On the Rails to the Indian Capital

My first experience with train travel in India: Not too bad. Expecting to be stuck in a quiet and isolated situation in a sleeper with a ton of other Indians, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that whenever foreigners book train tickets, they are grouped up with other foreigners, which is a great way to meet other tourists. Ironically the person in the sleeper that I talked to the most happened to be another Indian man who was traveling with a couple Polish girls, and he turned out to be a wealth of information for my next possible destination. The train itself was decent. Overnighters seem like the best choice, the trip went by quickly. Sleeper class itself is fairly packed with locals that make it on the waiting list. Waiting for a seat that is, so until one presents itself, they're left to littering the hallways and any available space they can make comfortable.



My first visit to the capital of India is nothing short of shocking. I've never seen so many people in one place before, it's like perpetual rush hour everywhere. I find it amazing that with so many people utilizing infrastructure that's stretched to the max, that the whole rotting structure doesn't implode on itself. The Red Fort and India Gate (pictured above) were impressive. India Gate is really it's own city, a falsified sort of Delhi if you will, free of the slum and scum of the rest of the city, most likely engineered for prestige. Wandering around the park (and a 5+ star hotel for a drink) you can still note the evidence of bad habits in the form of trash strewn around the park vicinity of India gate. It begs me to ask the question: If a society can't yet grasp the environmental consequences of their actions, is it so hard to think that you might want to keep the beautiful things you have beautiful?