I called at the railway station, an old colonial building like something you imagine from the days of the Indian Raj. I wanted to buy a ticket for the overnight train tomorrow to Singapore.
I decided to go as soon as possible to ensure that I had left enough time to queue in the doubtless humungous line of ticket hopefuls.
I imagined a bustling train station full of people carrying loads of goods, pushing to get on trains, queues going out of the door, food and newspaper selling, hawkers, important looking guards in fancy uniforms. Imagine my surprise when I got there and found that there was barely anyone there.
Of course there were people on the platform but not many considering it’s the capital city and this is the main train station. The queue for tickets comprised one person!
I can only imagine that everyone goes by bus here. Certainly the bus station where I arrived earlier today seemed busier than the railway station.
I very quickly reached the front of the queue and was told that there were no sleeper tickets left for the train and that there was only a ‘soft seat’ – a step up from a bus style seat. I despaired.
Surely I couldn’t get any sleep on a seat. The assistant helpful advised me that if I came back tomorrow at about midday there was surely going to be another carriage added to the train and that I could probably get a sleeper ticket in that carriage. If all else fails I will have to get a soft seat… if there are any left by then!
This picture is of the doorman at a posh hotel which allowed me to jump on their transfer bus into ‘Sentral’. He definitely has a touch of the colonial about him.