So maybe it was our mistake not to book the train from Agra to Hyderabad in advance, but it’s difficult to know how long we are going to stay in a place, and where we want to go after. Also, it’s not like we’ve had any problems before.

So we went to a travel agent next to our hotel and booked our sleeper train for the following evening. There was a waiting list, but not the longest we’d been on before, and we would have to go back two hours before our train leaves to get our seat numbers.

And that’s what we did… to find that we weren’t actually on the same carriage, let alone in nearby beds. But we thought it’d be ok, and maybe we could ask the ticket guy on the train if we could change seats.

As one carriage was B and one carriage was D, we got onto carriage B first… and discovered that neither one of us could actually sit on our own assigned bed in this carriage as a family of 10 people were taking up the bed, eating, spilling and totally covering the bed in sauce and rice!!!!! ….. great. Even when we tried to explain that this now disgusting bed was ours, they responded with blank stares, showing now intention to move. So, we ventured along to carriage D. this assigned bed was the top bunk on the side of the carriage. As there were a few empty nearby beds, we breathed a sigh of relief and Brendan settled down on one of the top ones. But, the relief was short-lived after an hour, when the train started filling up, and eventually there was no other option except for me, and my 6-foot-3-inch boyfriend to share this miniscule bed, which was less than 2 metres long, and less than one metre wide… for 24 HOURS!! When we asked the ticket man to help us out, he merely ignored us and walked on. Pictures below show how squashed we are when only ONE of us sleeps in this bed, let alone TWO!

Suffice to say, the following 23 hours were hell!! Neither one of us slept, it was incredibly hot and uncomfortable. With our day bags for pillows, we had even less room, and after just a few hours, I could no longer feel my bum.

I’m not really sure how we managed it, but alas 24 hours were over, and we were pulling up to Hyderabad, and surprise, surprise, I had become really ill with nausea! =(

Worst. Train. Ride. Ever.