We did not have high hopes for this train journey. The previous years had left us with stories featuring getting felt up by the Hidjura, cockroaches crawling from the walls and stuffy compartments shared with strangers and most importantly – no air conditioning. To say the least we were not looking forward to it.
The station was crowded with hundreds of people, our train was at 8:55pm, but we were there by 8pm. For 30 minutes we sat on the floor only to discover that our train was delayed for 20 minutes. The train itself was at least 12 carriages long and it took us a good while to walk to the top as we were in “first class”. You had to duck to get into the carriage, each carriage was crudely split into about 10 different compartments, each with 8 beds. It was cramped. It was hot. It was sweaty. It smelt damp and musty. The beds for me ( a 6'3” man) was the length of my little pinkie on my left hand. When you lay down, there was about a foot of space between your face and the next bed.
But, to be 100% honest, the train wasn't half bad. We laid out our sleeping bags on the beds, ate biscuits and then fell straight asleep. We happily woke up 10 hours later without so much as a single cockraoch.
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