Train to Goa, India

 The trucks in India are all colorfully painted with Hindu Gods and flowers and shapes.

Sadie hated it when John got off the train at stops. The stops were all pretty short and she was afraid the train would leave without him. She personally, refused to get off at all.

 If you look closely you can see that this is piles of compressed and shaped cow dung circles. The villagers use them for fuel.

We had a last minute scare that our train tickets weren't confirmed, but it all worked out. A woman we worked with in Astana is from India and her husband helped us book tickets. He even sent someone to meet us at the station to make sure we got on the right train. We had our own compartment with bunk bed style seats. They fed us all our meals and brought tea. The food was really delicious and our first real Indian food in India! It was a fun way to travel because we saw so much more along the road. India has so much poverty. There were slums surrounding the outskirts of Delhi for quite a while and most of the villages on the route seemed to be struggling. The southern villages seemed cleaner and more prosperous. I tried taking some pictures out the window, but they are pretty fuzzy.
When we stopped at stations or passed other trains, we saw the 2nd and 3rd class cabins stuffed full of people. Some lucky ones had window seats, but the windows were just iron bars. Many of the other passengers were sitting or standing, many in the doorways, probably for fresh air. I felt that uneasy sense of undeserved privilege sitting in my first class cabin, watching them pass by.
Sadie did well on the train both there and back. She started to get ansty about an hour from the station both times though. 27 hours on a train is a long time for a kid.