The first eleven hours in India

We landed in India at 3pm on Friday.  It was a Nepal Air 1hr 20min flight on which we received a full meal and a large array of free movies and tv shows. Immigration was easy (even though we were told we may not be able to leave India at a land crossing but he wasn't sure. Ugh). The pre paid taxi stand into the city wouldn't put 6 people into one car and did not have a bigger car for us.  Sooo, we uber'ed!  What a wonderful solution to getting ripped off by Indian taxi drivers. We were all 50/50 on staying a few nights in Dehli but ultimately decided to head to the train station.  We all visualized a 1st class AC train ride; a hotel on wheels.  We saw online that tickets were available, but did not want to purchase them on unsecure wifi, so I headed to the ticket counter at the station.  I asked a sea of people if anyone spoke English as the guy behind the counter did not.  A Sikh man offered to help.  We were told that the AC cars were full, but the Sikh man and the man behind the counter agreed that we could transfer 20 minutes into the ride to an AC car. So he helped me buy 6 general train travel tickets for $11.  I knew Sikh people had a duty to help and this man was really kind.  He talked about when we would get off the train, buy food, and transfer to our new AC car.

Long story short, we never transferred.  We were stuck in a sea of people with all our luggage and no way out.  We were claustrophobic, scared, hot, hungry, and tired.  2.5 hours into the ride we stopped at a big city, and we grabbed all our belongings and kids only for the train to take off before we could navigate through the packed car to the door. At this point, we didn't want to make our situation worse by getting off the train in the middle of nowhere, with no place to sleep, only to get mugged. Finally, we laid down on the train beds and the kids fell asleep.  For a moment I thought we might survive. It was short-lived as a loud obnoxious group of upper class indians came into our area yelling that we were sleeping on their beds.  They were making fun of us and taking pictures of us while we were beyond miserable.  Ultimately, they woke all the kids up.  In their defense they did reserve the bed the kids were piled on, but we had no where to go.  I cannot express how packed this car was. At this point we had made friends with a couple and their 3 year old child who were getting off at 2am and said there was a hotel they would take us to.  It worked out.  After 6 hours and 20 minutes on the train, we got off. The hotel, albeit run-down with dead grasshoppers on the floor, could have been worse and had AC. We went to bed at 3am.  

At 5am I woke up wondering what to do.  I was feeling lost and once again (just as I did the first day in Nepal) thought I had made a grave mistake bringing the kids on such crazy travels. It was time to figure out where we were.  Google told me Ajmer - a muslim holy city.  Reluctantly i looked it up in our rough guide travel book knowing that the book doesn't list many small cities, but to my surprise, it was listed!  The book said, "Ajmer is just a transfer point for travelers headed to Pushkar." WHAT!???  PUSHKAR WAS 14KM AWAY!! HOLY INDIAN COWS!! I knew of Pushkar as a travelers Mecca from my past trip to India.  The guidebook says, "Pushkar has become one of Rajasthan's (that's the state we're in) prime chill-out spots - small enough to minimalize that Indian city stress. .."  WHAT GOOD LUCK! I overwhelming felt like we were going to be OK.  We had somehow managed to get off the train in a perfect spot. (Pushkar is in fact exceptional.  More to come, but I want to put this post to bed.) 

It was an awful 6hrs and 20minutes.  Riding like cattle in a train car is not something we are used to, but it is a very important, cheap and easy way for Indians to be able to move around, vacation and visit loved ones.  Can you imagine paying $1.50 to travel to New Orleans?  Everyone would be able to afford a vacation.  As our friendly Indian family said - its not easy on their three year old, but it does allow them to move around freely. I don't think I could do it, and I'm usually up for anything (especially not with minor cases of delhi belly).