No Words Part 2

The saga continues...

After decoding the email we got from Make My Trip and only making sense of "canelled" meaning "cancelled" we were advised to just go to the bus station on Saturday morning where buses apparently leave every hour for Rishikesh.  Unfortunately, Saturday, as well as the following Monday were national holidays and the bus station was literally insane.

  

#1: The ticket booth wasn't open when we got there nor did it open the whole 2.5 hours we were waiting there.  

#2: Apparently some buses allowed you to pay for your ticket on the bus, but competing with 16 million people to get a bus ticket was both terrifying and impossible.  

As soon as a bus pulled up there was a mad rush to the window where the driver was sitting and women were literally screaming in pain because they were being crushed as they desperately tried to get tickets.  Luckily we met Rick, a Dutch guy who was going to Dehradun, a city nearby Rishikesh, and he stood in the sweaty, manic crowd with money for our tickets as we watched on in pity.  Despite his efforts, none of us were able to get tickets.

During the madness we made some "friends" (a.k.a. other people trying to get to Dehradun/Rishikesh) and made plans to get a group taxi with them to Dehradun because clearly the bus was no longer an option.  After arriving at the bus station aroung 9:15am we finally got in a shared taxi and were on our way to Dehradun around noon.  Delhi to Dehradun is about a 240km (149 mi) trip.    The 4 hours it was SUPPOSED to take to get there already seemed way to long for that distance (in the states I've driven almost double that distance in 4 1/2 hours).  However, India never ceases to amaze and it actually took a mere 10 1/2 hours instead.  We finally arrived in Dehradun around 11pm and although Rishikesh was only "an hour" away we decided our best option was to stay the night in Dehradun and continue on to Rishikesh the following morning.  After being turned down by 3 or 4 hostels who were fully booked for the night we finally found a place to stay around midnight.  Overall it was a great start to our "relaxing" weekend.