The trip to Rishikesh started when I arrived to a trainee house to meet other trainees who were supposed to come with me. Here I got to know the plan of the trip. When you stay in India you are slightly becoming a bit unorganized and very flexible so you decide in the middle of the day to go for a weekend trip, you re-pack your stuff in the middle of the street and just go. So this happened to me. The plan was also very simple. We will take a local bus to Haridwar and then take a bus to Rishikesh. So one more time - we will take a LOCAL bus.
Let me introduce you a bit to the reality of local buses. They are full of local people who do not speak English. Most of these people are poor and stinky. Buses are usually very crowded. Even if you travel for 6 hours you have people standing in the corridor. The system of buses in India is simple - each place has a number and you buy a ticket on that specific place.
Our bus seemed to be very full so we were pleased that each of us had a seat. But we did not have any numbers on our ticket. Then we found out that the guy at the counter cheated on us and gave us a fake ticket. That was a challenge for us. We needed to go with that bus but also wanted to have our money back.
As I was with 4 other AIESECers we put our negotiating skills into practice and convinced the conductor to give us seats and real tickets. I personally was sitting next to an old woman from one side and next to other intern from the other side. The old woman did not seem pleased to see me sitting next to her. She hardly moved her butt and took half of my seat. The trip to Rishikesh is about 5 hours. Imagine sitting next to a woman who is stinky,taking half of your place and who refuses to move herself. Everytime I looked at her I hated her and when I looked at her again I hated her even more.
But we finally reached Haridwar. We were not sure how often the buses to Rishikesh go (you can see the randomness I am gaining here?) so we just had a look around. And believe me or not, Haridwar is much of an Indian city. There is a traffic jam everytime a cow decides to cross the street. And as they have so many cows imagine the traffic over there.
After around 20 minutes we got on a bus to Rishikesh.When you are taking a bus it is good to have a window seat. The ride is very bumpy and people use to use windows for throwing up and spitting when they feel sick from the ride.
But if you are looking for an adventure and want to have fun you should definitely take a local bus. I think it is strengthening the personalities of interns.
3 comments:
That's what I call being flexible!
And I'm sure you'll beat in each single Slovak who complain about the country they were born! haha
Kisses!!
Hey Natas, I've been also to Haridwar and Rishikesh. Both cities are amazing and so Indian!!! I'm sure that after the trip you were so happy that you've seen both of them.
Hugs from extraordinary organized Bratislava ;-)
...and I want to add someting... Actually you were very lucky on your way. I took for sure the same kind of bus as you did. My lady who was sitting next to me was very nice with her mother and small child on her knees. Then in the middle of the way she became green and then she puked on my legs. Then she managed to reach the window and the rest went out of the bus. You can see such colourfull strips from every window of these local buses ;-)
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