I took a 10 hour train from Mumbai to Goa

…which was actually a 12 hours train.

We originally looked at booking an overnight train but the one we were after was fully booked - more than 4 weeks in advance. After researching it we realised the general advice is to book trains at least two months in advance as spots open 4 months before train departure.

We used 12goasia and they offered us another train which departed at 7:10am. It meant losing a whole day in travel but it's part of the adventure…

My partner (and travel companion) and I are both anxious and being early gives us a sense of control - whether it's a healthy coping mechanism or not is a different matter. We showed up at Mumbai Central at 6:20am and I had looked up everything online beforehand. So we knew our train was the Mandovi Express departing from platform 16. We knew we would be able to buy samosas, chai and dosas on board and how to find our coach. We were on a sleeper class with air con (namely 3AC) and having looked it up I knew the middle berth would be lowered to create a seat.

The train was at Mumbai Central 20 minutes before departure, left on time and fairly empty, only to be filled once it passed Dadar - the second station on the train. We were going all the way to Pernem in North Goa - where we were supposed to arrive 10 hours later.

The journey was very comfortable and I spent most of it on an upper berth curled up with our backpacks. I was able to get some sleep as well as eat my weight in samosas and drink liters of masala chai.

People seemed to be using this time to socialise, catch up with loved ones, play… But a lot of people were having a snooze too perched on the upper berths as I was - I heard more than one person snoring.

Noone is calling the stations so you have to know when to get down. As we were approaching our time of arrival this is where we realised we were delayed. It helped knowing the station before ours.

It was a joyful experience, despite being locked in a small space with questionable toilets for so many hours I would definitely recommend it for travelers. Nothing like a long train journey to make you feel part of something and create a sense of belonging. The little pockets of community around us were very soothing.