One person's luxury is another person's slum...

Our previous two train rides had been on 1st class air conditioned coupe sleeper cars, but there weren't any of those on the Jalgaon-to-Satna leg of our travels. So, we tried the 2nd class air conditioned sleeper car instead.

Whew, what a difference. Our prior rooms had been simple but clean and functional, and most of all, private. This one... Well, there were 4 people per curtained-off cubicle, each just big enough to hold 2 bunk beds. Outside the curtain were more such cubicles. Everything was vaguely dusty or sticky, including our own sweaty selves. The occasional roach happened through.

The elderly man on the upper bunk across from us wore a kurti that hadn't been laundered in weeks, and his loose pants tended to fall open in ways that shared too much information when he shifted in his sleep. He was sort of out-of-it in general. Just outside of our curtained area was a man who was coughing up major phlegm, and he wasn't covering his mouth either. The man in the lower bunk of our cubicle was ok, and mostly slept the trip through, which allotted us at least a little privacy.

Normally I'd describe such conditions as 'deplorable,' except, well, these were far better accomodations than the vast majority of the people in this country live with daily. Even on the train... this was the *best* car on our train. Other cars had hard wooden benches, far more people per cubicle, and no air conditioning. We got served meals (simple but decent and hearty), too.

"You wanted immersion..." said Jay, and yes, this would be that. I still keep finding my boundaries anew there... wanting to meet local people and walk through their worlds on the one hand, and clinging to creature comforts and security lines on the other. At least the forays into Real India get a bit more in-depth and immersive each time.

But I sure was feeling glad that a mix-up in bookings had resulted in tonight's stay being at a 5-star hotel rather than the originally planned ashram. I was so ready to bathe when we arrived, and I insisted that we both take showers and send our germ-ridden clothes out for laundering before we even touched any of the beautiful and *clean* fabrics in our room. Jay was mostly amused by this, I think, but he indulged me in my all-out disinfect mode. Which may turn out to have been a completely on-target notion, because we're both having mild sore throats tonight. Bed early, I think...

Oh, yeah, and we're in Khajuraho tonight. There are some exceedingly cool tantric temples to visit here on the 'morrow. Meanwhile, we went on a safari-style nature preserve tour this afternoon, and had our dinner in a tree-house restaurant this evening.

And, since our hotel does have (slow, but functional) 'net access, we found out that the geocaches we planted in Golconda and Lonar were approved, so India's total geocache count has now leapt from 27 to 29 ;-) We might try and plant another here in Khajuraho tomorrow.