I cannot begin to even describe how bad this bus journey was, cattle travel better than this. Aside from the two hours of daylight as we were leaving Udaipur and which let us take in the sights, the rest can only be described as 'pure hell'.
Our two-person sleeper compartment was high at the back of the coach, and the vehicle's complete lack of anything resembling suspension led to us feeling every bump in the road - and there are many.
At times you'd think you'd got through the worst of it, before being launched 12-inches into the air to land with a crash on your spine, it was painful and I think can only be compared to a personalised 17-hour earthquake.
Well ok, more like 16-hours. For one hour we were stuck next to a remote flyover as a group of people tried to figure out what was wrong with the bus (aside from the obvious), and child beggars urged us to throw rupees at them from the windows.
We finally got on our way and somehow managed to make it to what we thought was central Bombay, a stone's throw from the port, at about 9am. Actually though we were dropped nowhere near the port. We tried to stop random tuk-tuks but the drivers just laughed and drove off - we were still 40km north of the Gateway of India, and were both carrying everything we owned.
Somehow we managed to get a famous black and yellow taxi. These are ancient looking cars, that come with an assortment of dents, scratches and adornments as varied as the drivers. An hour later we were within sight of the Arabian sea and the famous archway that marks the Gateway. The driver, despite charging us something like four times the going rate, helped us find the ferry offices - even stopping and asking directions for us.
It was 10.44am and by some miracle we made the 10.45am departure. We breathed a sigh of relief as Bombay faded into the distance, although we both regretted not spending a little more time there...next stop Mandwa port, then onto Alibag and the Konkan coast we thought - fools.
After an hour on the ferry we hit terra firma, and another 30-minute bus ride later we were in Alibag. We should have known. The Lonely Planet guidebook, which covers every conceivable corner of India, doesn't even mention Alibag. To all extents and purposes for the backpacker it doesn't (and probably shouldn't) even exist.
We went to one guesthouse we were turned away we tried another - same thing. We tried even more but because of Diwali there were no rooms. Everyone was staring at us, we were exhausted we were still (barely) carrying our luggage.
Our vision of travelling down the coast to Goa was in tatters. It was blatantly obvious that all of the small towns we had planned on visiting would also be packed. We almost cried.
Thankfully though we managed to negotiate a bed for ourselves at the Hotel Ramakant (nice name). It wasn't very clean, I looked outside and there were people washing themselves out of buckets, the towels were kind of crusty, but it was a room.
However, to have just settled down for the night would have been too easy. After using the shower we found we couldn't turn it off and were moved to another room - arrrghhh!
At this point, feeling physically and mentally sapped, our options were limited to two choices:
1. Bite the bullet head back to Bombay and book a 17-hour bus ride to Goa;
2. Bite the bullet head back to Bombay and book a one-hour flight to Goa.
Not surprisingly, we had kind of had enough of buses. And minutes later we were in Alibag's one and only Cyber Cafe booking flights. Of course we had to get back to Bombay first.
Our flight was due to leave Bombay's domestic airport at 2pm, we weren't taking any chances and booked our bus back to the port to retread yesterday's footprints for 8am. If we could make it to the Gateway of India by 11am we would have three hours to head the 40km north to the airport (actually quite close to where we were originally dropped off). It all seemed possible.
After spending something like 1600R on a taxi to get us here yesterday, we fully expected to be ripped off for a taxi back. I was startled when I managed to get one for 400R, and half expected that we would be dumped in a back street miles from anywhere. But our driver (who only seemed to know how to say 'OK' in English) was brilliant and we spent an hour hurtling at high speed in another black and yellow to the airport - we made it!
One flight and one night in a dodgy hovel later, we're finally in Goa - hoe of the head wobble. We're staying at a beachfront guesthouse on Colva Beach. It truly is paradise. The sand is white, the sun is hot, the beer and curry are cheap.
We're planning on staying here for another five days just to relax, unwind and recharge the batteries, before moving onto the awesome ruins at Hampi Village, in Karnataka, and heading down-country to Kerala. All being well one month from now we should be on our way to Singapore...I'll keep you posted.
PS - pix as soon as I can find a net cafe that lets you upload pictures.
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