Last Train Ride during Monsoon

We had a great holiday, till we got on the train to come home. There was flooding in Mumbia so the trained was delayed 1.5 hours getting into the terminal, so that started us off on the "wrong track". We were supposed to leave at 1:40 but then we finally left at 3:00. Then when we got a Mumbia suburb we had to wait in a train terminal for another 2 hours, then we just very slowly crept along the track. We didn't arrive in Ahmedabad till 4:00 am. We were so tired. We were supposed to be home at 8:00 pm. 8 hours after we were supposed to arrive. IT WAS A LONG RIDE! There was plenty of food and drink. We had an air conditioned train car and the view of the flooding was really amazing, then it got dark and all you could see was DARK.

VERY nice people on the train. One couple that had been in LA for the last 10 years, they had come back to see their son. A couple that has kids in NJ. Everybody except us, just acted like it something that you just deal with, in fact we learned that there was nothing that you could do. You can't get off the train at the next town and catch a cab, another train, bus or any other form of transportation, it was flooding everywhere. Life is an adventure and we are trying to experience them all, but I personally can say that I would not like to take another train thru India when it is monsoon season.

Chirag was there at the train station to pick us up. I was so glad to see him. We went right to bed and plan on taking a couple of naps today, but it will be tomorrow when it will catch up with me. I was never scared, just tried to not stress out and kept praying that we would get thru this. AND WE DID, and we now have another story for our "Rocking Chair Memories".

IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE.

In the Ahmedabad Mirror 13/08/08, there was an article about the flooding in Mumbai.

More than 5,000 people were shifted to safer locations after incessant rains struck Surat (That is train stop on the way home). River Puma in Navsari district is flowing 0.5 feet above the danger mark of 23.5 feet. 500 families from low-lying areas near the rivers.

The rains since Monday night blocked the stretch between vadodara and Surat on Nation Highway No. 8. While thousands of vehicles were stuck in traffic for nearly eight hours at various places along the highway, several instances of vehicles turning upside down were also reported from here. A major cause of the jam were the diversions created at frequent intervals because of the ongoing road expansion project on this stretch. "We had to spend the entire Monday night in our car as a truck had overturned about 3 km off Por village - 20 km from Vadodara. We were able to move ahead only by 7:30 on Tuesday morning" said a harrowed traveller, who was headed to Surat. Truck drivers were an equally frustrated lot. Many spent the night on the road hoping that traffic would clear up anytime soon, but in vain. One of them traveling to Delhi was caught near Jhadeswar, Bharuch on his way to Vadodara and spent eight hours before he could proceed.