We left Pune Friday (Nov 16) at 6:00 p.m.—a beautiful sleeper bus with berths was promised. On inspection, the bus had berths of course, but it was not beautiful. It looked road worthy, but it was not air conditioned and had no toilet. This was a surprise. What to do? Well nothing really as we had paid our money, checked out of our hotel, and it was getting dark. With nowhere to stay, the bus started to look better and better. Flexibility and patience are important attributes for anyone who wants to travel independently in India! This was simply an opportunity for us to apply these attributes and let the adventure unfold.
The Bus
There were 31 berths: double width berths on one side, like a double bed, and single width on the other side with a small hallway between. And of course, two rows high on both sides. The double wide ones had walls with a sliding door so that you could crawl in, close the door and have your own chamber. Of course, three further attributes were required at this point: sufficient flexibility to actually be able to get into and out of these chambers; comfort in small spaces (not claustrophobic); and a personal height of less than 5’6”. If you were taller, you won't be able to sit in the the chamber without hitting your head on the ceiling.
Since Lance isn’t actually a slight person, the good news for us was that we had been given the bottom berths at the far end of the bus. One berth was in the hallway, and the other was on the single side of the bus (no hallway here). While initially this seemed less than ideal, it turned out to be a blessing since Lance could hang his feet over the end into the hallway and there was no one above him so it was less claustrophobic. Now of course sleeping in this vehicle as it lurched and bounced along the road was quite another thing. Amazingly, we did manage to fall asleep at times. But this was often disturbed by honking horns, sudden braking and at one point, we were rudely awakened when we were tossed into the air when we went over a bump!
Toilet Facilities (Not!)
Since there was no toilet on the bus, there were three bathroom breaks along the way. The first was at a restaurant stop—very clean, no problem. The second was under a banyan tree at the side of the road. I took a pass on this one. The third was in the middle of a village. Since I couldn’t wait any longer, I got out and was informed that the women’s place was over behind a small van about 100 feet from the bus on the left side of the road. Men were directed to go to the right side of the bus—anywhere would do. Welcome to India!
Despite all of this, we managed to reach our destination on time, found our hotel, checked in and went to bed. Panaji was a lovely town with little traffic and few people. The next day we moved to a town on the beach, a little village called Benaulim. The water, weather, food, and guesthouse were perfect. It was great to be out of the pollution and able to breath some fresh area. Pune wasn’t nearly as bad as Calcutta, but it was still polluted so the clean sea air was a welcome change.