The ticket to Hampi had to be booked in advance because quite frankly otherwise, I would not have been able to leave Goa. The place was like heaven and hell in one. It’s horribly amazing and beautifully disgusting but so difficult to actually get away from.

The day I am to leave Goa, I am feeling as ill as I possibly could. Throughout the night I had a horrid fever giving me shivers as I layer on clothes, blankets and my bath towel just to be fully aware that even though I feel so cold, I am in fact sweating like there’s no tomorrow.

I wake up unable to actually get out of bed, which meant that I had to pay for an extra nights accommodation which was good, as it gave me a spacious room and bed to wallow and feel sorry for myself for a good few hours before having to hop onto my bus.

Feeling so weak made my backpack feel like I was carrying away rocks along with plenty of sand. I was terribly slow getting around and had to squeeze onto a tiny bus where the ticket lady shouted loudly and repetitively for me to place my bag at the front to make more room. You would think that this was a surprisingly clever and logical idea, though there was no space for me to move, removes or even consider walking towards the front. This 18 seater bus easily had 35 people all squashed in. it was so crowded that at one point when another jumped on, she used her whole body weight to ensure he was fully in and slammed the door so hard that the window glass smashed into small pieces all over the floor and the passengers inside. Thankfully this lady had previously taken my bag and physically forced me onto the other end of the bus.

More drama continued when I sat on my official bus to Hampi, though due to my lack of energy and horrible illness, I was luckily able to sleep through the whole 8 hour trip.

It was only when I awoke that I was informed by other Westerners that the following happened:

–          A man from behind ran to the empty seat directly in front of me to use the window to vomit out of. (Thankfully the guy next to me shut my open window so that I was to not be woken up by an awful splash back) He did apparently try to wake me for the ‘What the..?!’ kind of conversation due to the loudness of the vomiting but he said that I just an over enthusiastic grin and fell back asleep.

–          When we stopped to pick up more passengers, they opened the boot (where my luggage was) to place more bags. It was at this point that the boot just dropped and fell to the ground. In order to fix this professionally, they told everyone to get off the bus and then beat the back with metal poles for about 7 minutes before getting people to take some of the bags inside the bus to fill up the walkway. The rest were left and string was used in attempt to attach the boot back on. Being fast asleep, I was of course completely unaware of this situation of the likelihood of my bag to actually reach its destination now.

–          A policeman entered the bus on a security check and shun a bright torch in everybody’s eye along with all the baggage to ensure that everything was to his satisfaction. Given that this was a night bus, many were sleeping and therefore not very impressed to be woken this way. When the light went in my direction, I appeared to not reach at all.

I must admit, I do believe it’s one of the best sleeps I have ever had. I was in an awkward seat and constantly had my limbs thrown around in the strangest of positions. It’s funny as I was always envious of a particular individual who was able to sleep anywhere, no matter for how little time, the position, location or time of day and I never understood how he was able to do it. I wanted to be able to do the same. And here I am in India, unknowingly fulfilling that small little dream of mine.

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