Months ago, Tony and I had seen Amritsar, India, on a travel show and were entranced. We decided to check it out ourselves over the long weekend following Thanksgiving. With four fellow teachers in tow, we boarded the train at the New Delhi station early last Friday morning.
Jan and Tony at the station. (We worked with Jan in Shanghai, and here we are together again at AES!)
Visualizing news footage of Indian trains with passengers pouring out of the windows and piled high with people on the roof, our expectations were low, to say the least. We were pleased to find comfortable seats with plenty of legroom, a bathroom that was clean and stocked with toilet paper and soap, and food service surpassing that of U.S. domestic airlines (which doesn’t say much, I know). We received large bottles of water, tea, cornflakes (with hot milk!), bread with butter and jam, and a hot meal made of something unfamiliar but tasty. Later I learned the prime minister’s wife was onboard, which may explain the impeccable service.
Tony, who usually stuffs his 6-foot frame into tiny airline seats with an outpouring of cranky comments, kept saying, “I LOVE the train. Where else can we go by train?” After six hours, our love for the train was a bit less passionate, but it was certainly much, much better than we had anticipated.
