When we got to the airport, he commenced with another announcement, so I grabbed my phone and recorded that one, too: “Please remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop. At that time, please check the overhead compartments for anything you may have brought onboard, as well as the floor around your seats to make sure you didn’t drop anything of value, such as your cell-phone, car-keys, fast food wrappers… if you dropped any money on the floor, its probably gotten dirty… so feel free to leave it there and I’ll make sure it gets disposed of, properly.” Much more laughter, with me almost splitting a gut. “Please collect your luggage at coach-side to take with you and thank you for riding Indian Trails.” Double-Woot!! Maybe we can talk him into working on the Bronco Transit to provide comic relief during finals. What do you think?
As of yesterday, the conference portion has ended for our trip. So now, we begin the fun by following suggestions from some Virginia Beach friends that formerly lived in New Delhi – get out of New Delhi. The Indian state of Rajasthan is our destination, with the city of Jaipur as our centre of operations. But, how to get there…
You can fly to Jaipur, take a slow train, or the slower still, state-run bus service. Or, as suggested by my friend, Bob, “ride a bus with chickens.” So, we did. Unfortunately, no chickens on the ride, but I swear I saw some feathers on my seat. So, for 200 Rupees per person (just about $4.44), we took a 35-person bus about 234 km with 60 wonderful people onboard.
The bus was a normal bus, like most others, except that they divided the vertical space in half with a very ‘we already have the spare parts’ flair. I had ample clearance sitting down – there was just someone lying above me. Plus we shared the same large window across both stories. In fact, that upper berth had no metal support as the person lay – if he leaned too much against the Plexiglas, he’d fall out the side.