June 1972: Back to Delhi and Train to Haridwar

 Taken From All About My Hat The Hippy Trail 1972 ISBN ‎ 978-0993210716

 A couple of days later and Al was back in New Delhi by train. He checked the post office but there was no mail. He checked at American Express. There was no money for him.

He decided to sleep in the small local park and save money.

The next morning he went again to the Poste Restante. This time there was a letter from a friend back in Norwich promising to send some money in a “few days.”

So Al decided to best use what money was left and buy a train ticket to Haridwar to try to find that Prem Nagar Ashram that he had been told about, where he could sleep and eat for free, on the Ganges riverbank.

He had now run out of film so immediately went to the Sikh indoor market and sold his camera.

He bought a big bag of samosas and another bag of fruit, and sooner than imagined was on a packed train to the foothills of the Himalayas. Talk about a crowded train, there were people riding on the roof.

Al actually now had very little idea where he was heading or how long it would take. It took almost twenty-four hours. The train seemed to be taking a zigzag route, a steam engine pulling us one way then the other, as it travelled up and down the valleys, through places that Al had never heard of. It was supposed to be about 150 miles but with all that zigzag was probably closer to two hundred and fifty.

Haridwar, Al had learned, meant 'Gateway to God' and was one of the Hindu holy places in India and a centre of Hindu religion and mysticism for centuries. It was on the banks of River Ganges and attracted a large number of Hindu pilgrims from all over the world.

When the train arrived at Haridwar, it was not long before dark. Al slept that night on a wooden bench at the railway station.

(Photos found on-line)