Sun, sea, sand and sixty hours on a train…
on Honk if you Like Curry (India), 17/Mar/2010 15:27, 34 days ago
Last week I escaped Delhi for the VSO Annual conference. Location wise it could not have been much better, this year we hit the jackpot as we were off to Puri by the Bay of Bengal in Orissa, for some well deserved sun, sea and sand (alongside fighting global poverty of course).Nothing in life is of course perfect, so in order to get there we had to endure a 31 hour train journey on the ironically named‘Puri Express’. Leaving from Delhi at 06.30 on the Saturday we were due to be sipping fresh lime sodas with the sand between our toes by 13.00 on the Sunday. Or so we thought. I’d travel before in India on the train on short journeys and was always impressed with how efficient it was. So I approached my first overnight trip with naive excitement.My excitement started to wane on boarding the train. We ended up getting the bum berths which basically were in the corridor. The one advantage was that you had a privacy curtain but this was frequently nudged into by corridor traffic, elbows and prying eyes at any opportunity. We settled down for the long haul and with a steady stream of omelette sandwiches and watery dhal coming our way there was not too much to complain about. The view outside was slightly tarnished by the fact our window was fogged up with enough condensation and dirt that the view had a sepia touch to it. But after a while it added a certain amount of charm as the East Indian countryside whizzed past which tended to be an endless scene of paddy fields, rural towns, piles of rubbish and a combination of humans and animals relieving themselves near the tracks. Not much different to Delhi really.By 30 hours in we seemed to be fairly on time. With only an hour to go, the cramp in our limbs seemed to ease from being cooped up in the carriage, with hope the end was nigh. Then we reached the slow boat to China moment. It took 3.5 hours to travel the final hour, at one point it was tempting to get out and push. But it was worth it in the end.We had a blissful few days before the conference embracing our inner tourist. Ice creams at every opportunity, a boat trip on Chilika Lake to watch dolphins, a visit to the World Heritage site of Konark temple, walks on the beach and endless games of Frisbee in the hotel pool– heaven. It was so great to catch up with all the other volunteers that are now scattered across India. Everyone had the chance to share their highs and lows so far, which is something you need to do to keep sane. It was great to know that I wasn’t the only one having those days at work where all you really feel like all you have achieved is a chat with a colleague over chai and your contribution to helping fight global poverty is pretty minimal, but every little helps as they say and it’s all part of the experience...Highlights:catching up with rest of the Volunteer Crew - now missing everyone lots but plenty of trips to be planned across India for our next catch up, the Stare Factor– nearly causing a minor RTA yesterday as an Indian motorist did a whiplash inducing double take at me, causing a cyclist to do a comedy veer (I’m not sure it was my blondish locks or the fact I was being highly risqué by wearing a short sleeved kurta to beat the heat, there’s something aboutmy pallid glow in the dark arms it seems..!), seafood (I overdosed on prawns, retoxed on fish and gorged on crab it was so good to eat some non veg protein), the highlight of the conference had to be meeting a partner organisation from the state of Chhattisgarh and learning about disability in their state, levels of corruption and their limited rights (so many people have a story that never gets heard and we really don’t know how lucky we are).