We had arranged to keep our hotel room at the lovely Hotel Ganga Maiya until 6pm for a small additional fee. We lazed around ordering room service and then sadly said goodbye to our best hotel room in India so far. An intrepid young traveller who we had met in Rishikesh had told us that the sleeper buses in India ‘Weren’t too bad but the drop off and pick up points are sometimes a bit confusing.’ Our only previous experience of sleeper buses was in China circa approximately 2000. We had travelled across the Karakoram Highway from Pakistan into Xingiang, a journey that I think would now be hard, if not impossible for foreigners due to the Chinese crackdown on the Uigar ethnic group. The only onward travel options from Kashgar, Xinjiang to the rest of China had been via sleeper bus. I vividly remember spending the night listening to Chinese men spitting on the floor of the bus, which was filthy and decrepit. At various points other passengers had tried to hijak mine and Tim’s bunk and at one point I think about five off us were sleeping on it, although I don’t think I did much sleeping on that journey. I seem to recall that we broke down in the middle of the dessert at least once. I vowed at that time never to take a a sleeper bus in Asia again.

It had proved difficult to book a train (my preferred mode of Indian transport) to Haldwani, the access town for Nainital. Buoyed by the reports of the young traveller and the accessible apps for bus travel that can now be downloaded in India I risked booking a sleeper bus via the Abhi bus app.

‘It must leave from the main bus station,’ said Tim. ‘Look it says Alambargh on the ticket.’

‘But I think Alambargh is an area, not just the name of the bus station,’ I said. ‘I have a feeling that it might go from where the Skybus office is.’

The receptionist at our hotel indicated that we should go to Alambagh bus station, so in the end that is where we headed. We took the. Metro to the Alambagh stop and approached a friendly looking station attendant. Both his English and our Hindi were not too good but it was clear that he was indicating that we needed to go two stops further on the metro.

‘That’s where the Skybus office is,’ I said, consulting google maps. ‘It must go from there.’

‘We’ll just have to leave in plenty of time and then if it’s not the right place we can go to wherever it’s leaving from,’ said Tim. The bus company we were booked on was Skybus and apparently their office would be open until gone midnight. How did we previously manage to travel anywhere without the internet we wondered?

Next to the Alambagh metro station is a modern looking indoor shopping centre complete with air con. As the bus was not due to leave until 22:45 we decided to hang out in there before getting the metro another two stops. The security guards judged us respectable enough to be admitted. There was plenty of space for shops but many of the units seemed to be empty. Middle class Indians wandered around listlessly. Many were couples who appeared to be out on dates in the food court, which is where we headed. We could have been in London, Paris or any other big city in the world. After ordering noodles we settled down to relax. It was at this point that I began to spot the cockroaches. We moved away from the dark corners where they lurked ready to hoover up discarded food. To be fair the standards of hygiene seemed very high in the food court, but I guess in any tropical country a losing battle is being fought with creatures like this, who are capable of surviving a nuclear holocaust.

The area where the Skybus office was located appeared to be an unofficial bus depot for tourist buses that were spilling over from the Alambagh depot. It was a typically chaotic scene with people randomly wheeling luggage around and shouting at each other and a multiplicity of travel agents and bus offices. We spotted the sign for ‘Skybus’ and were ushered into a sweaty office to await our bus, which seemed to indicate that we were definitely in the right place. There was a toilet for ladies only which I made use of, suspecting that it would be cleaner than the one on the bus.

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the whole bus experience. My compartment was clean and although a little coffin like it was big enough to lie down in. There was a curtain for privacy and a sliding compartment door to stop me falling onto the floor of the bus. I kept this a bit open to allow some airflow and managed to sleep quite well, unlike Tim who told me the next morning that he had been awake for most of the night.

At Haldwani we got out and were transferred to a shared four wheel drive. We set off up the winding mountain road towards Nainital. Already the air felt crisper and cleaner. I was actually a little chilly and had to put my hoodie on for the first time since being in India. We stopped at a roadside Dhaba and drank some chai before continuing with the short drive. I spotted birds of prey circling overhead and hillsides covered in trees. We also had our first glimpse of langur monkeys which were cuter looking than the rhesus monkeys we had come across up until this point. More monkey tales will follow in the next blog episode….

Nainital bus station was chaotic but on our walk to our homestay we experienced minimal hassle from taxi drivers and touts. It was a long climb up to where we were going to be staying and I began to regret not getting a motorbike taxi. Finally we arrived. Although not luxurious the room had everything we needed and its position above the town meant that the setting was relatively quiet. We sank into chairs on our shared balcony and gratefully accepted the offer of chai from our host.