One More ChowMein for the Road (Nov 7)

This is our day to move on.
We packed up, had our last breakfast on the veranda and did a bit more yoga.
After checking out we strolled down to our favourite internet cafe at Bob Johnson's Lodge (they also have the cleanest bathrooms in town!) The internet still wasn't working... grr!
We gave up and went into the downtown.

We dropped our bags off at the travel agent rather than lug them around all day. Our bus leaves at 6 pm and we should be arriving in Dharmasala around 4 am. It seems early but all the buses seem to leave at the same time.

Off to Chopsticks for a late lunch and to kill some time. We just can't seem to get enough of the fried wontons. We met ran into the older couple we'd overhead the conversation of the day before. They sounded British but they currently live in the south of France. He said he was originally from the US, had met her living in Britain, went to France for a bit and 23 years later they were still there. Go figure! We had a good chat about places they'd been so far in India and how to best send packages home.

There is another internet cafe nearby so we decided to give it one more try. It was actually working! I started updating the blog while Brad went off and got us some snacks for the bus ride. We stopped at the travel agent at 5:30 to get our bus number and hopped into a rickshaw to take us the 2 km down the road to where the buses were parked.

There was a pretty big line of buses on the side of the road but our driver managed to find our bus with very little difficulty. Our bags loaded in the back (you have to pay 10 rupees a bag to have them load them... it seems silly but I imagine your bag may not arrive if you don't pay).
Standing on the sidewalk waiting to depart I was looking up at the sky watching the stars come out when a couple of small bats starting flitting about catching dinner.

It was starting to get chilly so we ensured we had our warm jackets and hats for the bus ride (the buses are not heated and are often quite drafty. We are in seats 1 and 2 - directly behind the driver. The front of the bus, where the driver is, is walled off with glass and has a door where they go in and out of the passenger compartment. On the left of the driver and behind him are benches for the luggage guy and a variety of other people. We weren't sure why it took 4 to 5 people to drive a bus but maybe one was a backup driver.

There was a problem before we departed with the luggage door on the back of the bus. We saw one of the guys trying to cut a piece of wood of some kind. Boyscout Brad leapt into action with his trusty Swiss army knife (it has a saw and a fish descaler!) Off to the back of the bus, some more Swiss army magic and the repair was complete. We hit the road around 6:20 - not too late at all.

Even though this wasn't a state run bus and not the milk run, we seemed to stop a great deal. I guess each little town has travel agents, all selling tickets and we needed to stop. We also seemed to stop and pick up buddies of the driver every now and then, drive awhile, and then drop them off. There was a great deal of coming and going from the front compartment. We tried to nap as much as we could. I'm not sure when it happened but at some point I noticed we had a new driver and he seemed to be in a very big hurry. The road was not like the one of those northern cottage roads with twists here and there to get the blood going - it had really big turns and twists... constantly. I'm not sure if there were any straight sections! At one point he had to put on the brakes and back up because he couldn't make the turn and we were going to drive off the cliff. (Driving in these buses ... I'm pretty much going on the faith that the guys in the front don't want to die either). It was almost too exciting to watch the road ahead so, since I couldn't sleep, I looked up and watched the stars. They were moving much slower.

Two rest stops for toilets and snacks and we pulled into Dharmasala at 3 am. An hour ahead of schedule.

Not much is going on in Dharmasala at 3 am and there isn't much in the way of places to stay either. Unless they have a bus to catch, most people stay up the hill in McLeod Ganj. It's only 2 km on foot (straight up) but 10 km by road (due to all the switchbacks). There were 8 or so of us dumped off the bus - all looking rather bewildered and half asleep. The cabs were sitting waiting (they sleep in their cars I guess). Our book said it should be 100 rupees to McLeod Ganj but the cab wanted 50 rupees per person and the car would hold 4 people. We tried to argue, consulted with other people's books and eventually gave up. It was now 3:30 am , we were tired and we really had no choice unless we wanted to walk. We piled into a cab with a couple from Australia and headed up the hill. The Australian couple had just come off trekking in the mountains and had encountered some snow. Winter is coming!!

We had preplanned that we would stay at the Hotel Tibet. The cab dropped us out front and was gone. The streets were entirely deserted and the hotel was locked up tight. Standing there, trying to decide what to do, looking for a bell or something, we managed to wake up a young man who was sleeping on a cot in the lobby. I guess it's not unusual for people to arrive at all hours. He put us into a nice room and... thankfully, we went to bed.