Travel Photo 306993

Feb 25, 2023 6:40am

It was midnight, and we had nowhere to stay and no onward travel. We made our way back to the bus terminal and before long before we were picked up by some ticket touts. They took us to a ticket booth, and after some skilled negotiations by John, 20 minutes later we were seated on a bus to Rishikesh. We would arrive at 6am we were told, which was half an hour earlier than our original bus. At 4.30am, the bus stopped on the side of a dual carriageway, and we were told to get off. We followed a few other passengers, crossed the carriageway, throwing our bags over the central reservation, to where there were a group of tuk-tuks. 6 of us, plus all our bags, piled into one that would have comfortably seated 4, and off we set into the night. An hour later we were in a deserted Rishikesh. We had no signal on our phones, so no idea where our hotel was. Instead we settled down by The Ganges to watch the sun come up, or in John’s case, to sleep on the street like many of the locals…