Sleepless Sleepers

AC 3-Tier Wagon -- includes pillows, sheets and blankets

Pascal describes some of our overnight train travels:

There are several classes of train wagons in India. We took a lot of overnight cars and alternated between 3AC and Sleeper class. The AC stands for Air Conditioning, which is worthless at this time of the year because it’s too cold. Theoretically, then, the only difference between them is that in 3AC you get two clean sheets and a blanket while in sleeper class you don’t. The windows are replaced by bars and blinds rather than glass panes.

We started off with two overnight 14-hour 3AC train cars on our way west from Calcutta. They were mostly comfortable. As we made our way into Rajasthan, however, there were trains that only had Sleeper cars. So we ended up on a couple of those.

First of all, the trains were six hour rides instead of fourteen, which made for miserably short nights of getting on the train at 10 pm and having to fish in the dark for a hotel at 4 am. Navigating hordes of aggressive auto-rickshaw drivers was bad enough during the day, let alone in the middle of the night, tired, groggy and with a temper.

On the train, I had my travel bags with me on the bunk to avoid having anything stolen. Now, this is in a sardine-sized 5’5″ by 2′ by 2′ space that wasn’t long enough to lie down straight on, and this was in no way improved with the bags which I stuffed under my legs.

When the train started moving, I discovered that the lack of a real window meant a constant breeze of cold air coming through the wooden blinds. For this trip I hadn’t packed much heavy gear: no decent cold weather jacket or wool socks. So I left my shoes on and threw on my thin sweater and a cheap rain jacket. The breeze still crept in and made me cold and miserable.

After a few hours, I found myself still cold, my lower back hurt, the train was jolting from side to side and I needed to hit the toilet. The toilets are nasty, stinky holes in the floor. When I got back, another dilemna: take my shoes off and let my feet freeze? Or keep them on and have the toilet juice on the bottom of the shoes touch my bags and bunk? Comfort trumped cleanliness and I put my feet as far away from my bags as possible.

That’s the kind of experience that makes a person really grateful for a normal night in an Indian hotel. The wafer-thin mattress, lack of sheets, grungy blanket and tiny space are blessings of peaceful rest compared to the train experience. The bed does not move all over the place, it is long enough to lie down on, the bags are safely on the ground, no one will walk by and there is no panicked wake-up thinking: “Where am I? Who speaks English around here? Where’s my bag? Did I miss my stop?”

Ultimately, the convenience of overnight train travel was more important than sleeping comforts, especially given the number of destinations we wanted to visit in a relatively short time frame. We couldn’t possibly do them all if we had to travel during the day. So a few rough nights just built up our travel tolerance, and each day brought forth a new city, new scenery and new sights before heading out on the next night train.