A rather not very exciting trip to Kerala

Basic info

There are hundreds of private luxury buses plying between Bangalore and many cities in Kerala. The buses start between 5 pm and 11 pm and reach the destination in around 8-12 hrs depending on the city you are traveling to.

They have different types of buses, Volvo, semi- sleeper, sleeper, a/c, etc

They are a good choice for last minute travel decisions as tickets are not that hard to get. Though in the weekends you will need to run around a bit.

The whole story

Your troubles start right from the point of boarding. Normally it will be the travel’s office, on Hosur road in madivala, or in kalasipalya which is a filthy market place.

Your ticket says reporting time as 8.15 pm and departure time as 8.30 pm in a barely readable handwriting. You reach the place on dot. (which I never do, you will know why soon..)

The office is a place where you find 50-60 people waiting with tired and bored faces. They are all around, inside the single room office. Outside on the pavement, with luggage. You make way through the crowd and see a bunch of people behind the counter each of them with multiple phones in their hands. You wait patiently till they finish the conversation on the phone, which never happens. They just switch between the phones. Time is running out.. its 8.17. you haven’t reported yet. The counter people are not at all in a hurry. Finally after some frantic attempts, you get one’ s attention. He looks at the ticket and tells you to wait.
“The bus will come.”

You, being a good citizen, wait. You become one among the bored tired faces in the crowd. At around 8.30, Suddenly there is a rush to the door and people are moving outside with their luggage including kids. By natural instincts you know the bus has come. You too join the rush. After boarding the bus, luckier of the lot even before, know that this is not the bus which you are supposed to board. The door assistant will tell you that “This is the 7.30 bus, your bus will come.”

My bus will come, you hope when u continue your wait. Finally after multiple trials you successfully board “the bus”. You find your seat, settle down. The time is 8.50. “20 minutes delay is not big deal, after all I live in India !” you think to yourself.

…to be continued.