Bus Ride Straight From Hell

Just a quick comment on our bus journey from Anjuna Beach to Hampi (pronounced "humpy") via Mapusa -

IT WAS PURE HELL!!!!

I'm not sure if something shady was being pulled on the riders or if what we were told were the truth...

Here's the story:

K and I (along with other passengers) were supposed to catch a sleeper bus labelled "Island" from Mapusa at 6:30 p.m. to take us to Hampi (with an estimated arrival time of 6:00 a.m.). We waited and waited around until a "pick-up" bus (small, barebones-style, somewhat uncomfortable local one) came to take us to the actual bus which was claimed to have broken down. I was told that we were going to catch the sleeper in Panjim, about half an hour away. K heard the bus workers tell a woman a different location to which she exclaimed in protest that it was two hours away. Not really knowing what was going on, truth-wise, we all piled in and drove to Panjim. There, instead of transfering to the sleeper bus, we simply picked up a couple more passengers and then proceeded to drive to a city called Caracona which is located not too far from the border between the states of Goa and Karnataka. At this stop, we were supposed to pick up a large group of people, some who did not have seats. A few people ended up snagging a ride on another large bus also going to Hampi (I'm not sure how they managed that). A family with two small children decided to just wait and catch the bus the following day. The rest of us crammed ourselves in with most of the luggage and headed off. By this time it was roughly 11:30 p.m. I was truly not happy and got a bit loud with the bus staff along with some of the riders that were with us from the start.

Anyhow, we finally started for the border (yes! the border) where the sleeper bus was now supposed to pick us up. Luckily the border was just under an hour away. However, we ended up waiting for yet another hour before we could board the sleeper. It was then about 1:30 a.m.

The sleeper wasn't too bad, fairly comfortable but not comfortable enough to handle the potholes in the road. I think I was pretty much the only one who yelped the first time we went over one at good speed. My prone body felt completely airborne. Consequently, the landing was a bit rough. By the time we reached Hampi, most of the bus was also yelping whenever we went over bumps and potholes. It truly is not fun to be horizontal when that happens.