Walkathon

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What do you do when you have all day to reach the train station for a midnight train? You walk to the station.

We returned to our evening Chai stall from yesterday. The Chai is great however the stall was having a canopy installed and there was a fair few sparks flying in our direction. We sat a while before moving on before our hair was synged!


We found a Gurdwara to visit so went inside. It seemed to be closed but a kind lady opened it up for us. She also offered us lunch and chai. We accepted her kind offer. It seemed as though she was sharing her own meal with us. We tried to communicate using Google translate. It worked a little. We handed over over some money and thanked her for her kindness. Her food was really good!


Next stop was the bathing ghat in Mathura. There were many boats touting for business and the Dwarkadesh temple just outside. We relaxed by the ghat and watched the monkeys. The temple opened and we took a peek inside. It was quite different to others we have seen. Painted yellow and red with a weird corridor at the back.Temple done we continued our  journey. We passed many shops and Darryl purchased a new coin wallet for 10 rupees as his other had a hole in it. We walked and walked past parks, around housing areas and across the train track. Some areas were filled with rubbish especially an old step well, which was a real shame.


We searched for somewhere to sit and relax. Christine had seen a Burger King wrapper on the floor the day we arrived. We believed there must be one somewhere! This is where we spent our remaining time. Air conditioned, toilet paper and a BK meal for £1. Luxury!


After BK we made our way to our midnight train.  We resisted the temptation to buy peanuts from the man sat amongst the rubbish. The train was on time but our sleeper berths were miles apart - carriage 1 and carriage 6! We asked a friendly man if he would swap with us and he very kindly agreed. He then proceeded to give us help on how to do the switch, leaving his bag with Christine whilst I went to hold the other bunk. He spoke to the train manager as we passed and explained what we had done. We then swapped tickets just in case they were checked. Of all the people that could have helped us on the train he was surely the best!

We climbed into our bunks and settled down for some sleep.

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