Leaving Palolem at 3:40am.
The train was only ½ hour late, but we got there 2 hours too early- waiting appears to be part of the Indian experience, no matter what.
The train station in Margao was littered with sleeping locals and their blongings- mostly outside of the station crowds sleeping on the ground.
Marta and I had reserved our sleeper bunks ahead of time (of course) and still found one of our beds occupied by a man. It took another ½ hour before this situation was sorted out and we came to rest amongst – what seems to be at first glance- only Indian men starring at us. (Later – in daylight – three other females appeared out of the wood work and a couple of kids)
Our 12 hours journey to Igatpuri (a little village where the Vipassana Meditation Center is located – north / east of Mumbai) had began.
I slept much better than imagined and woke to screaming, rhythmic, repetitive, sellers of food coming through the narrow aisles. I have no words to describe the audio experience, but combined with the expression of their faces, launched me into a laugh attack, especially looking at Marta’s face who really didn’t enjoy this scene as much as I.
There was plenty to eat, but we were very careful and only munched on cashews and banana chips ( which taste a lot better than from the Good Earth – for some reason they salt them – yumm………….)
Time went quickly for me, reading my book and thoroughly enjoying the scenery outside the window as well as inside the wagon.
