Gagging to transplant the dusty, urban heat of northern India for the tropical heat of Goa we sheltered in the air conditioned comfort of the first class lounge, awaiting the arrival of the 32 hour-long Golden Temple Mail to Mumbai. At around 8PM Mark triumphantly marched into the room, bringing to an end our seemingly indeterminable stay to announce that we would have the cabin to ourselves, at least for the first nine and half hours until Delhi.
The ride itself was a non-event; the two Indian toads, whom had joined us at New Delhi, did not utter a word the entire journey. The nearest we came to conversation was at a rain starved village somewhere in central India. Mark, upon disembarking the train at an unscheduled stop, had found himself chasing the train down the platform as it sped off. Arousing great interest from the slug he leapt out of bed like a kid on Christmas morning announcing with a sneer ‘ your friend yaar, he may need to buy a new ticket yaar’. Fortunately, Mark had managed to jump on about four carriages down and shortly reappeared. This left the toad crestfallen and he slunk back into his bunk, barely uttering another syllable for the remainder of the journey.
My foot was shaken early, it was barely light, I woke to find the genteel old porter standing at the foot of the bed informing me ‘next stop Mumbai sir’. Fantastic I though and jumped down from the bed checking the time: 5:15 we were on schedule to catch our connecting train. Mark rose quickly and could barely contain his excitement as he conveyed to be a second piece of fantastic news: apparently, whilst I had been slumbering in the land of nod United had been teaching the Italians of AS Roma a lesson or two, spanking them 7-1 in the European Cup!
Our Ambassador taxi sped through the twilight of the gently rousing streets of Mumbai. Negotiating orange juice vendors, cows and all manner of souvenir hawkers on its way to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, or CST for the connecting train to Goa. Fortunately the journey was a short one. Before long we were ensconced in our respective ‘benches’ awaiting the departure of our eleven and a half hour ride to central Goa. However as I awaited the trains departure I noticed the formation of one of the most unusual of natural phenomena in India: a queque. It was snaking it’s way all down the platform appearing to have formed without promting; shocked I grabbed my camera having to take a photo for posterity!
Eleven and a half hours is a long time, but thirteen hours seemed like an eternity. The mercury scampered for the sky as the train trundled south through western Maharashtra across mesas, through long tunnels and past steely grey basaltic cliffs. As the train lost time I lost sweat, buckets of it I think.
By midafternoon the heat in the cabin was pretty near intolerable, and upon entering a particularly lengthy tunnel I was about ready to jump. Having suddenly come over incredibly claustrophobic I lay in my bunk, apparantly built for the average Indian as it couldn’t been longer than 5’11, and anxiously waited for daylight. The heat seemed to close in like a vice and the vendors who seemingly noticing my distress became more persisent, forcing bottles of water, onion bajis and samosas into my face. I relented and bought the lot (a decision I would come to regret later in the week) and fortunately they left me alone, we reappeared in the daylight and I got myself together.
It wasn’t until 8:15, almost two hours late, when the train finally pulled into Goa. We had long since left behind the barren landscapes of Maharashtra and were firmly in the tropical landscapes and climate of Goa. Staggering off the train we soon found ourselves a taxi and were on our way through the evening heat to the beach at Palolem.
Arriving at 9:40, exactly two days after we had left Amritsar I had a moment of enlightenment: ‘Maybe we should have flown down’? I said to Mark, but before he had I chance to reply I had already begun recounting the journey in my head answering my own question! ‘I think I fancy a beer’ I said with a smile. 