"Get Me The Hell Outta Here"

I find traveling to be addicting - the more I travel, the more I want to travel. I think much of the attraction is from the constant stimulation, where even the simplest day can become exciting, challenging, arduous, and usually quite memorable.

Memorable would be an understated way to describe the past 4 days. Shannon and I have been making our way from northern India to Cambodia, a journey which started in Rishikesh on Nov 23rd and will end in a few hours when we reach Pheom Pen, early in the day on Nov 28th.

It started with a train ride - 27 hours from Rishikesh to Kolkatta, which was supposed to be the most difficult and uncomfortable portion of the trip. I think it's time though that I conceded how much I enjoy these lengthy trips, whether by train or other vehicle, so long as I have a bed or full seat all to myself. Shannon and I have been going to great lengths to ensure we book the proper space to ride comfortably on our long hauls, and I was suitably stretched out on my bed, feet dangling clear across the aisle, until about 11pm, 10 hours into the trip. I'm not sure the name of city we stopped at, but I decided to grab some water and a snack from the train platform, and I told Shannon I would be right back. As I neared the door, a horde of young men crushed me back into the car, quickly swarming every spare inch of space there was to take on the train. I raced back to my seat, climbing over people now to get back, only to find already my bed had been overrun with new passengers. Shannon was pleading with them not to take my space, and I had to crawl to the edge of my bed and start dishing out a number of shoves with my feet to one man who had perched at the foot of my bed.

I had claimed my bed space for myself again, but it wouldn't last. I've never, never seen so many bodies piled and crammed together like the way this, with people doubling up in every bed, sleeping two-by-two on the aisle floors, and crowding themselves in between the train car walkways. Eventually, talking to one of the young guys (he was telling me why there were so many people on the train without assigned seats), I realized that perhaps standing in the crowd for 12 hours might not really be possible, so I gave him the end of my bed.





For the next few hours we talked, during which time things became quite - comfortable - between us. Indian trains are bereft of all but the most necessary amenities, and space is a noticeable and generally lacking luxury. My new friend had to double over and sort of fold himself in half to fit on the bed, and he soon began to roll onto his side and take over more of my bed. When the photo was taken, he was resting on his arms, quite ready to lay down right next to me. Selfishly, I fanned out my upper body, giving him no room to intrude any further along the bed, and after 20-30 minutes of holding himself up on his elbows, he retreated back to the other end of the bed.

Despite the ongoing unspoken battle for control of the bed, we had a good conversation, covering all the usual topics of our respective jobs (he refused to believe Shannon and I were unemployed), places we had traveled, Indian politics, and a few very unusual discussions as well. Our talk about the composition of hot dogs was not only hilarious, but had most of the train car involved. The guy on my bed was surprised that Shannon and I weren't extremely wealthy and that we didn't have a job, but he was more surprised that we were vegetarian, and rather happy about it. He was serving as the translator for everyone else in our car who wanted to know more about us, and finally it got a little odd - they were talking about something, but he wasn't translating it, till finally he laughed to himself and said:

"My friends and I, it's a little silly, but, what exactly is a "hot dog"?"

We laughed a bit, then explained to him.

"Like a sausage?" he asked.

"No, it's made from cow."

Everyone thought this was pretty gross, and so we explained what parts of the cow you could find in a hot dog, he told us "Stop! Stop! I'm going to vomit!" He translated what we said to everyone else, and dozens of Indian men suddenly laughed and groaned all at once.



We learned from him that the train was so crowded due to a railway exam, with about 2 million Indians applying for a job with the railway. There were only approximately 200 job openings, but that didn't seem to deter any of them, nor did the 12 hour train ride they had to take (each way) with no hope for a seat. It was depressing to hear from all these men the same stories of hoping to find a job that payed well and had any kind of job security, and I don't think I've been to a country yet with more potential that has let itself turn into such a disaster. While there may be elements of what a democracy should be like, it's laughable to consider India as anything but a corrupt and ravaged country that refuses virtually all rights for its poor and underprivileged people.






Back to the story.

In the morning all the extra passengers got off the train, and by 4pm we were in Kolkatta (the British would spell it Calcutta, but it's pronounced much more like Kolkatta, which is the new proper spelling). Kolkatta, like all the Indian cities we'd seen, is a mess of pollution, tangled roadways that resemble no map drawn of them, and is filled with homeless and beggar people littering the streets (both along and in them). We tried to find a nicer accommodation for the one night in town, but instead we ended up paying 5 times our normal budget for an equally dumpy room. It did have air conditioning and a TV.

The next night we had a few drinks before heading to the airport at 11pm. I only mention the drinks so that you can better understand our state of mind when we learned Bangkok airport, our destination en route to Cambodia, had been taken over by protesters. And so, we spent the next 8 hours in the airport waiting for news of our flight. By 6am we gave up and found a nearby, incredibly overpriced hotel to sleep through the morning and wait for word on what would happen. We arrived at the hotel at 7am, slept for 4 hours, then went to find an internet cafe to learn more about the situation. Bangkok did not appear to be re-opening anytime soon, so we decided to check out of our hotel and return to the airport, during which time Shannon somehow lost her bank card, which we didn't notice until hours later. No money stolen, but it made a difficult situation worse.

The final solution for leaving India turned out to be flying to Singapore and hoping to find a flight from there to Cambodia. Our flight departed late that night, which meant another sleepless, bedless night. By the time we arrived in Singapore, it had been about 36 hours since the ordeal started, and over 50 hours since we had last slept (not including the 4 hours at the airport hotel in Kolkatta). We wandered the airport from airline to airline looking for an available flight, finally finding one that left the next morning at 6:30am. We went to a really nice hostel, slept for 8 hours, got up for some food before everything was closed, then went back to bed for another 6 hours of sleep, and we're now at the airport, waiting to board our flight to Phenom Pehn.

Anyway, I'm still watching this Bangkok airport thing since I need to fly through there at least twice more in the next month of two. It better clear up, or this trip is either gonna get a lot longer in time, or a lot more costly.