TRAIN-love. Sat, Jan 12th.

I simply ADORE the train. Prior to the trip from Bombay to Bangladore I was not so sure about the 24 hour trip ahead of me, but it was unreal. It seemed like a good glimpse into the true nature of the country. The train station in central Bombay stood amidst impossibly large English Colonial buildings, clearly showing age but maintaining such an exotic air that I half expected to see jeweled elephants carrying loads of ripe bananas or basketed royalty marching by. but no. I had to make do with just the architecture and the stately palms. The train left the station and made several stops in the outskirts of the city to let on new passengers and vendors selling hot chai in little cups (5 rupees! ~13 cents), cookies, buttermilk, samosas, etc. We rode through miles and miles of slums- grey cloth and scrap cities surrounded by rubble and trash. People everywhere with seemingly nothing to do. Occasional new highrise apartments or projects rose out of the mire, with green manicured shrubs on each floor corner and on the roof. I wondered about who lived there.

The landscape gradually began to change, taking on a look similar to parts of Southern California. Instead of big oaks though, the trees were massive mimosas. A giant rock plateau to the west formed a solid wall with colorful bands of soil and rock and later gave way to rolling hills with occassional settlements. Unbuilt cities of brick were laid out by women and children to dry in the sun, while the kilns that they fired them in were tended by men. Goats, roosters, cows, and peacocks roamed free. Train station platforms would fly by in bursts of color (the women!) and then greys and whites (the men) as if segregated by color instead of sex. Mountains gave way to plains, gave way to hills, gave way to the starry night, and I tucked into my sleeper berth for the night. Oh but not before lunch and dinner! Egg biryani twice for me, because I like hard boiled eggs a lot. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner cost me a total of 90 rupees, or about $2.15... plus 3 chai's and some cookies and some fruit... maybe $3 for the day.

I arrived into Bangalore this morning and hopped another train to Mysore. That train had better food than the first, fruit and nut biryani with raita and curd rice and pickled chilies. The landscape here is much more agricultural- coconuts and a seedling that I forget the name of used to make Roti. Mysore is bustling around me now. I've got a quaint hotel in town, and I'm headed out to do some exploring now.
More later!