Sunday, 11:00 a.m.: We have spent the last three hours waiting for the train station to open. It is still closed with no hope in sight. Much talk of 'la derailment'. We have given up, and will try again later.
Sunday, 5:00 p.m.: We have spent the last hour waiting in line at the ticket counter. Five seats away from ticket-buying freedom, we were informed that due to la derailment, only tickets for this night's train will be sold.
Monday, 10:30 a.m.: Waiting for just over an hour and we finally make it to the ticket counter for the first time yet... to learn that we do not have everything we need to make a reservation, and will have to come back. Would pull out hair if had any to spare.
Monday, 12:00 p.m.: Second time completing the musical-chair-queue-bop, this time better equipped for the task, we are told we have 'reservations'.
Tuesday, 10:00 a.m.: We successfully have train tickets!! It is, incidentally, our fifth trip to the train station. (Enough visits for me to learn how to queue.)
Tuesday, 4:00 p.m.: Getting ready to go to the station to board our train. We technically have two 'beds' in a 'cabine'. Having learned well from our Congolese train, I am hoping (hoping) for two wooden slats bunk-style with thin but clean plastic pads on each in some sort of table-sized compartment with a lockable door. Window a plus.
(David reminds me we are paying well over fifty bucks apiece for these spots.)
I am willing to settle for two structurally sound wooden planks with ripped or less clean padding in some sort of compartment with under five beds and a lockable door.
With fleas, I will be displeased.
With fleas and efforts by strange men to share my bed and comartment space, I will raise a fuss to whomever I can find in a conductorish cap.
(David asks, "To whom would you have raised a fuss in the Congo train??")
I remember with a bit of nausea that we paid only a bit less for the pleasure of sharing chairs with our roach friends and flea residents on that train.
Well.. that was 40 USD in Congo, I suppose we will see what 57 USD will bring in Cameroon.
Tuesday, 6:00 p.m.: We have indeed boarded, and our compartment is far beyond anything I could have anticipated... and not in the direction I feared, either! See for yourselves:
Look!! Real beds!! A window that opens!!! A SINK!! running water, right in the room! (still in shock)<--- Check out the *lockable* door in our *private* compartment... (and a nice wedding ring that is too, only cost me 75 cents from a sympathetic trader) I for one am rather hoping for a derailment, as this would give me more time on this fabulous train. (David points out I could even spend the rest of my life here!)
Wednesday, 7:00 a.m.: With daylight comes frequent evidence of other, ill-fated trains before us:
(I'm still hoping.)Wednesday, 10:00 a.m.: Sadly, our trip has been wholly uneventful, other than some interesting jolts and banging in the middle of the night accompanied by a cacophony of sound that made me wonder excitedly if I was experiencing a derailment. But no. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to come back to Cameroon.. even without the added excitement of an accident, this was well worth fifty bucks.
Sadly the first thing I noticed about the picture with the locking mechanism wasn't the locking mechanism. It was the cheap looking wedding ring. I had to try and convince myself that you didn't fall for Mr. Culo's advances and throw all caution to the wind. Nice to see that you are taken for a change. If only for pretend. I wonder though... who do you say that you are married to?
ReplyDelete"FOR A CHANGE"??? now just WHAT sir is THAT supposed to mean?? i maintain this trip is a veritable TREAT of single-hood against a larger backdrop of very responsible adultish responsibility.
ReplyDeleteand more on my husband later.