INDIA TRIP PART 7: Our overnight train experience from Vellore to Kottayam – July 27th, 2011

2nd Class

Continuing west, we took the overnight train from Vellore in Tamilnadu to Kottayam in Kerala.  In Vellore, we got help to get on the right car from Prasad, Jiji and their eldest son Avinash. The train had 22 cars with mostly 3^rd class non-AC cars, some 3^rd class AC cars, a couple 2^nd class AC cars and one 1^st class AC car. Frej, Amma and GP were in the 1^st Class AC car. The rest of us were in 2^nd AC. As the train was planned to stop only for 2 minutes in Vellore, we said goodbyes on the barely crowded platform before the train arrived, and rushed onto the train.

1st Class

After getting onto the train, we got to check out the difference between 1^st class and 2^nd class. They both had beds to lie on with 4 people in the room. The main difference was that in 2^nd AC there were curtains to divide the berths and sheets were provided and in 1^st AC there was a glass door to separate the berths and the beds were already made. We left at 21.30 and were scheduled to arrive at 7.35 the next morning. The Indian style and Western style toilets were also not too dirty, and as the kids slept through the entire ride, we didn’t have to use them that much. The ride was pretty smooth, and the train was less noisy than Cherian remembered of his last train trips. We slept well and woke up to scenery that was very green, with tropical trees, lots of water and little houses. And the sound we woke up to was the man running from one end to the other in the train every 5 minutes yelling “KAAPY” (coffee) and “CHAYA” (tea).

The trip definitely trumped our expectations!

When we arrived, we found out that our train grew overnight and had a significant amount of new cars added to the end of our train, making the train and platform extremely long…  Cherian’s mother’s brother, Wiji Papa greeted us on the platform, and two porters took the largest suitcase on their heads and dragged the rest to the car that Wiji Papa arranged for us.

Although we arrived only 45 minutes late, it was a pleasant start to our adventures in Kerala…