Thar Express

We love trains. When we found out it was feasable to take a train to India, we jumped at the opportunity. We are lucky we did not know what we where in for or else we would have wasted $600 on another boring, polluting plane ride.
The Thar Express was abandoned some time after the british left India. Since relations with Pakistan have improved, they opened it again less then 2 years ago. It was washed out by freak (climate change) rains and reopened about 6 months ago.
Through contacts of one of our hosts in karachi, we were able to have the superintendent of railway pull strings and get us tickets on late notice. There was a baic security check boarding the train. Lots of waving goodbye and off we went on an older 3 tiered sleeper train of about 8 cars. It was 11:00 pm so we did not see much of the Thar desert. We arrived a Zero Point, the border with india about 8:00am. We got off the train with our bags and went through a more intense security check.We counted over 5 tinmes that we showed our passports. After a few hours of hanging out in the desert we again boarded the train and slowly moved throught he barbed wire gates and intense security. I was tired so climbed up to the upper bunk getting ready for the final 8 hour leg of the trip. Minutes later we stoped at another platform where we all got out again. Oh, my god, the previous check was only the Pakistan check. Now we had to go through the gruelling 23 hour India Immigration and customs filtering. We spent most of the time ouside on the shade of the platform. No benches, but o/k non accessable toilets. I wanted to get food but they didn't take Pakistan rupees. There is a bank to change money but you have to go through customs first to get to it ! There was about 400 people and they mostly all had hugfe bundles of belongings that the customm officers inspected very closely, looking at every single seam. We met many interesting travelers and shared the time with lots of curious people. Custom and railway employees kept asking to look at our passports, I counted 15 times that I showed my passport. Many of them engaged us in casual discusions and I kept pulling out our pictues to show them the kids and bikes. WE finally got on the train about 5:00 am after a few hours sleep on the hard marble floor of the waiting room while blaring Hindi pop music played. Even after changing money there was not much food to buy.
The ride was fairly uneventfull except for a cold wind blowing on Judy. Everthing was covered with a layer of fine sand that had blown in as we went through the sand dunes while we slept. Afer 3 good hours of sleep we arrived here in Jodhpur earlier then we expected at 10:00 am and immediately missed the courtesy and hospitality of the Pakistanis.
We splurged a whole $30 on a grand hotel with hot water, accessible bathroom that you could park a couple smart cars in. We are in the lounge amongst paintings , old family photos, and Rajhistani swords. We will soon eat a thali next to the large treed court yard garden with tropical plants and lily pond.