Sunday, October 08, 2006

48 hours on a train from Kochi to Delhi

3 words...don't do it.

I'm a little upset at GAP Adventures for not giving me enough information about this. I was under the impression that the south and north tour was one continuous tour and not two separate ones. It turns out that it's 2 separate 2 week tours on one single booking. They also referred to the train ride as a "high speed" train...there are no high speed trains in India and if they told me that it would take 48 hours I probably would have booked a flight instead and paid the extra money.

But such is life...you live and learn. It turned out that Neil had to make the same journey as well...and even though we booked the train tickets separately we ended up sitting next to each other. Apart from one jerk who came in on the second night, it was pretty uneventful. Just felt like sitting in a moving air-conditioned cell for 2 days.

In any case, I'm in Delhi now and met the second group last night. There are 12 of us this time with Padam Singh as our leader. Seems like a nice bunch...5 canadians this time including me. Should be good.

I'm told that there won't be many chances to do some emailing so the updates may be infrequent. I'll probably try to find a kiosk tonight and put up some pictures.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you enjoyed the south and hope you will enjoy the north more. It should be quite interesting. Sorry for the long train ride, the trip to Bishkek was better!

Take care,
Mom and Dad

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving from Canada Ramzi!

Kate & Steve

Anonymous said...

Hi Ramzi,
Pics are great! Enjoy the rest of your journey and we look forward to hearing more.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Quinn & Ava

Anonymous said...

Hi Ramzi,
I'm sorry it took us so long to log on but things have been busy, hope every thing is good with your trip.

Talk to ya soon,
Steve, Angie and Owen ...

Unknown said...

lol, At least your cell was going somewhere. My cell with air conditioning just stays in one spot. I have padded walls and a computer to view the world. :)

Anonymous said...

I did this same trip (India South and North) with Intrepid Travel in Feb/Mar 2006. I absolutely LOVED the train trip from Kochi to Delhi. Even though I was in first class, it doesn't come close to anything "first class" in the U.S. I actually felt a part of India and wouldn't have traded those 2 nights for anything. (Though it would have been nice to have a hot shower on the train -- ha!)