After an exciting ride on the Indian Railways, we have finally arrived in Ramnagar! We left from the Old Delhi Terminal and it was pretty chaotic. When you enter any large Indian train station you will encounter what seems to be a sea of people lounging the floor waiting for their trains. More well to do families seem to have thought ahead and brought thin sarongs to spread out to slightly protect them from the filth of the floor. Others, such as us, just plopped down where ever.
We had arrived a bit early and our track was not yet announced and had some time to kill. At the New Delhi station, they had the tourist booking office that had comfortable chairs and fans to keep you comfortable while you wait for your train. We didn’t know of such a place at the Old Delhi terminal so we just dropped our bags where ever we could squeeze in. Luckily I had some playing cards with me to pass the time and many people were intrigued by our game and even the legless beggar took time to stop and watch on.
Once our track was announced and we located it, we discovered that they had two trains posted for the same track at the same time. Last minute, they switched our train across the platform and when the train arrived everyone started making a mad dash to try to find their assigned car. We had unfortunately been on the exact opposite end of the train and had to run all the way down dodging huge wooden cargo carts, people sleeping on the floor and other frantic passengers. We were relieved to find our bunks and we were very grateful to have anything at all since the train was so full.
We arrived in Ramnagar at 6 am and simply followed the stream of passengers to find our way to the center of town and hopefully the park’s reception office. When we got to the office, there was already a crowd of people trying to get their day pass tickets but they wouldn’t open the office for the muli-day visits until 8:30. Once they opened the window (although they were sitting there the entire time since 6 am) there was a dash once again for the window and it seemed to be every man for him self. We were lucky and got one of the last beds in the cabin that has electricity and dining hall. During our crowd surfing on the line, we met Cecile and Paul from France and Mirko from Germany. We all decided to pitch in for a safari car and driver to lower the costs. We were all people traveling for long periods so every rupee counts!
Finally after 5 hours of waiting in the office and haggling over the price for 3 days in the park with the drivers, we were on our way into the Jim Corbett National Park. It looks like it will be very enjoyable; we got a good price, good company and good weather! It is great to be out of Delhi!
