Breakfast was a nice cup of chai with some interesting puff pastry fingers to dip in your tea. Well that was what everyone else was doing, so we did it too.
Today we have a 10 hour train journey from Agra up to Haridwar. The trains are so much more comfortable than the buses, which are terrifying!
We tried really hard to arrange a sleeper train that travelled through the night but it was impossible. They were all booked up way in advance. No tourist quota either so we have to travel Tatkal (last minute ticket release).
After stocking up on snacks for the journey we negotiated an auto rickshaw to take us to Agra Cantt station. It was a little further than the station we arrived at and too far to walk. Plus, we had walked a little way down the road that would take us to the station and the pollution was terrible.
It didn't take long to get there so we were really early. That meant we could try to book a few advance train tickets. However there were 3 French tourists in front of us. We are not sure exactly what the ticket officer was doing but we stood there for so long (about an hour) whilst he booked their one ticket, we ran out of time as our train was due. We had to leave, no tickets booked.
Train was on time and off we went! We had sleeper berths so we rested horizontally and slept. The journey went quickly, there were lots of chatting teenagers on the train and the man opposite, who couldn't speak any English, kindly shared his bag of spicey nuts. We stopped a few times and ran off the train to buy lunch. We drank lots of tea, watched children putting on acrobatic displays and enjoyed the rhythmic motion of the rails.
At Haridwar, our final destination, the station was packed with people. We had to find a hotel next. Some were full, some smelt rather musty but in the end we found one. Next we ate a delicious Bengali Thali, helped a man change his money into smaller denominations and even had a chai making lesson.
We liked Haridwar, it has a very friendly 'vibe'!
Today we have a 10 hour train journey from Agra up to Haridwar. The trains are so much more comfortable than the buses, which are terrifying!
We tried really hard to arrange a sleeper train that travelled through the night but it was impossible. They were all booked up way in advance. No tourist quota either so we have to travel Tatkal (last minute ticket release).
After stocking up on snacks for the journey we negotiated an auto rickshaw to take us to Agra Cantt station. It was a little further than the station we arrived at and too far to walk. Plus, we had walked a little way down the road that would take us to the station and the pollution was terrible.
It didn't take long to get there so we were really early. That meant we could try to book a few advance train tickets. However there were 3 French tourists in front of us. We are not sure exactly what the ticket officer was doing but we stood there for so long (about an hour) whilst he booked their one ticket, we ran out of time as our train was due. We had to leave, no tickets booked.
Train was on time and off we went! We had sleeper berths so we rested horizontally and slept. The journey went quickly, there were lots of chatting teenagers on the train and the man opposite, who couldn't speak any English, kindly shared his bag of spicey nuts. We stopped a few times and ran off the train to buy lunch. We drank lots of tea, watched children putting on acrobatic displays and enjoyed the rhythmic motion of the rails.
At Haridwar, our final destination, the station was packed with people. We had to find a hotel next. Some were full, some smelt rather musty but in the end we found one. Next we ate a delicious Bengali Thali, helped a man change his money into smaller denominations and even had a chai making lesson.
We liked Haridwar, it has a very friendly 'vibe'!