We were up at 06:30 hrs. and we walked through the morning clamour to the bus garage. The bus was supposed to leave at 07:30 hrs. but as usual the total lack of organisation caused a long delay. We were more comfortable on this A-Class bus as we had the rear seats and could stretch our legs out into the aisle.
The driver made good time along the extremely winding road and the weather seemed to improve as we went south past panoramic Himalayan valleys and foothills. At 18:00 hrs. we were dropped at Jammu station to await a dubious train amongst the chaos. We began to relax amongst the clamour on the dim platform 2 and gradually every bit of space became covered with human life and baggage. We drank tea and ate hard boiled eggs, served from a pot of boiling water by the squatting vendor on the platform, and read our books and dozed.
Vendors sold cheap copies of British books, printed in India. Eventually the Shalimar Express Train which runs from Jammu Tawi to Old Delhi arrived and George asked if it was our train. It wasn’t, but ours, the Post Train, was in on platform 3. We found our 2nd Class sleepers, which were as good as 1st Class, with surprising speed considering the illegible scrawl on the tickets, and we settled down to a good night’s sleep despite the murmuring of other passengers and the incessant coughing and wailing of little kids.
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