The Bus and the Lorry: A Tale

We left Udaipur on a 7am bus. We had foolishly paid $1 extra for our tickets as the travel agent assured us that the upgrade from "express" to "deluxe" was well worth it. As we later found out all the tickets were the same and the difference between express and deluxe was naught.

The bus winded its way out of the mountainous Updaipur and through the back roads of India. They were mostly paved, but still full of potholes, rocks and cows. The ride was supposed to take about 5 hours and the lack of air conditioning wasn't a problem because a nice older British couple was sitting in front of us and they, like me, enjoyed having all the windows open to keep the bus cool (as opposed to sitting near a local who keeps all the windows shut for a smelly and hot ride).

About 3 hours in we came to a dead and prolonged stop. What was more peculiar was that about 5 other buses were also stopped in front of us. The British man in front of us (seemingly quite the rugged traveler who took no shit from any locals) jumped out to investigate. We waited about 5 minutes and then followed.

He was walking back from up the road and we asked him about the situation. He said, "There's a 'lorry' over the pass that is blocking any buses from getting through and that only a small space was allowing the rickshaws and motorcycles through."

I, having no idea what a lorry is, assumed that it meant a flood/mudslide/rocks or something else of that nature. As I later learned upon my own investigation is that a "lorry" is a truck. Later, we described the situation to another British couple using the word "truck" and they looked equally confused.

So, as you now know, a truck had broke down in the middle of the road and we had to wait 2 hours for a mini-crane to appear to drag it out of the way. Always a fun ride in India.