8:00. At last the train arrived. We waited another 10 minutes or so for the passengers to get off and the conductors to clean the carriage. On this train we traveled in a third-class carriage; it was the only one like that, the rest were sleepers. It was warm in the carriage. We wanted to sleep, so we took out the sleeping bag and climbed onto the very top berth (there are three on each side in this carriage). I somehow fell asleep very quickly. It was a bit cramped sleeping two on one berth, but it was very warm next to Volchy.
According to the schedule, it was a 6-hour ride to Jodhpur. I slept for about 4 hours, and spent the remaining 2 staring out the window, reading Murakami and Lonely Planet on my laptop. It’s so convenient that they have power outlets in every compartment. Volchy studied English.
We arrived in Jodhpur at 3 o’clock instead of the promised 12 on the schedule.
We somehow managed to choose a hotel in a very inconvenient location. Far from the railway station and very far from the fort. We decided to walk to the hotel.
The hotel itself turned out to be not bad, just somehow half-dead. It seems we are the only guests here. We had tea, but it was already too late to go out into the city; we didn’t want to wander the Indian streets in the dark. We decided to go look for food and walk to the bus stop, which turned out to be far away too. We didn’t find any food, but we did find out the timetable for the bus we needed to Ranakpur. At the station we bought water and biscuits. At least some food. There were some scary cold samosas lying around, but we didn’t dare eat them. We wanted to go home by tuk-tuk. The driver wanted 100 rupees, and we were set on 50. He wouldn’t agree, so we approached another one. He also first said 100. We told him, let’s do 50. At that moment a crowd of drivers gathered around us, all chattering over one another.
Suddenly the driver, a young guy, starts his tuk-tuk and, waving his hand, says, “Ah, let’s go.” And off we went.
It was our first time riding in a tuk-tuk; in Thailand we somehow never dared use one. It’s so funny, a little like a roller coaster. On sharp turns it leans a bit. Because everything is open, the feeling of the ride is much stronger than in a car.
We got to the hotel quickly and successfully by tuk-tuk, only we were very hungry. The restaurant in our half-dead hotel wasn’t working… On the way to the bus station I had seen a little shop with some food, so we decided to go there and try our luck. Next to the shop there turned out to be a surprisingly nice café for such a place. And they even cooked food there; we ordered two masala dosas. It’s nice when familiar names appear on the menu…. The food turned out to be tasty and warm.
In the evening we watched another episode of “The World Inside Out” about India. A good show.