Day 240 - New Delhi - Sunday 3rd April 2005

We are back from the foothills. All just about in good shape. Julie and I spent quite a bit of time on the toilet when we weren't being chased out of it by the worlds biggest and scariest spider (I later discovered it was called a Huntsman). But now I think we are almost fully recovered. I had my first beer in about 10 days yesterday and although I didn't really fancy it, I forced it down. I didn't have one today.

We arrived home yesterday evening after travelling back on the train from Kathgodam. Of the many things that the British did for this country during their governance of it, the Indian rail network is perhaps their greatest legacy. Today's network was almost entirely built under British management and it is still going. It is the largest employer in India and the world (1,583,614 employees in 1997 and is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's largest employer). In 2003 they advertised 22,000 jobs and received 740,000 applications.

The trains run almost on time, are ridiculously cheap (4 of us travelled 320 klm in six hours in air conditioned comfort for less than £10 total) and relatively comfortable for first class passengers like ourselves. Other folk are less well accommodated. Our journey took us through Moradabad (brass city where many Hugo Russell items used to come from) where we saw a train with people sitting on the roof. The carriages which are designated to carry 70 passengers (seated) would have had well over 300 people in them. We saw faces pushed hard up against the barred, glassless windows that would be imprinted with the pattern of the metal work when they were finally allowed to move. In between each carriage there would be 3 or 4 "passengers" riding the buffers and addition to the 3 or 4 people who weren't on the train but hanging from it at the doorway. The ticket inspector, who had been so fastidious about ticking off the first class passengers by name, would not have stood a chance. There was just no telling how many of these passengers had actually paid.