The 12 hour bus ride

This is a post I don't need to embellish, its a post I'm not sure I can do justice to at the moment but it will be the post about indian buses!

the day started at 6:00 with me, emily and lloyd boarding a rickshaw to bring us to the bus station. That was the start of our extremely long day!

We found our bus and looked in horror at the smooth tyres and many dents in the body work. We scrambled to quickly use the famously bad indian toilets then climbed onto the bus, ready for the experience! And what an experience it was! The engine started and off we went. The ticket man was a lovely guy, he comes around, asks where you are going, types it into a little gizmo and gives you your receipt. He also has a little whistle he blows when someone wants to get on or off. I guess the driver must be too focussed on avoiding the cows, goats, dogs, monkeys, scooters and cyclists on the road to pay attention to what the passengers want.

The first long leg of our trip was 150 km. you might be mistaken for thinking that'd take just over a couple of hours. Not in india, in india that takes 5.5 hours.

We have come to the conclusion that the back suspension in the buses must've rusted away years ago and instead of replacing the shocks, they just welded them solid. I cannot exaggerate how hard the buses hit every single bump. When we came across a speed bump we braced ourselves to fly off the seat. If it was a particularly fast speed bump we could hit the roof of the bus we were jolted so high! It is not as fun as it may sound, it results in head aches and really bad stomach cramps!

The second leg of our trip was another 150 km, this section only took us 4 hours because a lot of it was on india's joke of a motor way. You can tell I've been around english people, calling it a motor way... In india buses pull over to pick up passengers on the freeways. Its also not unusual to see a cow on a free way.

After so may hours on these public buses, bouncing our brains around til they were sure we were a few brian cells less we finally arrived in our second to last destination. The thought of one more bus was just killing me and emily so we out voted lloyd and got a rickshaw, with suspension and also a lovely driver. He agreed to drive us around til we found a place we were happy to stay in. and we found an incredible place to stay!

Hampi looks incredible. Old temples amidst boulders and rivers, it looks like the flintstones met ganesh and created a beautiful landscape! Photos to follow!