The Midnight Train to Bangalore

We apologize that we have not written for a few days. We have been traveling through much of India and have not been able to use the Internet. Even now I am borrowing a friend's computer as mine will not connect, so I will have to upload pictures later. All is well and we are safe. Two of our team members are sick, but they are on antibiotics and seem to be doing better. We would appreciate you thinking of them, as we still have several days and many difficult travels ahead of us.

There is so much to tell that I hope we will be able to have ample time to write soon. For now I'd like to tell briefly of our journey last night from Hyderabad to Bangalore on train. I'll try to tell our story, but I know no words will do that trip justice.

The experience was truly indescribable. We boarded the train at 6 pm and traveled for 13 hours. Describing out accomidations as "close quarters" really doesn't do it justice. There were six of us from our team and two Indian strangers in our compartment that was essentially three sets of triple-stacked bunk beds. The space that the eight of us slept in was possibly one-third the size of our bedroom at home, if that large. Let's just say we all know each other very well after that experience. I wish I had a video of all of us trying to climb into our beds, because it was certainly a sight to be seen (though some in our party are glad there is no video, because they'd rather forget it!).

There is much crime on the train and so we were all very thankful that we arrived safely and with all of our bags. We had to wake ourselves early in the morning and get our things ready, because the train stopped for only two minutes at our stop, and we had to unload 24 passengers from our group and all of our suitcases in that time, which was also a sight to be seen. We decided this needs to be an event on the next Amazing Race--with team members forced to unload many heavy suitcases and help each other off the train after just waking up from a bumpy, crammed 13-hour train ride--all in less than two minutes. Somehow we pulled it off and no one was left behind.

None of us slept much last night, but we were happy to be met by friends at the train station who took us to our rooms for showers and naps because we all desperately needed them. It was quite a night. Sleeping in an actual bed tonight will be paradise.

--MB