Travels in India with too many books

Leaving the imposing desrt fort of Jaisalmer, we made our way down to the stinking bus depot late afternoon. The bus was, even at first glance, disappointing. We had bought the ticket from straight-talking Ganesh Travels, but the reality did not match the photograph we were shown. After dumping our hand luggage on one of the dusty, probably flea-infested mattresses, we were informed we had to move to the back of the bus as a couple of Korean or Japanese girls were allocated that particular bunk. We made a short attempt at defending our right to the seat as no-one had told us this before, then gave up when it became apparent, after a confusing bout of proto-English, that these girls wanted a seat by their friend on the other side of the aisle.

Defeated, we made our way to the back. Our new home for the next 10 hours was a small cupboard, with glass on both sides but the curtains long since gone. The aisle side window refused to shut properly despite a heroic effort by both of us, so we were treated not only to the smells of the unwashed masses as they periodically clogged up and emptied from the aisle every few stops, but their unwelcome stares. The window to the outside world had to be opened every so often so that we felt we weren't breathing in the dust left by all the passengers that had occupied that cabin since the buses construction, circa 1970.

To illustrate further the joy of this particular journey, imagine being trapped in a small box with another person while an earthquake of approximately 5 or 6 on the Richter scale goes on. While you're trying to read and then sleep. For ten hours. Every time I got into a sitting position, the knackered suspension would encounter a pebble on the road and send my head careering into the roof.

Somehow, we managed to get to sleep, several hours after the electric light in our cabin mysteriously cut out and removed the possibility for reading (even though that was painfully slow anyway since the words of my book formed a constant vertical blur).

At about 3:30 am someone woke us up announcing we had arrived at Ajmer, about 35 km from Ajmer. This was our stop. We groggily got off. Of course (and fortunately for us) there were some rickshaw drivers outside, capitalising on the lucrative middle of the night business from tourists. Upon bartering one down from 500 to 300 rupees (I know, a lot, but it was 4am). We rode the 35 km to Pushkar.

So we found a place, and stayed a few hours. Wanting to move closer to the center of town in the morning, we went to check out. That's when we realised we didn't have our passports.

Understandably, we freaked out. We went first to the tourist info centre, who couldn't help us as he didn't have a phone, then the police, who couldn't help us as we thought they'd been stolen in Jaisalmer, and told them as much, and they said the police there had to deal with it. We phoned the British Embassy in Delhi and Mumbai, seeing what we would have to do. It would take 10 working days and 8000 rupees each, they said. As well as messing up our travel plans as we would have to go to Mumbai to collect our exit visa.

Then we phoned Ganesh Travels back for the second time. This time the boss was in - and the passports had been found in our room! We, dopy sods, had left them there, but no-one had told us despite our bags being left in the hotel all day while the room was being cleaned! Still, we were utterly relieved, especially as two friends of ours were still there and could pick them up.

That afternoon, my cold, which had already lasted a couple of days, got worse, and Emily started another bout of the dreaded Delhi belly. What a great day! Incredible India indeed!

Feeling better now, we plan to backtrack slightly to pick up our passports in Udaipur, then on to Jaipur, Agra, Delhi, Amritsar, back to Delhi, then Goa. We didn't plan to go to Amritsar but we have another 5 days up North as the train to Goa is unavailable first class until the 11th February. First class is expensive (as much as a plane ticket) but I think necessary for a journey of that length (about 25 hours). Experience is, after all what we're here for; and the last few days have given us that!