The long night [& day]

Thank you all for your stars, faves and comments that got my last two entries onto spotlight, it means a lot that you enjoy them as well.

We were supposed to catch a train at 7pm from Varanasi, overnight to Delhi, arriving at 7am, giving us our last day in India to see Delhi itself. The Indian railway system had other ideas.

At this time of the year, fog is a problem, and as I said on Friday's blip, due to the lack of fences on the lines, weather like this can mean the trains run late. So late, that we ended up boarding our train at 3.10am! (The only upside of this was that our local guide was able to check progress, and we were able to stay at our hotel for a while, and even saw some of an Indian wedding that was taking place there).

However, with an 8-hour delay by the time in reached our station, and a minimum 12 hour trip, we settled down for what remained of the night in our bunks.

My Delhi belly was still present, but had been joined by a soaring temperature. Not feeling at my best, I slept like a log, and didn't surface until almost noon. Only to find that the train was progressing at slightly more than walking pace.

We did eventually reach Delhi - at 10.30pm, coached to our hotel by the airport and sat down to dinner at midnight. So I won't get to see Delhi, but it was an amazing trip. Airport tomorrow morning.

Not a great day photographically, but a real experience nonetheless. My blip was taken at around 2.30 in the morning waiting on the platform for the train. Only in India in the middle of the night will you see a bench-full of people waiting for trains, and a bullock feasting on a discarded vegetable curry!