We said our goodbyes to Shushil this morning, as he took us to New Delhi railway station for our early morning train (7.20am). We are going to miss him, as he has really looked after us. We had hit it off on a personal level, and do plan to stay in touch once I return to England.
Delhi is a busy station, though it all makes sense, and the correct trains are easy to find…you do have to watch out for the coolies though, who try to charge you more than the agreed fee!
The train departed on time, and we slowly rolled out of New Delhi…
…and the morning traffic started to build up in the surrounding villages, motorcycles and scooters outnumbering the cars, and the odd yellow school bus.
From the train, you can really see the poverty in India with ‘villages’ of makeshift materials appearing on a regular basis.
It is sad, and very disturbing at times, and demonstrates the problem with India today.
As we got further north, the landscape became greener and crops more common…
…and yards away from more makeshift shacks, large oppulent buildings could be seen, again demonstrating massive inequality of wealth distribution.
I really care for this country now, though it is clear that something needs to happen. As a growing economy, the wealth is there to do it. Everything may change if presidential candidate Rahul Gandhi gets his way, with a guaranteed minimum income for all. Who knows what will happen, interesting times ahead!
We rolled into Amritsar only about 15 minutes late, a journey of about six and a half hours. There was a taxi there waiting to pick us up, we found him easily, as the driver was outside the correct carriage.
After we were dropped at our hotel, we found a nice place to eat, then we will rest before a busy final full day in India tomorrow.