Night train.

Back on the road again. I have noticed my blogs tend to be quite long but it's just impossible to write about what's happening here in just a few lines and I've had the benefit of technology to allow me to give everyone a flavour for what this country is actually like. Would love to get some feedback on what people think, problems, suggestions etc cos I am but one man in the middle of nowhere with very little contact with the real world back home (international news in India consists of Condolesa Rice's favourite for the Superbowl and Shilpa Shetty meeting the queen and Tony....)

Went to our first Bollywood film on Saturday, Saalam-e-Ishq (kind of an Indian version of Love Actually) and it was brilliant!!! The opening song and dance scene was cheesetastic and although in Hindi we could follow the story more or less. Oh my God but those Bollywood chicks are H.O.T. hot!!!!! [not as hot as you Is :-)]. We also happened to get Gold tickets (£3 each), huge soft armchairs, ac, our own loo, the luxury!!! Also had the Indian equivalent of a Starbucks (got a v spicy wrap which set me off hiccuping with every bite, which would be stopped only by a sip of my iced coffee... And! Had Baskin Robbins icecream, hey, everyone deserves a break sometime! Would recommend it to anyone, Bollywood all the way!

Had a brilliant time with Shashi, Umesh, Tejas and Jahnavi. If you're reading, thank you all so much for the stay, made us feel so welcome and all the travel help was fantastic. We were both really sad to leave them cos they'd become almost a surrogate family for the week, so the journey to the train station was fairly subdued. Back to reality.

The Indian train network may be the most extensive in thee world but the service is f#*king sh*#!!!! Left the house at 4:30pm, got a connecting train then finally got on the Mumbai train (4hrs late) next morning at 9am... Though to be honest for a 1125km journey taking almost 24 hours, and at about £12 each, I can't really complain! Taking a 3AC sleeper, which means AC (actually just temp controlled with no open windows, which is just fine), the carriage, all open, divided into 6 bed (3 stacked parallel to 3, perpendicular to window) accross from 2 stacked parallel to opposite window (which we've got). Get given pillow, sheets and blanket. Stow bags under the seats. People are very curious of us and as I write a guy is reading this over my shoulder :-) Use our small bags with tech gear as pillows while we sleep. A bit noisy and bumpy but after a night in a train station again with resident mouse (v cute) and crazy jam jar glasses, can't sit still for 2 secs trying to get everyone to move to the scumhole waiting room, door attendant lady this is heaven! :-)