Chennai Mail

Howrah station is bustling as ever. D goes in search of the "Upper Class" 'waiting room. Our train goes from the South Eastern part of the station but the facility here is separate Ladies and Gents, with rather spartan wooden benches. We stroll back up the main part of the station where there is a good sized air conditioned room with seats. There is a balcony at the front which looks out over the bedlam that is the taxi rank. One cabby does not want to go where directed and a white helmeted cop starts hammering on the cab roof with his night stick. D is sent for the train rations - biscuits and water.

At 23.00 we walk back down to platform 23 in the SE section where our train is in the platform.  We locate our coach and berths without difficulty and are soon stowing our luggage. This is the first time that we have had 2AC side berths for an overnight trip,  but fears that the upper might be too short for D prove unfounded. We are tucked up for the night before the train departs and, apart from a brief ticket check, sleep undisturbed.   

We wake to a landscape full of palm trees though which our train makes stately rather than rapid progress. R is very keen on the run along the edge of the Chilka Lake as there are plenty of birds to see.  Her spots include several varieties of heron, Eurasian Open-billed Storks and a couple of Brahminy Kites.

  The inevitable stream of vendors appears and we are soon enjoying a chai, served with a small packet of Marie biscuits.  We debate the wisdom of tackling a railways caterer omelette and are about to crack when a youth appears with a bucket full of hard boiled eggs. We assume that we will be handed a couple to self peel thus complying with R's food hygiene regime. Not at all. The boy expertly peels the eggs, deftly cuts them in two with a cheese cutting wire, sprinkles them with salt and unidentified spices before serving them up on a small square of relatively clean newspaper. Very tasty and if we survive the experience we will try them again.

We have an uneventful morning and arrive on time at Visakhapatnam, otherwise known as Vizag. We have taken 2 steps on the platform when the first taxi tout strikes. "500 sir" He must be joking. After a hundred yards of walking the price is down to 400. Another tout appears and offers to take us for 300. At the station exit we also collect an auto tout who offers 150 for the trip. Meantime R has spotted the official prepaid rank. When we head that way the touts get frantic with a taxi down to 200 and an auto to 100. At the counter there is no queue and we get our ticket for Rs 60. We give the man a tip.

The Novotel's blurb describes Vizag as 'a confluence of industry, tourism and culture'. Our room had a tourism view of the promenade. We pitied those in the other wing with the industrial view. Somehow we missed the culture.

After getting scrubbed up we went for a stroll along the promenade. The notices announced that the sea here is dangerous and the beach looked a bit like a hazard to health. As a resort Vizag is more Whitley Bay than Blackpool although it does have its own submarine.

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