Heading for the Hills
I awoke at 5.00am with a blast of lights in my face. Nope, Indian train travel isn't as great as I remembered.
The couple who I was sharing the compartment with were clearly honeymooners on their way to a romantic holiday. The man sported the very latest camera phone. There's clearly money here, just as in China, and lots of it.
At Kathgodam I disembarked and was met by the driver. For a while, we had an additional passenger - Monica, a TV news anchor from Channel Seven. It turned out that she had studied journalism at Cardiff University at the same time as I. Small world.
The drive was not a fun one, a serious of hairpin bends taken at full speed. A seasickness tablet taken on an empty stomach failed to do the job and I had to stop the driver twice for a puke break. When it comes out bright yellow, you know that there's little left to go. Fortunately I got to Mukteshwar soon after.
Though I was laid up for much of the day, I had enough time to get a little tast of the town I last came to in 1994. Great to see my cousin Dr Arnab Sen again, now a prominent vetinarary researcher, and meet his wife Rai and six-year-old daughter Rim-Chim.
