As usual, Liza’s early morning alarm woke me up. It took another 15 minutes for her to actually get out of bed and begin rummaging around. She put on another layer and went out to the terrace to gaze. This was most definitely the last morning that we would get up the see the mountains at such proximity. It was also the beginning of our decent into the plains and the beginning of the end of our holiday.
Liza called out to us to join her on the terrace and I dragged myself all wrapped in blankets to enjoy the early morning sights. Vidya joined us in some time and we enjoyed chai before scrambling to get ready and repack and make it to the bus in time.
There were three seats at the back of the bus for us to sit, but the views up front (of the scenery not Rawat) were much better. We split our time, sometimes sitting at the front of the bus and sometimes trying to catch some sleep at the back of the bus. The journey back to Rishikesh was so much better than the journey from Rishikesh. This bus had better, bigger seats that had armrests to arrest the slipping into the aisle!
We took a late mid morning stop at Pipalkoti to freshen up. We bought some packaged snacks (we really were hungry by then) and a few apples and peaches- grown locally. Fruit especially tastes so much better if eaten fresh rather than after clocking zillion food miles travelling from ends of the world and being artificially ripened.
We were forced to take another break at the landslide point. Cars, buses, jeeps, army vehicles all lined up waiting for the rubble to be cleared. This time almost everyone from the bus got down to stretch their legs and admire the breathtaking views. It was here that Liza and Vidya ran into Dev again and insisted I go and say hi to him since he was looking for me.
Luckily the path was cleared and people started climbing back into their vehicles. We stopped again for a late lunch and post lunch we decided to go back and sleep. The rest of the journey was relatively smooth and we woke around 6 p.m. and joined Vidya who was sitting at the front of the bus. Ideally we should have reached Rishikesh by this time, but the late start and the landslide wait increased our travel time. Rawat estimated that we would be in Rishikesh by 9.
The sun set early and it soon became dark. If we thought that driving on the ghats was dangerous, it was even scarier doing it during the night. We couldn’t see even a foot ahead of us and it was a miracle that Rawat was able to see and keep the bus on the road all the time. We reached Rishikesh a little after nine and we were dropped off at the bus stand after paying Rawat for taking us on as additional passengers.
The public bus stand was a mess. It had just rained and the whole area was like a marshland with people running helter skelter with no aim. We were directed towards a group of buses going to Haridwar. Just as we got into one, luggage and all, the driver switched off the engine and disappeared with the conductor. Our train was a little after midnight from Haridwar and we were hoping that we could make it in time to catch the train.
Two buses next to ours left and there was still no sign of the driver. Finally the driver arrived and announced that the bus was going to
We reached Haridwar bus stand and picked up our luggage and walked to the railway station, about 10 minutes away. The station was filled with people, even at 12 in the night. Most of them were sleeping on every available inch of the floor! We went to the first class waiting room to find it filled with mostly non first class passengers. Atleast the loos were clean! I decided to go looking for food since we hadn’t had any dinner but everything was shut by that time. Liza said it wasn’t safe going out of the station to look for food, so we made do with chips and biscuits.
The train arrived at 12.30 a.m. and we were on our way back to
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