I have been dying to get out and travel! It's become a permanent itch I cannot get rid of and after much debate, I was headed to Hampi. No chance I would be allowed to go completely alone so I went with a group called Vagabond. The biggest thing holding me back from booking it immediately was the fact that it required taking a 13 hour long bus. Everyone warned me there was not a chance I would survive with my level of motion sickness. Well, proving people wrong is my favorite pastime so I put my mind to it and decided motion sickness and sleeping pills would be my best friend.
I have become slightly paranoid about how bad my motion sickness is. I was surprised when I boarded the bus to find that the sleeper AC bus really meant that there would be lay-flat bed. I had never seen a bus like that but assumed it would probably be better for me to lie down. I was very confused about the bus situation and who was on it initially. I assumed it would be all Vagabond people on the trip but it turned out we were on a sharing bus that travels the Mumbai to Hospet route. Niraj, the experience manager met me and took me to the very back of the bus where I had a lay flat bed. Behind me were two other girls who were also traveling with Vagabond so I went and introduced myself to them. Their names were Moulika and Shruti and they were already besties so I chatted with them for a while until I decided to nap.
I was in and out of my nap since it was so loud on the bus. The beds on the right hand side were slightly larger and across from me 4 people were seated in one blasting Hare Krishna and talking very loudly in Hindi. Couldn't even eavesdrop if I wanted to! As I lay awake I was dreading dealing with this for 13 more hours.
I didn't have to deal with that for 13 more hours, thankfully! After resting for a bit I went and joined the other two girls and Niraj. Another girl Shivani and Deepashree had joined and so all 5 of us gathered in one of the larger bunks and started chatting. I had good fun and warmed up to the others! We played rounds and rounds of a card game Niraj had brought while munching on some snacks. When we got tired of the card games, Niraj cracked out his logic games to test us. I assumed I would be slow but I wasn't as bad as I thought. Hanging out with my new friends was so much fun! I forgot all about my motion sickness and just let go of all my anxiety. It reassured me that I would have a good time in Hampi despite just meeting these people. They were all very warm and friendly and fascinated by me as I told them all about the US and why I was in India.
As the night dragged on, we got hungrier and hungrier. We asked the bus driver when the rest stop was and he said 10pm which was late but we agreed to tough it out. The actual rest stop came closer to midnight by which time we were all hangry. Since it was the middle of the country, we had stopped at a tourist stop where almost every other tour bus had also stopped. It was insanely crowded with your groups from all over stopping to use the washroom and grab a bite.
I know public bathrooms in India are a hard no go but you gotta do what you got to do sometimes. The line for the washroom was insanely long and as I predicted was a hole in the ground! Lovely! As a child, I was so scared of the hole in the ground I would rather hold my pee for 12 hours. I also had a fear I would fall in which now sounds absolutely ridiculous. I peed in the very unsanitary conditions cringing so hard when my pant leg touched the very wet floor where people had missed. The other girls were holding my stuff thankfully because no way was anything being taken into those stalls. I will also never understand how people in India just don't use toilet paper. Maria had given me a roll that I kept with me to avoid being a part of #wetchuddygang. While in the washroom I was also introduced to paper soap which was handsoap in the form of a paper sheet that is activated with water. I was so grateful for clean hands!
Dinner was all Street food. I had since avoided eating from the roadside to avoid falling sick so here I was pushing myself out of my comfort zone and trying new things. I tried my first vada pav for dinner with a lot of the spicy flakes since I love spice. The Vada pav was tasty but to me it was a bit dry since it was basically potato in bread. Just a lot of starch. I had two since I was so hungry and tried a bit of the dal khichdi someone had ordered. I don't know how I forgot to pack snacks but I was so hungry when I returned to the bus I ruffled through the depths of my backpack to find an emergency clif bar. I would call this an emergency so I ate that before passing out in my bed.
I only woke up once at around 5 am to these women loudly talking. I drew my curtains and shushed them to say it was 5 am and they shut up thankfully. Before I knew it, Niraj was waking me up! I had survived a 16 hour bus ride in the end!
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