We made the 11am train from Mysire to Bangalore after being stuck in the middle of a procession in the streets of Mysore in an auto-rickshaw and struggling to buy to a ticket and the mega busy train station. People rarely queue in India they just push in by shoving through, with big rucksacks on its quite funny watching their faces as we play them at their own game and barge through them nearly knocking them flying LOL.

The train was packed but we got sat next to and elderly Indian could who spoke perfect english, it turned out that they had travelled more of the UK than we had and they have been all over the world. It was a nice 2.5 hour journey chatting to them about travels and the state of the British economy.

We arrived at Bangalore and it was strange to see such a built up westernised looking city, Indian women wearing jeans and smoking in the streets is a rare sight in India. We left our big bags in the luggage hold and then attempted to book our train tickets for the night train we were planning to get to Hampi. Turned out we had left it far too late to book that particular night train so we had to leave an hour later (10pm instead of 9pm) but took 5.5 hours longer to get to Hospet. We had little choice but to book it.

We decided to get a western fix and head to the touristy street where the lonely planet said there was a bowling alley. We didnt expect it to be any good but when we arrived we were well pleased. It was the same set up as the bowling place in Croydon, full on ten pin bowling, burger and drinks bar (no alcohol) and a big computer games hall with air hockey and basket ball games. We had a great fun afternoon and was just what we needed to pass the hours away in Bangalore. We had western food and 5 beers later we headed back to the train station to collect our bags.

Our train was delayed so didnt end up leaving until 11pm. We found our seats after being followed by a weirdo who I had to threaten to get the travel police onto, which seemed to work. We were amongst a group of very loud lads who were on a boys trip, so didnt get to sleep till well after 1am. Hardly slept due to the noise and the worry of cockroaches scurrying over you in the night, the carriages were three tiered high with beds so there were 6 heads in our bit, plus two on the outside staring in at you. We had to use our dirty bags as pillows and listen to the dirty Indian men hocking, burping and farting all night, smelling the stench of piss and s*** at each station you pull in at, not to mention the constant staring and crotch groping. We got up at 6am for the saga to continue until 12.45pm. I was being pestered by spoilt little b**** girls poking me and staring at me all morning. THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF INDIA. But hey, one I will never forget!

We vowed never to do an Indian night train again!