Place: Train from Delhi to Jaisalmer

An 18 hour ride. Thankfully we got AC 2 class tickets, so we’ve got these nice bunk beds with a ceiling fan to keep it cool. Train tickets need to be acquired well in advance. The reservations as well as the waitlist will be full if you try to book the week before. Booking train tickets in India requires an IRCTC account, which requires an Indian phone number to create. Thankfully we had Ivana to hook us up :)

Even with an account, you can only book 6 trips a month – this is to prevent scalpers from booking up everything?

Food: Poha

A rice concoction that was soft like cotton candy, commonly eaten for breakfast here. There were tiny pieces of peppers buried in it, but mostly it was just rice that you put ketchup on. I swear all we’ve eaten here is carbs. Don’t know how people survive.

Apparently there used to be an incredibly rich train food culture. Now there’s only this packaged stuff peddled by 3rd party vendors.