We got up at 6 am to say goodbye to Uncle Mamaya, who is leaving for Mumbai and then home to Oman. He'll be missed. We've been blessed by his presence.
We had breakfast with Mr. "K". We had an interesting chat about visas to the U.S. and life/work in Oman and the Middle East.
Dad's relatives (about 12 of them) from the coastal villages stopped by for a visit. They were going on a tour around town. One of their stops was to visit me. They listened to Dad and me talk for a while, but did little talking themselves. "L" says they talk a lot if they were using their own language at their own home. Mom from Vancouver called in the middle of the visit, which was nice.
The rest of the afternoon was spent packing for the train trip to Vizag. We watched "Oprah" during the time, which featured an 14-year-old Iraqi boy who turned his insurgent father over to the U.S. and gained asylum to the U.S., and 7 American children stranded at a Nigerian orphanage, abandoned there by their adoptive mom. "L" talked on the side about what it would be like to adopt those 7 kids. I love that she thinks on the edge like that.
We took a city cab to the train station. We boarded a train heading for Visakhapatnam, aka Vizag. Vendors selling all sorts of food wandered up and down the aisle. Beggars also took advantage, though they weren't supposed to. A cop accosted one beggar boy and told him to get out, but that didn't stop others from coming. On one occasion, three "women" in sarees got a little demanding and touchy with the man sitting next to me. "L" suspected they might've been transsexuals, since Indian women wouldn't normally act like that towards strange men. Other women, some blind, walked by singing songs (sometimes Christian Telugu songs). "L" encourage Mom and Dad to give to some who were obviously disabled (one guy had pointy stumps for arms). We gave some samosas (triangular dumplings) to a couple of them.
The toilets on the train were clean, but smelly. Flushing dumped the toilet contents outside onto the tracks below. Of course, no flushing was allowed at station stops. Wouldn't want to be stinking up the areas where people stand.
The train made several stops in villages along the way, but no announcements were made as to where the stops were. Guess you just need to know when/where to get off on your own.
Much of the journey went through lots of open space, which surprised me, since India's so populous and is relatively small in land mass compared to China.
