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Not a good nights sleep on sunday night. The air conditioning was not at its best, my stomach was beginning to gurgle and the worry over whether I was to get a train seat to Agra was playing on my mine. The WiFi was playing up and I was behind in my contact with the Boys back home and my travel stories were Blog-jammed. WiFi is as important as water when you are travelling these days just because you get to rely on it being there. The check on the status of the rail ticket needed an online confirmation. Yes, I was starting to fret. My usual laid back and calculated approach was being put to the test. I was walking around the room at 6am holding my iPad in the air to get a better signal. Maybe I should have tipped a ‘WiFi man’ somewhere who would have turned up the volume somehow? Life is one big arbitrage in Delhi, that’s a jazzy word for saying everyone takes their cut. If there is a chance to be involved in the deal or introduce someone then they will do it. Very entrepreneurial from a country which is basically run on communism.

I had a very Indian breakfast this morning of Cornflakes and Fried Egg on toast and I was listening to the radio commentary blaring out across the open roof restaurant for the India v Australia test match.

I checked out and had an hour to waste so thought I would do a bit of sunday morning people watching. The hotel has a large glass frontage that views the street and also a security guard to try to stop the intrusion. A couple of guys are wailing a chant, dressed in what looks like the remnant of christmas tree decorations and their faces were painted dark brown black. They whack the glass door and then hold their hands out for a contribution. It wasn’t aimed at me, it was for the hotel who ignored them at first and then told them more forcefully. I got myself comfortable looking out.

The usual tuk tuk’s and taxis weaved each other in the street. A number of carts passed by selling nuts and seeds and then surprisingly a Bullock dragging a cart with 8 guys on board. Two were playing drums with their hands and the back two boys were dragging a large tree to the rear. The tree was full of leaves and branches must have been 15 feet in length. I was thinking, is this some kind of religious thing ??? Two minutes later another Bullock went by. A cart breaks down right outside. His cart is a 3 wheel bicycle and one of them has fallen off. He piles the large stash of wares to one side, much to the disgust of all others road users In a flash, the Boxes are onto another 3 wheel cart and the broken cart gets placed on top of that.

Oh and I forgot to tell you, my rail ticket was ‘Confirmed’ this morning, within 2 hours before departure. Quite a relief as I really didn’t want any chance of missing the Taj Mahal, one of the main checklist items for India.

Well, I was thinking let’s see how take-two of getting into the railway station would be, the same New Delhi station that caused my heart palpitations on Friday. I took a Taxi to the front of the Station where it was very open with a small concourse. To my delight it had a huge Departures Board, which immediately gave me a comfort feeling. Now when I talked in my Blog a couple of weeks ago about feeling that I was the main character of the Truman Show ?….On the departures board there were about 25 Trains, which flashed between Hindu and English every 20 seconds. All the Departures were in Yellow except for mine which was in White. It had an extra comment saying ‘Reschedule’, which is the India Rail’s term for ‘delayed’. No problem I have loads of time, but I peered through the railing and could see that my platform had lots of people on it that were waiting for the preceding train. I stayed put.

I was fortunate that the platform was the first through the security gate and a train had arrived for the earlier departure which was a similar sort of long distance express type train It arrived about 15 minutes before the Departure time. I saw people get off and thought as soon as it moves I will go through and appreciate a bit less hassle. I knew I might have a wait so I employed a simple ploy to avoid the various Hawkers. I put my iPhone Earplugs in and turned up the volume. I thought if I can’t hear them they don’t exist. Let me go back on a similar thought I had when I was 7 years old and in Primary School. We were in the Assembly Hall with the whole school doing the morning prayers. “Close your eyes and say after me the Lords Prayer…”. My thinking was that if I had my eyes closed I could bob up and down (I was always active) and nobody would see me. That was true for the 200 other children in the Hall but not for the 10 Teachers watching me! I saw the headmaster for that one. Anyway, after the obligatory travel anthem, I put on a Tim McGraw Album. First track ‘Live Like You Were Dying’, although a morbid title, great lyrics. And the Hawker shield ? worked a treat.

The train that had pulled up now over an hour ago, was still there. I moved through Security and walked straight to the platform. It was crowded with Coolies running with luggage and large see-saw type barrows laden with what looked like potatoes or onions. A man was fast asleep in front of me on a rolled out plastic sheet. The Passenger lists were eventually glued to the end of each Carriage and to my Truman amazement, my Berth was right in front of me. The time was ticking close to the delayed departure time and passengers started banging on windows as the doors hadn’t opened. There was about 15-20 carriages so a lot of people to load up. Eventually we were on. Of the 4 bunk beds in my Compartment there were only 2 occupied at this Station. Let me introduce my Travel Companion until Agra ‘Major Tom’ or to be very precise Colonel Tomajeet of the Indian Army. After an exchange over the electric sockets for our iPhones and my Heath Robbins and inaugural use of my Gorilla camera tripod, a 3 legged device that has bendy legs, which was used to hold the plug in place, we started to chat over everything from families to travel and …Strategy. He is a keen Golfer who only took up the sport 2 years ago but plays off 8! we covered India and Politics and I think again yet another person who shared similar values to myself. Great Guy and excellent company. It made the 3 and half hour journey fly by.

And into Agra, I got off the train and to show my confidence as there was not an Exit sign I turned left, after 25 yards I realised that this was contra to the direction that the other 500 passenger who also got off were going. Taxi into the Hotel was pretty straightforward with the customary pitch of how he could look after my itinerary for my day in Agra.

I didn’t have the head for a Beer tonight so stuck with some Tonic Waters as I was feeling a bit off. I ordered some simple Tandoori chicken and Naan bread, but after 10 minutes and the sound of the live music in the restaurant (2 locals with bongos and some kind of squeezebox) I called it a night.