A night in the Delhi bus station

Again, taking an overnight bus from Rishikesh to Delhat time the bus will arrive in Delhi.  I have been down the road before of arriving at 3 or 4 am and this is not fun.  My friend (actually love admirer ha!) asks the driver in Hindi to confirm that the arrival time is 6am.  The bus driver is driving like a maniac and I just sit up and write. How can one sleep with their life constantly flashing before their eyes? He was passing up the slower trucks going directly into oncoming traffic over and over and over? INDIA!

Being the only female on the bus, I just keep to myself and avoid interaction.  It has nothing to do with safety, but personal preference of not engaging.

The bus makes a few stops and it is approaching 4:45a.m.   It is dark and I can not read any of the signs.  I figure we are stopping at another rest stop until I see everyone start getting their bags from the top and quickly moving off the bus.  I talk with the bus driver and conductor and ask them what happened to 6am.  The typical Indian response I get is the look of, “Sorry we messed up again.” He is communicating in Hindi and I am communicating in English.  I tell him I do not want to sit outside in the dark, dirty bus station by myself.  He tells me I can stay on the bus with him and the conductor. 

So off we go to back the bus up into what I will just call “The Bus Graveyard.” It is piled with so many buses.  A bus driver comes out of the bus smoking a cigarette and scratching his crotch.   Some people are sleeping on the ground near the bus.   I am not worried at all about my safety on my bus, but worried about my surrounding Outside the bus. 

We get on the bus and they both set up their sleeping bed.  The driver is so cute- an older, thin, lanky Indian man with holes in his socks.  He pulls out a blanket from the compartment.  There are mosquitoes flying around and he lights up a mosquito repellant candle.  I take out my mosquito net and we are all prepared for a couple hours of sleep. 

The conductor sleeps in the bag, the bus driver in front, and me in the middle of bus.   The bus driver is the first to fall asleep and also the loudest! He begin to snore loudly, like a bear! It is not a consistent snore, but moments of loudness and talking that come and go every five minutes or so.  I manage to get some sleep dosing in and out, but it is near impossible with the snoring.  The sun begins to come up and it is 7:30-time for me to get off the bus and start moving.

I say bye to the conductor, but the bus driver is passed out asleep-go figure.  Always an ADVENTURE!