The train ride

Has anyone taken a night train following a major event in an
Asian country? I have. If you think trains are crowded during
peak hours in New York, you must experience riding trains in
Asian countries. Then you may ask what is common between a
crowded train in Asia and a can of sardine.

The idea to see the festival was planted in our minds by George,
who was our bartender at the hotel. He stated that the Kandy
parade was a once in lifetime experience, two days before we were
to head back to Oslo. After hearing what we were about to miss,
we made plans to hit the road next morning to see the parade
before we retired to our rooms that night. Roger, my sister’s
fiancé opted to stay behind, as he was somewhat under the
weather, but my girlfriend Edna and my sister Laura joined me for
the journey.

The parade was fabulous, the weather was fair and the food was
great. However, our only problem was getting back to the capital
to collect our belongings and making it to the airport following
night as we had a night flight to London and a connecting flight
to Oslo from there. I became worried when I couldn’t secure first
or second-class reserved seats on the night train that was to
depart at 1.00 am, but the girls agreed to try the coach with
locals, even though that somewhat scared me having heard about
pick pocketing and other crimes on crowded trains. Unfortunately
I did not have other options, but to ride the train with two
beautiful girls, therefore soon after the parade, we rushed to
the train station with thousands of other people who had the same
thought.

Our short walk to the train station started with bunch of small
groups rushing in that direction later became like a many small
streams joining a one big river. Then we were carried by a wave
of people and I wasn’t sure if my feet ever touched the ground
till we got to the train platform.

As we stood there waiting for the train, I expected a long train
with many compartments to carry the masses that waited for it,