Old Delhi railway station and the Jaisalmer express

Indian railways transports 14.000.000 passengers a day in 14.000 trains. There are 6856 stations, 4 gauges, and they are the world's biggest employer. You can rent a coach and get yourself ferried around the country and parked on side tracks for sightseeing overnight stays. You can easily buy tickets on-line... if you find out how to pay (AXIS PG works for european credit cards, the others don't).

So I got an e-ticket for the train from Old Delhi to Jaisalmer, a journey of roughly 18 hours, in class 2A. In front of the occupation lists I befriended Bruno from Belgium, who was on the same coach.

Class 2A is a sleeper with 2 beds above each other, in compartments (without door) of 4, and 2 other beds parallel to the track. The list of occupants during the journey is also posted to the side of the coach

Tea is served regularly, you can chain your luggage to the bed if you do not trust your companions (even Indians do it and the locks are of course sold in the station) and at a certain point somebody takes orders for dinner, which is edible.

If you have complaints, these are the places. I do not know whether they ever read it.

You can drink water in the station, but it is probably saver to pay some rupies to have a tea...   

I slept surprisingly well .... since the compartments do not have doors, there is no rattle like on the german couchette cars

There are always tea and food sellers on the stops on the way... and you are frequently invited for a tea by your travelling companions

A lot of the old stories are not true any more. There are no people on the roofs, it is not possible to enter the car by the windows, and the stations are islands of tidiness. And do not believe these ticket shops in the towns, who always want to sell you a bus ticket or a car hire. There are always train tickets available.... even on the last day, because there are special quotas, also for tourists, which are rarely ever used. And, in an case of emergency, there are also a lot of slower local trains, which are never in any guide books, but which are sometimes not much slower than the express trains and you do not need any reservation. And.... they are incredibly cheap

The exceptional holy cow on the platform is not accepted as traveller....