adorning them, and their hair is kind of slicked back a bit probably with some kind of scented oil.  I feel a little selfish about what I was thinking before when they were all loading up.  I hope they have happy marriages.

After about 20 stops (no kidding), the “direct” “express” bus (also not kidding) finally reached Tiru.  I get raped on the ride to the Ashram and I go to check in.  Not open yet for another 45 minutes.  I can’t fault them, I’m here quite early.  They open at 7:30a which is fantastically early for any Indian administrative work, so I have a seat on the steps and wait for the office to open up, hoping things are about to get a bit easier.