One month to go...

Warning!!! There are some random thoughts at the beginning of this post, but then it goes on to talk about our over night train from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi. Enjoy!

There has been a lot that has happened on this trip. Its hard to believe we have been away from the U.S. this entire year. As the cliche goes, there have been a lot of ups and downs during this trip, especially emotionally. I can't tell if I'm anxious, excited, or scared to go "home" or just weary from traveling and want to return to familiar faces and customs. I never realized how mentally exhausting being away from home can be. Having to keep track of small things that I've normally taken for granted such as the quality of water and food, how to say 'hello', planning meals, finding safe stores and transport, different customs and numerous other things has added up. I'm lucky that I have a great travel (and life) partner that helps carry a lot of the burden, especially since her language skills far exceed mine. With a month to go it is hard not to think of what is coming when we return and thinking about the comforts of familiarity. We're planning a cross country drive in a car that will celebrate it's 40th birthday next year. We're mostly playing that trip by ear, and are hoping that the car (and ourselves) are up to the task. Shreya has been looking for apartments in the San Francisco area that are affordable (ha!) while both of us are unemployed. I've been spending spare internet time searching for possible employment once we reach CA. While emailing a friend recently he let me know that with the diversity of companies in the Bay area I could probably find a position doing whatever I wanted. Hmm...doing whatever I wanted...what do I want to do? Lots to think about here, and our current travels have placed us on some long distance trains where it is easy to let our minds wander into the future. 

Shreya captured this early morning picture on the way from Dhenkenal to Bhubaneswar

The rail system here is truly phenomenal. The train is one of the best ways to travel and see India. Booking the train is an interesting process, and even though we bought two tickets together, I ended up wait-listed while Shreya was confirmed to board. Shreya did a bunch of research and it seemed that it wouldn't be a problem and since we were on the "same ticket" that we might get a two passenger coupe. The status of wait-listed passengers is usually updated by 5 pm the night before an early train. However, at 6 pm the night before there was no change in the status. We got little nervous as we didn't have a backup plan. We also read that status updates may happen 4 hours before departure, so we still had some hope. Luckily we didn't have to wait until 5 am to see the status change and at 9pm we found out I could board and that we did get a coupe:

We got a coupe', hey!

We took the Rajdhani Express over night train from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi and were in the first class a/c section. When they say that it is a/c'd they really mean it, I saw the gauge was set to about 20 C (68 F)! On a side note: I need to get better at taking cell phone pics of this type of thing. It was nice to have the freedom to walk around and also to not worry about traffic. A/C first class is super comfy and  I decided to take advantage of the 2 person coupe' and soft rocking motion to take nap:

Just when you think it is safe to take nap...

Shreya getting some quiet time.

The Rajdhani express is known for it's food, and we were definitely well fed on the trip:

I believe this was a snack between breakfast and lunch. Heart-shaped patties. 

Tomato soup(e') in the coupe'!

It seemed like they served us every 2 hours with either soup, a snack, or a meal. We pretty much stayed in the coupe' for the entire trip and watch the scenery go by:

Beautiful India sunset.

At one of the stops we decided to a filmy train picture before departure:

Hurry! The trains leaving!

Although Shreya and I have spent nights in twin sized beds, the bed in the coupe was just too small and we decided split up in the bunks. The train arrived in Delhi about about an hour and a half late. We planned on staying at a close family friends flat who lives in an up and coming neighborhood of Delhi called Noida. We took the newish Delhi metro system to the Noida city center and a tuk tuk the rest of the way. The Delhi metro is really nice and is a cheap, quick, efficient way to get across the urban sprawl. I really liked the fact that they left parts of it above ground so you could see the city.

All in all, the trip to Delhi was a lot of fun. It was our first cross country train ride and we got to see tons of the Indian country side. It gave us some nice downtime to relax and refresh before our slightly hectic tour of the Golden Triangle (we made it a four sided polygon by adding a trip to Amritsar). After the trip, Shreya and I both agreed that the train is one of the best ways to travel. It gets our stamp of approval (which is highly coveted, btw)!