A New Start in New Delhi!

My bed/seat on the train

I've arrived in New Delhi! The train ride was a better than I expected. There are different classes of tickets you can pay for and it's totally worth the incremental cost to have a nicer train car. I was in the AC-2 class, which means there are two levels of seats/beds in the car, upper and lower. I met an awesome dude in the train car who spoke good English and showed me the ropes of the train car. I definitely would have starved and been totally lost without him. He also gave me a piece of candy to celebrate my birthday. My only birthday present, as it turns out, being halfway across the world. I also met an older couple who shared their homecooked food with us so we didn't have to eat the abysmal train food.


I didn't get to see that much of India on the train, which is too bad. It was kind of one of those "what you see out the window for the first five minutes is what you'll see for the next 20 hours" kind of deals. Random lifestock. Poverty. Rundown buildings. Farms. The usual.

Main Bazar Road, the street leading to my hostel

Unfortunately, my train was three hours late. Which I didn't care about much, but my friend KB was coming to see me and she drove 1.5 hours to get there, waited 1.5 hours, and then had to drive 1.5 hours back home without seeing me and I felt awful. I couldn't even call/email her because I don't have a phone and there was no internet on the train (not that I was expecting there to be).

When I arrived in New Delhi, my hostel was less than a mile away so I walked instead of taking a cab. The place I'm staying at is called the Smyle Inn, which already sends warning bells off in my brain, but it's turned out to be surprisingly nice. Definitely the nicest place I've stayed at so far, and by far the cheapest. It came recommended on TripAdvisor. I've only been here for an hour and I already like Delhi more than Kolkata.