The Jaisalmer Bus Fiasco - otherwise known as "This day is JOKING"

Otherwise known as - How we wound up in a car, in Delhi, at 2am, with a Sikh man and his 16yr old assistant that we had met earlier that day, driving down the wrong side of the highway towards oncoming traffic.

Wow. What a day. I woke up this morning thinking - did that really just happen?

Yesterday we decided we wanted to go to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan as it's Tal's last week in India and she hasn't been yet.. and it's beautiful there. We first tried to book the overnight sleeper train, but it was booked out for 2 days. So instead I walked into a travel agent come internet cafe and enquired about an overnight sleeper bus. Success! We booked a luxury Volvo sleeper bus with air-con overnight direct to Jaisalmer. Later that evening we returned to the travel agent with our bags to go to the bus station, to be told that the bus company had called and our luxury air-con Volvo bus was not available due to the rain (yeah, right) and that instead we would still have a luxury sleeper bus but just with fan. The travel agent, a lovely and sincere Sikh man, was very apologetic us and refunded us the difference is price. We then had to wait for the correct driver, who I think was from the bus company, to take us to the bus station. We waited for nearly an hour but he finally showed up, only to just find us the nearest rickshaw and tell us to pile on. The rickshaw driver wanted 150R to take us there but we refused, because our Sikh travel agent had told us 50R. Meanwhile, the 'driver' from the bus company took our travel agent ticket and wrote us out a bus ticket, except he wrote 'Jodhpur' rather than 'Jaisalmer'...
"No no no! We go to JAISALMER. Not Jodhpur!"
"Ok Ok"
"No, not ok. Change the ticket."
So he crossed it out and wrote Jaisalmer. Warning bells started ringing.
Meanwhile, we told the 'driver' to call our Sikh travel agent about the cost of the rickshaw so he came down and started yelling at the rickshaw driver on our behalf. They were unable to reach a resolution so our Sikh travel agent ended up telling us to wait there while he got his car - he was going to drive us instead! We dodged and weaved through the traffic and were dropped off at the bus terminal. We thanked our travel agent and said goodbye. We waited for about half an hour at the bus terminal with the other passengers (all locals, no tourists - warning bells) until our bus finally arrived. We were told to follow as we walked down the street to where our bus was parked. As no-one checked our tickets before being told to follow, we were asking other people in our mob where they were going but we kept hearing 'Jodhpur'. This was unsettling. We thought maybe it stops at Jodhpur and lets people out and then continues on to Jaisalmer. So we decided that we were definitely going to not get on the bus until we spoke to the driver. We arrived our bus. It was definitely not luxury. I'm not even going to describe it any further other than it was.. shit. We asked to talk to the driver, we're not sure exactly who the driver was but we ended up talking to a DH who told us that no the bus was only going to Jodhpur but it was same same, we'd just buy another onward ticket to Jaisalmer!! Well that was not going to be happening! We had paid for a direct trip the WHOLE way to Jaisalmer on a LUXURY bus (I'd like to add at this point that this bus trip would take at least 15hr so it is worth being fussy) and it was NOT same same for us to be taking this shit bus and then buying another ticket in Jodhpur. We demanded they ring our travel agent, who told us they he would refund us for the Jodhpur - Jaisalmer leg of the ticket if we still wanted to go, but we decided instead that we wanted this all sorted out and would go back to his office. First we had to go back to the bus station to get our other ticket back (it had been swapped AGAIN) at which point Tal demanded to talk to the person in charge. She was given a phone and proceeded to give the scamming bastard a piece of her mind. Awesome.

We took a rickshaw back to our Sikh travel agent. He was very upset and apologised profusely. He paid our rickshaw driver and handed us back all our money. He explained that the man he had booked us the bus ticket through had scammed him/us and he had ripped up his business card saying he'd never deal with him again! We think we might even go to the tourist police with his details.

We then spent a couple of hours with the Sikh travel agent (and his 16yr old assistant who is the son of his friend who had passed away) trying to work out a plan B and what transportation we could possibly get that night. By this time it was after 10:30pm but as Tal has very limited time left in India, time is at a premium! So we really wanted to get a late bus or train that night. It got to 11:30 and the train website closed, so we then had to wait until 12:30am until it opened again and we could check the timetables. We toyed with heaps of different itineraries and options.. none of which really seemed to work. Our Sikh travel agent offered us some of his food and even went and bought us icecream. Such a kind man. We eventually decided that we would try and get on a local bus to Jaisalmer that night. The Sikh said we could get one by going to the local bus terminal and that he would drive us. We left about 1am.

We drove through the transport suburb of Delhi. All the rickshaw drivers were parked on the side of the road and were curled and cramped up attempting to sleep on the back seat of their rickshaws. The median strips were filled with people sleeping everywhere we drove. Hundreds of people sleeping on the pavement. Eventually after a very bumpy ride we arrived at the bus terminal, only to find out that none of the buses there left for Rajasthan, we had to go to the OTHER terminal. We drove for probably another 45 minutes, weaving between trucks, drifting and screeching around corners, slamming into pot holes. At one point the road was wet as we went around the corner, we slid a bit and then ploughed into practically a lake of water across the road. I'd also like to mention at this point that Tal's battery had run out and she slept practically comatose through this entire thing. We had to keep stopping and asking for directions. At one point we stopped and asked a guy on the side of the road for directions. He had a cast on his arm, and was also sporting fresh cuts all up his arm dripping with blood. We then stopped and asked a couple of policemen with automatic weapons. Then a few rickshaw drivers. Eventually we found the bus terminal but it was on the other side of the highway, and we had to do about a 10km loop before we could do a U-turn. We arrived at the terminal, only to find out that we had gone slightly too far and were in some sort of carpark rather than the actual bus terminal. We did the 10km U-turn loop again. We pulled into another driveway, only to be told that we had gone one driveway too far. Rather than do the 10km loop again, we then proceeded to drive the wrong way up the highway to get to the right entrance.

We pulled into the Rajasthan terminal. A guard whistled at us told us to park over to the side. Our Sikh driver asked him (in Hindi) when the bus to Jaisalmer would leave. The guard said he didn't know, he just knew he was not allowed to drive in through the terminal (very knowledgeable). Our Sikh travel agent sent his 16yr old assistant out to the terminal office to get information. He returned a couple of minutes later to give us the news that they did not know when there would be a bus to Jaisalmer.
"THIS IS FUCKING HELL," exclaimed our Sikh travel agent.
I agreed.
We turned and heading back to the hotel.

A few minutes later we were all laughing with exhaustion and frustration (apart from Tal, who was still comatose).
"This day is JOKING!" laughed our Sikh travel agent.
I agreed.

He drove us back to the hotel where Tal had been staying. Luckily the reception is always open. Zombie Tal and I thanked him, gave him some fuel money and told him we'd come back in the morning. The hotel gave us room 211, the room directly below where Tal had been staying.
"Weird," we thought.
We settled in but then realised the air-conditioning wasn't working, so we had to go and ask for another room.
We were taken to room 311. The room that we had left that morning! Cue ex-files theme music.
Apparently we were just not supposed to leave yesterday.
India.