Today was big travel day as we're going to Kolkata from Chennai on a train - a wee 28 hour journey. But thankfully we managed to get 1st class tickets. So we got up at 6:20, packed and had some of our remaining breakfast in the form of toast, jam, cheese and some Dahli (plain Nestle Yoghurt). Afterwards we completed our packing and went down to reception to check out. Thankfully there were no surprises in relation to taxes or anything - just a snack pack to pay.
Then we walked off towards the Kodambakkam train station and were soon intercepted by auto-rickshaws. The first one wouldn't budge on price (Rs.150,-) so we just told him we'd take the train and walked off. The second one asked for the same amount but I ended up saying to him that either he would take the fair for Rs.120,- or we'd take the train, something we were well willing to do. He finally agreed and we were on our way to Chennai Central Station where we landed about 15 minutes later.
We spotted the French Loaf there, filed location for later return, and walked on down to platform 9 where our train was departing. We ended up walking the whole distance the train (and that's very long, more than 500m for sure) and realised at the end that we had missed the 1st Class carriage with full backpacks on our back - and were well sweaty even at this time in the morning. So we had to double back and finally found the 1st class compartment, which turned out to be 1) 3 carriages from the beginning of the platform and 2) spanned only half a carriage.
I offloaded my luggage and went back down to the French Loaf where I bought enough food to feed a small army as we know that this food should be sound. I also picked up some water and then returned to the compartment - just outside I spotted a HigginBotham's news stand (I sincerely doubt here would be a more stereotypical traditional English posh name than that! ;-) and told Claire that now would probably be the time to stock up on reading material for the journey ;-)
Half an hour later, at 8:45 the train departed on time and we were on our way. We were joined by a father and his son who were going to Vishakapatnam to visit family in the same 1st class cabin.
Claire was reading magazines and I was "playing" with the computer during most of the trip and we also occasionally spoke to father and son about India and the world in general.
We had dinner on the train, which was a very tasty and very spicy Chicken curry, rice and chapatis.
Afterwards we spoke to father&son again until they got off. At the same station we were then joined by an elderly couple in their 70's who right off had our alarm bells go off because they were giving out to the conductor as soon as they got in - and the wife looked rather miserable. However, once we understood what the problem was we could understand their position. They had gotten an upper and a lower berth but neither were really able to climb to the upper birth - so I happily sacrificed my lower berth to them for some peace and ended up sleeping on an upper berth like Claire instead.
Once they settled they had dinner at 22:30 in the evening and finally we all went to sleep - although, I was reading for a while, while waiting for the woman to turn as she was snoring like feck!
Then we walked off towards the Kodambakkam train station and were soon intercepted by auto-rickshaws. The first one wouldn't budge on price (Rs.150,-) so we just told him we'd take the train and walked off. The second one asked for the same amount but I ended up saying to him that either he would take the fair for Rs.120,- or we'd take the train, something we were well willing to do. He finally agreed and we were on our way to Chennai Central Station where we landed about 15 minutes later.
We spotted the French Loaf there, filed location for later return, and walked on down to platform 9 where our train was departing. We ended up walking the whole distance the train (and that's very long, more than 500m for sure) and realised at the end that we had missed the 1st Class carriage with full backpacks on our back - and were well sweaty even at this time in the morning. So we had to double back and finally found the 1st class compartment, which turned out to be 1) 3 carriages from the beginning of the platform and 2) spanned only half a carriage.
I offloaded my luggage and went back down to the French Loaf where I bought enough food to feed a small army as we know that this food should be sound. I also picked up some water and then returned to the compartment - just outside I spotted a HigginBotham's news stand (I sincerely doubt here would be a more stereotypical traditional English posh name than that! ;-) and told Claire that now would probably be the time to stock up on reading material for the journey ;-)
Half an hour later, at 8:45 the train departed on time and we were on our way. We were joined by a father and his son who were going to Vishakapatnam to visit family in the same 1st class cabin.
Claire was reading magazines and I was "playing" with the computer during most of the trip and we also occasionally spoke to father and son about India and the world in general.
We had dinner on the train, which was a very tasty and very spicy Chicken curry, rice and chapatis.
Afterwards we spoke to father&son again until they got off. At the same station we were then joined by an elderly couple in their 70's who right off had our alarm bells go off because they were giving out to the conductor as soon as they got in - and the wife looked rather miserable. However, once we understood what the problem was we could understand their position. They had gotten an upper and a lower berth but neither were really able to climb to the upper birth - so I happily sacrificed my lower berth to them for some peace and ended up sleeping on an upper berth like Claire instead.
Once they settled they had dinner at 22:30 in the evening and finally we all went to sleep - although, I was reading for a while, while waiting for the woman to turn as she was snoring like feck!
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