A Rolling Start

Having bought our bus ticket out of Udaipur earlier, we made our way to the travel company's office that night, as directed. Multiple buses drove past, none of which were ours, we were waiting for the agent to let us know.

After waiting around for 30 minutes or so, said agent abruptly told us to “follow him”, pointing at his friend.. So we did. We walked through roundabouts and across busy roads, with all our possessions on our backs. We walked expectantly past a couple of parked buses. From a bend in the road in front of us emerged yet another bus, moving at a fair old speed. “This yours”, said the stranger we were following like lost sheep. He waved frantically and the bus slowed down. It had just about stopped when we were hurried on to the bus. No time to put our rucksacks in the luggage compartment. Two more people got on behind us, one of whom had to run to keep pace with the door as the bus started to move and as we slowly made our way through the crowded bus stairwell.

This time I had a single sleeper capsule to myself, though the pleasure of having my own space was slightly ruined by the streaks of shit that ran down one side of the compartment.

We got there in the end. I didn't get much sleep though.