Royal Rajisthan On Wheels

Oh My Goodness!!








Yeah? Nah! Just kidding.
You may be relieved to know that this is not my train.

So was I.






We have now boarded the train. This is one of the main reasons we came to India. It is part of the "Palace On Wheels" series of train journeys. On a par with The Orient Express, and others.

To be honest, my first reaction wasn't the most complimentary. We have obviously had unrealistic expectations. This will be an interesting week.

First impressions are based on logical reasoning and expectation. In a small space, like a ship or train cabin, you expect space to be maximized by clever use of moulded panels. The Alaskan bathroom was like that. Same with these budget hotels like SO and IBIS. Their bathrooms in particular, are prefabricated in fibreglass for fast installation, space and weight saving and for cleaning. Some of these bathroom modules, I would love to put in the corner of a spare bedroom as an ensuite.
These cabins look like they were fitted out by a guy with a trailer-load of chipboard, a four inch brush, and a disturbing predilection for gold paint. Mmmm...

So. Here's the deal. Forget that we just came from a five(+) star hotel. In fact, forget about stars altogether. Forget about this being a cruise ship on land. Forget anything we have ever done before. Forget it all. This is a new experience.
Our room is like a twin bed room with ensuite in a backpackers. Dwayne would love it. Functional.
The bathroom is quite spacious. Relatively speaking. Sarah just mentioned that our last bathroom was about the size of this cabin. Oh, well. We'll be back there in a week. In the mean time, suck it up. It is what it is.

To be fair, the room is a little bigger than the one on our Alaskan cruise. The bathroom is more than twice the size of the Alaskan one. Now THAT was an efficient use of space.

We do a tour of the rest of the train. There are three cabins per carriage. Sarahs mum next door, and an amrikan couple in the third. The next carriage to us is the dining car. Half of it is for dining, half for a lounge. Nicely done. The next carriage is the kitchen. The whole carriage. Then another dining/lounge car. Then the gym and spa. Sarah can come here to get a massage or a manicure. Don't know if I mentioned earlier, but Sarah had her first ever massage from a shop in The Pavillion in KL. She was a bit stiff and sore, and her tennis elbow came back for a few days. I doubt that I will find her getting a massage here. Or anywhere.

Carriages the other side of us, and the other side of the spa are more cabins. Occupancy maxes out at 80-odd, and there are about 48 on this trip.