Udia Udia Udia Udiapur

Busses in India

By signing up for the Basic tour we agreed to participate in some local forms of transportation, but since we spoiled ourselves by flying all over southeast Asia today was a little shocking.
We've been in Udiapur for the past two days, which is a lovely town set on two man made lakes. The weather was fabulous, cool and not so dry. There was good shopping and great restaurants. The James Bond film, Octopussy, was filmed at the City Palace there in 1982, and almost every restaurant shows it nightly! We saw it once while there, and Roger Moore was a very entertaining if not ridiculously corny Bond. All the India footage was shot in Udaipur, so if you need a little visual connection - there you go.
This morning we left on the local bus, which is really no big deal. There are assigned seats and most of the people are going a longer distance, so there are less stops, people are prepared for a little bit of a ride. We get to store our backpacks in the back instead of in our seats. If you can handle the honking - Indian vehicles don't have rear view mirrors so they let you know they are passing by honking - on the freeway, can you imagine!
After six hours we arrive in some town where we have to switch to the local, local bus. At the bus station the drivers stand outside their busses yelling, Jai, Jai, Jai, Jai, Jaipur -really fast. I am actually quite good at Udia, Udia, Udiapur - if things don't work out I can always drive an Indian bus! Our guide, Shyaam, says we'll keep our baggage with us on this local bus. The driver offered to put it on top of the bus but we all looked up and there is not anything on top of the bus to hold the bags, no rails or straps. We apparently would just throw them up there and hope they didn't fall off. We asked if the bus would stop if one fell off, and Shyaam said, "Eventually".
Then the bus pulls into the parking spot and Shyaam, says "Okay we go". This was a very calm command considering the rush that was beginning. The people are just swarming, pushing and shoving around the door to the bus. We are in the middle of the pack and just getting knocked around. To add to the fun, we have huge packs weighing about 35 pounds each, and we are the only white people boarding this bus. We quickly realize that without some serious assertiveness we are not going to get on this bus, let alone have a seat, so the backpacks come in handy and with some good swings right and left we cleared our path. Welcome to real backpacking in India.
I was looking out the window at the desert pass by, and it took me a few minutes to notice just how dirty and gross this bus was. But don't worry, just because you can see a man and dog pooping alongside one another from the bus, this is not a completely backwards place. Once on the bus the ticket man has a handheld computer that will produce a receipt for your bus ticket. Nothing like technology among the squalor! Every man whose possessions include a big stick and something wrapped in a big sheet needs a reciept.
We arrived in Pushkar unscathed, just a little rattled! But I've been offered marijuana about ten times already today, so I should be calming down soon!