Morning had broken and yet very little sunlight was getting into this carriage, the windows were tinted and covered in diesel smoke on the outside. All we had were the compartment lights. The design of this carriage wasnt good, there were 2 windows opposite sides of the compartments and they were on about 2 foot by 18 inches, so you werent going to see a lot, and that's why we had decided to go by train, to see India. The elderly couple had also been bumped off their 1st carriage as that too had been left somewhere in order to get more bodies on board. The bunk mates managed to sleep in a bit including Grant but eventually got up. Grant then christened this train "The Bubonic Plague Express" and it wasnt too far from the truth. Soon the choi wallahs started doing the rounds shouting "Choi, Choi, Chat!" and other food vendors did a similar thing..."Paneer Cutlets!"....People started buying this stuff and were having their breakfast. We had had a bit of wander and found that the food was prepared in the most hygienic place on the train, the quaintly named "Pantry Cabin" was right next to the stench emitting toilets. Not ideal then and so I said to Grant that we'd have to go hungry on this journey. Our tender Western tummies may not be up to the job of eating food without getting some problems. We sat in that grim cabin and watched the elderly couple get stuck into their food. Earlier Nana Kumar had injected her husband with insulin and had instructed him to eat. They ate a lot. So we just sat there, then Mr. Kumar vomited his food back up. He clearly wasn't a well Kumar.

We tried to see India and to do this you had to stand by the open door and watch India go by, the trouble with this though, was it was right by the stench toilets and so when that door opened you'd have a dry retch and then retreat back to that grim cabin. We had a wander into the basic Sleeper carriages and they were a far happier lot in there. At least they had air and the windows were open and they had light. The windows had 5 iron bars welded on them, which had creeped me out a bit. It wasn't to stop people getting out but to stop people getting in, either hitching a freebie or sticking buckets of food through. We were, in my opinion, in the worst carriage. it was also very dirty and the navy blue partition curtains were filthy, the bunks/seats were the same. Everyone threw their rubbish on the floor as the cleaner wallah would be around to clean up. The cleaner wallah never showed up and so the rubbish built up. The only cleaner wallah on board was me.The rubbish would build up so much you couldn't open the carriage door, which was our view to India, so I'd pull it all out with my foot, open the door and do my bit for the "Keep India Tidy" campaign, by kicking it out onto the sidings.