We arrived at this town at 6.00am on a steam train in the pre-dawn light to be greeted by the massive sound of an industrial hooter. Shift changing time at the smokey factory next to the station. Thousands of workers walking out of the gate like a scene from Last Exit To Brooklyn. No-one driving home here. In this town the executive management commute on sturdy steel-framed bicycles.
Time for breakfast. Time to find a cafe, or restaurant or hotel. Mission Impossible. Andy and I start walking. There's no taxi's in this town. Where's the Town Centre? After 2 hours walking we decide that there is no Town Centre. Just endless residential and industrial streets. No hotels, no supermarkets, no banks, no shopping malls, no bars, no parks, no cinemas, no night-clubs, no ten-pin bowling alleys, no leisure facilities, no tourist attractions, no nothing. At 9.00 am we find a very small cafe that's disguised as a tobacconists from the outside and like a garden shed on the inside. Hooray food!
At 11.00 am we're back at the station looking for the next train out of town. After queuing for an hour at the ticket office we're rewarded with 2 first class tickets on the 12.50 to Pune. Our cash reserves are getting dangerously low. We're flush with Travellers Cheques but there's nowhere to change them in this town.
The 12.50 arrives at 14.20. Whilst we're waiting we're treated to a demonstration by a child with his grandad of how to clean yourself without toliet paper. In this country the right hand is for eating and the left hand is for something entirely different. They do it on the train tracks and use the water hose normally used to re-fill steam trains.
Our relief at seeing the 12.50 is short lived. The conductor refuses to allow us on the train. "This train is Luxury class, 2nd class and 3rd class. You have 1st class tickets. You can not get on."
"But we're happy to go in 2nd class!" we protest.
"You can not get on. You have 1st class tickets. This train has no 1st class."
We finally manage to escape from Solapur on the 14.05 that leaves at 15.40.
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