Marathon Traveling - Leh to Amritsar

It was time to move on from Leh so Eva and I booked seats in a bus back to Manali and said goodbye to Leh’s and its beautiful, non-monsoon sunny weather. The ride back to Manali wasn’t has bumpy as the ride up. This minibus had better suspension and cushy seats. But Ladakh’s winter comes on quickly and without a lot of warning, so it was freezing driving down, and neither Eva or I were prepared for how bitterly cold it would be. The first 6 hours of the ride I couldn’t feel my feet or hands. I tried to sleep sitting on my feet and my hands in between my legs, but I couldn’t get comfortable. It must have been about 35 degrees and windy outside. When I tried to go pee, it was like my organs couldn’t function properly and were frozen solid. When we finally made a rest stop at a campsite, I bought yak wool socks and the driver gave me the extra blanket he was using as a seat cushion. It was about half way through the trip at the 8 hour that we realized our driver, a really nice Nepalese man, hadn’t slept in the past 24 hours. All of us freaked out because we caught him nodding off. It may have not been so scary if this were a regular road, but the road was unpaved and curvy and on the side of a mountain. The other people in the bus were really nice so a couple of the guys took turns sitting in front watching the driver and making conversation with him to keep him awake. A few hours later, since we were descending we hit the monsoon. It’d only been a little over a week since we were there, but I had already forgotten that the rest of India was still in monsoon. The road was barely visible because the fog was so thick. Not only that, it starting raining. I turned back Eva and all she could say was, ‘Welcome to Hell’. It was just what we needed: a sleepy driver, zero visibility, and treacherous road conditions. Ha! It couldn’t get any worse. Fortunately it didn’t. We made it to Manali, finally, 17 hours later, in one piece.

Eva and I were headed to Amritsar, the center of the Sikh religion, and the home of the world famous Golden Temple. The very next day after the 17-hour ride from Leh, we woke up at 5am and caught the 13-hour local bus to Pathankot and then the 3-hour train from Pathankot to Amritsar. It was first long distance ride on a local bus. From what Eva said, it was a good trip. She said she’s experienced worse. But to me local bus ride was so physically strenuous. The driver doesn’t stop for anyone, except himself when he needs to take a piss. He stopped once, and I ran out to go to the toilet, and came right out, when I saw the bus already moving. I ran after it and jumped on, and Eva said he didn’t care and wouldn’t wait even though she pleaded with him. She told me that once she was on a trip when an Indian man stepped out to buy water and some cigarettes, and the bus left him, with all of his stuff sitting on his seat. His friend told the driver to wait, but they just left him. So after that, I didn’t drink any water, and it’s a good thing I didn’t because I wouldn’t have been able to use the toilet if I needed to. The bus was packed full of people. You wouldn’t believe how many human beings can fit on a bus. I don’t think there was any space, what so ever, on any part of the bus not occupied by someone or someone’s belongings. We were back down from the hills and mountains, so the weather was hot and humid. We kept the window open as long was we could, but the guy sitting in front of us kept vomiting and spitting the entire 13-hour ride to Pathankot. It was surprising he even made it the whole way. Every five minute he’d stick his head out to vomit, and after a while I was wondered what was still left inside that could come out.

We arrived in Pathankot just 15 minutes before the last train to Amritsar. We hadn’t planned on going straight there, but since the opportunity presented itself, we got tickets and got on board. At one point, this British guy who was had traveled with us since Leh, told me I looked, ‘shattered.’ I was pretty tired at that point. Our entire train car was filled with men. At every stop guys would come up to my window and stare, or say strange American phrases that they must have learned from movies like, ‘Hey baby’ or ‘Hello sweetheart’. And then they would ask what country I was from or what my name was. Sometimes those people are sincere, but at that point I was so tired, I just covered my face in my scarf and pretended like I was asleep or I didn’t speak English.

We got to Amritsar by 10:30pm, found a hotel and crashed for the night.