Overnight Bus rides in India & Sacred Cows
Arriving from Hawaii to India was an extremely long travel day—35 hours of air travel! Not to mention the bus travel required within India. Because our final destination was Northern India, it required a 12 hour overnight bus ride. During the bus ride in the middle of the night, we hit a checkpoint. We were new to travel in India and groggy from trying to sleep, so it was terrifying to us when all of a sudden these men came on with turbans on their heads and flashlights in their hands. They walked the length of the bus and back. They dragged one guy off the bus and checked his bags and passport. “Would we get kicked off too? Would we make it to our destination?” we thought to ourselves. The border officers left us alone and the bus headed out on the road once again. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it to Dharamshala, India. We groggily got off the bus and gathered our belongings. We were a 5 minute walk away when Calvin realized he had forgotten his camera bag on the bus. He raced back, but it was never to be seen again. We figured someone stole it, which was a sad way to start our trip. Cows are considered sacred in India, did you know? It's interesting because they roam the streets, like they own the joint. One day, as I was walking down a path, I thought someone bumped into me. I turned around to see who it was and it was literally a cow. I was quite startled as you can imagine. Another day, we were working at this cafe when all of a sudden, a cow came in the entrance! I'm not kidding. We didn't know what to do. We tried pushing it out, but it didn't want to budge, and it was heavy. I think maybe it wanted a chai tea or something. We would see people petting cows and feeding them, but never eating them. Let's just say India helped stretch us way out of our comfort zone and experience things in a new light.
Keywords
Kicked off forced to leave a place outside our own desire.
Groggily tired and not very conscious of what is happening around you.
Own the joint own the place.