Write a summary of the following text:

We set out on the evening of July 21st. Food was scarce in the village. So Abdul packed a suitcase with two loaves and some tea and tins of milk cheese and jam. We travelled intermediate class in a cross-country train not uncomfortably crowded, through a country of shadowy loveliness. It was a moonlit night of broken soft clouds; the land was mostly under water, with paddy and cocopalms growing from it and a few raised cart-tracks and groups of cottages islanded among clumps of bushes, all reflected among shadows. Here and there was the red glow of a cooking-fire or the lantern of a fisherman's boat in open water. At dawn we reached Sonaimuri, a small canal-side station among wide fields, from there we had eight more miles by country boat, some of it along the canal, some of it across the flooded paddy fields. I was looking forward to that tranquil water journey in the early morning, and tranquil it must have been, for I fell instantly asleep and knew no more till we reached the landing-ghat at Khorshed's father's house, in a blaze of sunlight. It turned out that his letter saying that he was bringing me was still on its way, but they rallied to the crisis and gathered round to make me welcome, though as none of them spoke any English they could only stare and laugh and offer me coconut juice.