The greatest bus ride? (by Joe)

Took a wonderful bus ride the day before yesterday from Shimla to Dharamshala through Himachal Pradesh (a provence of northern India in the shadow of the Himalayas).

It was 10 hour, 300km (yes, average 30km per hour) journey on a 'real' long distance Indian bus (not one of the luxury tourist buses) .

We boarded at 9.30, having secured our rucksacks on the roof and headed off.

For the first 3 hours leaving Shimla, the mountain views were utterly stunning , though, sitting right at the front next to the driver, neither Laura or I could pay them the attention they deserved as we found it almost impossible to focus on anything but the winding, pot-holed road ahead and the sheer-cliff drops at the side of the road.

The driver was a friendly guy - he seemed pleased to see tourists on his bus - and, between chatting loudly on his mobile phone (goodness knows how he got any reception in the mountains), he leaned over to give me a reassuring smile (eyes off road) having just turned his big wheel to swing the bus around another major U-bend.

It didn't help my nerves to notice the 'shrine' above his seat was that of a sitting buddha, arms upright and fingers tightly crossed.

The soundtrack to the whole trip was fast-paced, wailing Bhangra played very loud in mono through a straining tape deck.

Nobody seemed desperateley surprised when, a couple of hours into the trip, we stopped for half an hour for a bit of roadside maintenance (Indian-style) to mend a punctured tyre (see right and below).

Once we came out of the mountains and into a valley and the plains, we were able to relax a bit (not completely -the road was narrow and there was ALWAYS oncoming traffic) and take in the sights along the road.

We weren't able to take photos, it was very hot and the 10 hours is all a bit of a whirl - neverheless, here are a few 'flashbulb memories':

- Monkeys by the side of the road
- Small towns
- Corrugated-iron shacks (many)
- Roadside food stalls
- Motorbike sales shops
- Tractors and trailers
- Many many tyre repair garages
- Hundreds of colourful, hand-painted goods-lorries (see right)
- Hand painted ads on sides of buildings for Lay's crisps (that's Walkers in the UK)
- Cows meandering along the road
- A tractor shop
- A paddy field
- A massive fort on the other side of a gorge
- Fruit stalls
- An enormous (14ft) statue of a chicken in the garden of a posh house (honestly - I'm not kidding)
- Goats
- A massive lake
- A pure, cool blue, freshwater river
- Easy rider motorcyclists
- Hundreds of smartly dressed schoolkids (come 4pm)

After night had fallen (that made the drive even more hairy), we arrived in Dharamshala desperately tired but wonderfully stimulated and feeling like we had seen a real slice of genuine, rural India. We headed for our accommodation in the nearby town of McLeodganj.

The whole journey was 160 rupees each (about 2 pounds - only 50p more than the price of the 65 from Kingston to Richmond) - amazing!

Joe