Bus Hell
Today we checked out of the guesthouse we were in and killed time until we could get our bus at 3 that afternoon. We said our goodbyes to Gemma and Ben as they were staying on another day or two here. We arranged to meet in Udaipur. Me and Dee's Xmas plans had for a while to book a really nice hotel for Christmas Eve and day. Gemma and Ben had one set up already so we booked the same place with them on the Internet. It was a home stay in a really big house in the hills a few miles outside Udaipur. It looked good.
So at 3 that afternoon we squeezed onto our luxury VIP bus, which was a dirty big old coach with beds above the seats. This was going to be a long night as its 16 hours to Udaipur. The first few hours were OK apart from the smell of feet that chocked you every time the bus stopped.
As the night went one though everything got more and more painful. In India the private coaches act as buses also and stop to pick up anyone along the road to bring where ever they want to go en route. This is a pain as the bus is stopping every 20 mins and people are barging off and on. As there are no seats left anyway in the first place the extra people stand and squeeze in next to you. It was a nightmare as these people are also really really poor. I spent hours with a family in rags sleeping at my feet. There was a little girl, about 4, I offered her my seat but she thought I was telling her to go away and legged it. This is because of the caste system here which is the most fucked thing in the world I think. You have these rich young Indian lads sprawled across 3 seats and children sleeping on healthy floor under them as they are of a lower caste.
As you can imagine it was with great relief that we pulled into Udaipur after 16 miserable and sometimes harrowing hours. It was Dawn when we got to the city and we got a rickshaw direct to a guesthouse, which had rooms thank god. I finished off some Vodka and we crashed.
So at 3 that afternoon we squeezed onto our luxury VIP bus, which was a dirty big old coach with beds above the seats. This was going to be a long night as its 16 hours to Udaipur. The first few hours were OK apart from the smell of feet that chocked you every time the bus stopped.
As the night went one though everything got more and more painful. In India the private coaches act as buses also and stop to pick up anyone along the road to bring where ever they want to go en route. This is a pain as the bus is stopping every 20 mins and people are barging off and on. As there are no seats left anyway in the first place the extra people stand and squeeze in next to you. It was a nightmare as these people are also really really poor. I spent hours with a family in rags sleeping at my feet. There was a little girl, about 4, I offered her my seat but she thought I was telling her to go away and legged it. This is because of the caste system here which is the most fucked thing in the world I think. You have these rich young Indian lads sprawled across 3 seats and children sleeping on healthy floor under them as they are of a lower caste.
As you can imagine it was with great relief that we pulled into Udaipur after 16 miserable and sometimes harrowing hours. It was Dawn when we got to the city and we got a rickshaw direct to a guesthouse, which had rooms thank god. I finished off some Vodka and we crashed.
posted by Fionn at 10:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home