Adventures in Tibet Part V: It’s 234 kilometers to Chandigarh

We’ve got an empty bladder, two packs of weird sandwich cookies, it’s cold and the bus is air-conditioned. Hit it.

When I booked my flights, I had serious concerns about an early morning flight out of Delhi. The overnight buses from Dharamsala don’t get into Delhi until 8 or 9, and with an hour trip to the airport, plus a minimum of 45 minutes of lead time, I didn’t think it was going to work. But Sanju had to get back in time for a wedding that day, so the upshot was I traveled back from Dharamsala solo. This was an adventure all on its own.

I was able to buy my ticket for a nice, state-run, "luxury" bus two days in advance. I wasn’t taking chances with the buses all selling out from an exodus of Russian Pilgrims. The bus arrived on time, was neat and tidy, and was mostly empty. Or at least it was mostly empty when it departed. As soon as it pulled in, a bunch of Russian Pilgrims rushed on board while the Indian conductor was pleading with them to stop so he could check their tickets to make sure they were on the right bus. They weren’t. So after my travels, I think the order from most to least orderly travelers goes:

Germans -> Americans -> Indians -> Russian Pilgrims

We picked up some people along the way, but only briefly was there anyone sitting next to me. I’ve concluded that lateral space is far more important than leg room for comfort. The seats on these buses recline like hell, to the point where the seat in front of you is only a few inches from your face unless you also recline. That didn’t bother me. But I loved the side space. Perhaps airlines should see if they can’t focus on that instead of leg room.

Once in Delhi, I took a rickshaw to the airport and found my driver not only speaking English, but also being quite chatty. It was here, actually, that I first learned of the cold snap and ice storm in the US. This was the weirdest of sources for my emergence from living under a rock in Tibet, but it was neat to have that sort of a threshold to jump over. That news ended the trip. I still had to get through a delay-stricken, poorly laid-out Delhi Airport (the taxi to the runway was 15 minutes, AFTER we bused to the plane itself). But at that point, I was back to news, and the trip was done.

I’ll get back to posting non-travel-blog stuff very soon. I realize these posts weren’t my best, but they were pretty much necessary. Some teasers: my review of Taco Bell, a "best of" photography post to sort through the hundreds of bad and repetitive photos I took, and more adventures with the law (this time with an angry mob). I’m also now bringing a camera with me whenever I go to the grocery store. There’s too much good stuff there.