On the Goa Express to Delhi

We left our beautiful Hampi and headed by overnight bus to Goa. We were cheerfully squished in our double sleeper (a full bed) and even stopped for washrooms. Although the first one was a real experience. We unloaded and walked through a restaurant to find a huge field in the back. A small building with what appeared to be 2 stalls stood about 7 metres from the restaurant's back door. The glitch? There were no doors on these outdoor bathrooms and they were clearly visible to anyone looking that direction. A fellow passenger kindly propped a door against each one for the ladies but I'm pretty sure a number of people saw me squatting. Aw well. When I told the driver's helper they needed new rest stops he said "Open space!". Great! We arrived in Madagao before 6 and found ourselves in the middle of nowhere. We discovered a small coffee shop and decided to chill for awhile only to find that they literally only had coffee and were out of tea. When we asked about where to go they recommended a room for a whopping 2000 rupees.....conveniently situated in the same building. We finally decided to take our bags to the train station so we could walk around. We did just that and then walked along roads where people were just waking up. We found a lovely place to have breakfast and then got directions to an internet cafe. After amusing ourselves online for an hour we walked to a restaurant where we had some tea and an early lunch. On our way back to the train we stopped for provisions such as crackers and fruit. We spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for our train. We hopped on board and found 2 other tourists from Germany in our sleeper section. We chatted for awhile but exhaustion was setting in and I could barely sit. I wanted nothing more than to lie down. Around 5pm I started to feel really hot and knew I had a fever. Our fellow train riders disappeared for a few minutes and Alex and I flipped down our beds and promptly lay down. By 6:15 I was sleeping, waking up off and on for the next several hours. Around 10:30 I woke feeling very neaseaus and the German women had shut all the windows and closed the fans. I begged Alex to switch with me and took the lower bunk where I could open the window. I got in trouble from the mean German woman but knew I needed fresh air and told her off. It didn't help and I ran to the train doors and gulped in the cold air. As it had eased my upset tummy a little I decided to sit down. But the strong smells of food and spices had me turning green. I sat in an empty seat and leaned near the window. Soon enough I was running for the toilet. I made it to the western toilet where I had the pleasure of seeing the previous contents sticking to the bowl and pipe as I threw up. The rest of the night was spent running to the bathroom in between bouts of sleep. The next day I couldn't eat as it would come right back up and I could only sit for short periods before needing to lie down. By mid afternoon I was so weak I could barely drink water and knew I needed sugar. I had an orange which I was able to keep down and Alex bravely ran to buy me 7-up at one of the stations. Soon after I was feeling better and apparently looking better too. I continued to rest and went to sleep early. It wasn't long before we were pulling in to Delhi. We'd just survived a 36 hour train trip and 59 hours on the road. 1 night on a bus, and 2 nights in a train. We could do anything! A kind gentleman gave us some tips and told us the going rate for a rickshaw. It took us a few tries and some laughs on their part to get a reasonable price but we finally found it. We got to our hotel, where we woke reception, after a fun jaunt down a sticky wet alley. He asked us if we wanted to check in, which of course we did, until we were informed that we would have to pay for the previous night. Even though check in was 30 minutes away. In fact, he wouldn't even give us the wifi code until then and got back into his bed behind the front desk. I couldn't believe it and fumed with Alex until 5 minutes later (probably sick of listening to us) he gave us a room. We spent the morning napping and watching TV, I was so excited to have one. We finally ventured out in the afternoon. I stepped carefully though puddles and muck in the disgustingly smelly alley leading to the street. With my head down I nearly ran into a man and when I looked up I thought it was weird that he was standing at a urinal. Oh wow! He was standing at a urinal at the end of the alley peeing and I almost walked into him. Gross. We wandered the street, looking at shops and buying fruit. We saw many sad faces as people begged for money. A small boy asked for my orange and how could I refuse. It didn't take long for us to sneak back to our hotel room where we picked up where we'd left off, napping and TV watching. We emerged once more for dinner and then had an early bed time. Well, Alex did. I was hooked on old re runs of CSI. And then a movie came on and I could have stayed up all night. But since I was still recovering I thought it would be smarter to get some rest.

We left early the next morning for the train station and were quickly on our way to Jaipur.