After spending time in the extremely archaic museum, I'm here at the train Station waiting to board the train for my 3 hour ride around the city. The train station looks a few years older than the antiques I saw earlier at the museum and I don't understand why they can't simply declare it as part of the National Museum. But the status of the train station doesn't succeed in killing my spirits, I'm a tourist here, I don't give a damn.
My head is also aching from sleep deficiency having slept late partly because I was mourning ManU's historic thwacking at home by West Brom, for the first time in more than 14 outings. Following the loss, I'm now a strong vocalist in the "Moyes must go" choir. If this is what Arsenal fans went through for more than a decade then I must say I admire their resilience.
It has been raining since morning and it's now 1326 Hrs on my watch – the ride has now begun. The tourist coach has many locals and just 7 tourists – yours truly and three white couples. The coach is more of a wide-bodied bus with a wooden floor and several overhead fans that don't do much to cool the passengers. Besides the heat and humidity, the wagon is extremely stuffy, human sweat being the obvious culprit. I finally secure a window-seat four stops later. From this vantage position I can now see and photographically document my tour of the city. But to my disappointment, there is nothing much to see apart from people living in a squalor, with no services at all – no electricity, no water, lots of stagnant water and bushes.
The train seems to be very popular with the city residents, some doing the tourist loop and others simply commuting between stations. It is now exactly 1626, three tiresome hours since the journey begun and we are finally back to my station. I’m only 1 US $ poorer... I doubt if you can find any ride elsewhere in the world cheaper than this!
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