From Hampi to Goa
30 & 31 January 2008
During previous trips to India and China  we had seen "sleeper buses" several times but had
never gone on one.  These buses look much like regular buses but instead of seats they are
outfitted with bunks for overnight trips.  We thought it might be fun to go from Hampi to
Goa by sleeper bus, so from our guesthouse we bought a couple of tickets for Rs. 600
(US$16) each.  The bus had a 7:00pm departure time and was expected to arrive in Margao,
Goa, about twelve hours later.
We took our taxi-autorickshaw from Hampi for the half-hour ride to Hospet, and at about
6:00pm arrived at the storefront office of "Ganesh Travels".  We became part of a growing
group of passengers assembling on the sidewalk in front of the office.  From time to time a
bus would appear with some other destination, and eventually a bus marked "Island Travels"
showed up;  word got around that it was our bus.
We got on the bus and discovered that "berths 5 & 6" shown on our ticket applied to the two
halves of a single bunk 35" (89cm) wide.  The passenger section of the bus consisted
essentially of a series of about five double-level 2-passengers bunks flanking each side of a
narrow central passageway; thus the full bus held around 40 passengers.  They all seemed to
be foreign backpackers
In photo to the right,  a
passenger is standing in the
central passageway,
speaking with a passenger in
the lower bunk in front of
her.  On the right two
passengers are looking from
their lower bunk into the
central passageway.   In the
upper part of the photo,
above the horizontal black
line is the upper tier of
bunks.

All paying passangers
seemed to be non-Indians.
Virginia in our bunk.  To the right
of her is the small backpack I
used as a pillow.   No pillows,
sheets, or blankets are provided.  
The thin mattresses are covered
with upholstery fabric on which
probably dozens of passengers
slept without any cleaning.

At each end of the bunk and also
partially separating us from the
passageway is a flimsy blue
plywood partition.  Windows
extend the entire length of the
bus along both the upper and
lower bunk levels.
About fifteen minutes after the bus departed it stopped to pick up four or five Indian men
who first sat on the conductor's bunk or by the driver.  Within a few hours these "friends"
of the conductor were sleeping on the floor.
After an hour or so the bus came to a "dinner stop" at a very unapetizing roadside
restaurant.  The completely dark outhouses were in a field  in back of the restaurant;
fortunately we had our flashlights handy.

A couple of times during the night the bus pulled over to the side of the road for a
"restroom stop" in the adjoining dark open field.
Not much sleep during the night.  Constant loud noise from the engine and horn of our bus, as
well as from other heavy bus and truck traffic on the road.
Shortly before dawn the next morning our bus and all other traffic on the road came to a
complete stop.  After about an hour later we were told that a large gasoline tankaer-truck
had overturned 2km or 3km ahead, completely blocking the road, and that it would take at
least four hours before a heavy-duty crane could clear the truck off the road.
We also were told that by walking ahead past the accident location we could probably get a
local bus or taxi to take us to our destination, Margao.   Like most (or perhaps all)
passengers we got off the bus, walked ahead pulling our bags for almost an hour we got to
the overturned tanker-truck.
Overturned tanker-truck completely blocking our road to Margao, Goa.
About half an hour after walking past the overturned truck we found  a local bus which in
about an hour got us to Margao, our original sleeper-bus destination.  From the Margao bus
station we took an autorickshaw for Rs. 70 (US$2) for the 6km (4 mile) ride to Colva Beach.
There we checked into the Lucky Star Hotel for Rs. 550 (US$15) per night.