Fourth day - 12 Jan

I slept fine, sometimes covering my head with the blanket, then using it as the pillow as Indian pillows so far have been too hard. It was still freezing cold but I went out to get breakfast. On the way down, it was so icy that on one stretch I had to hold the fence while I slid all the way down. 

When I got to the bottom I saw that every single shop was closed. It was around 10 o'clock but I couldn't see a single café. I asked in a hotel if I could get breakfast and he just said no. He didn't understand when I asked if there were any cafés around so I just went on. I eventually found one called Honey Hut which was a good find. They use honey instead of sugar and I was so hungry that I had a veggie burger for breakfast. After that, I walked around a bit but didn't fall over. I was thinking about what to do today and I thought I'd miss out going to Amritsar as from this experience, I wasn't in the mood to travel any more. I asked at the bus reservation office if I could get the direct bus to Dharamsala but he said that because of the weather, they didn't know if it would go. So the best option was to go back to Chandigarh and leave from there. If I went in the afternoon, I could go and eat somewhere and have a break until travelling through the night. It would save on sleeping at a hotel if I could sleep on the bus.

I had lunch at Honey Hut then got my bag, after waiting for the ice to thaw, and walked in the direction of the bus stop. I wasn't sure exactly how far it was and I found I'd gone too far and had to go back on another road. But I got a bus which was really 1% of the cost of a taxi and again directly got a bus. It went a bit quicker and I arrived at 7pm. I then had to reserve a ticket, hopefully for a bus around midnight but the people working there were hard to get any information from. I talked with the man at enquiries and he said there was one from Delhi, arriving about 1am but I'd have to turn up then to see if there were any free seats! Obviously, I couldn't do that – turn up and hope, but if there wasn't a seat, go back and try to find a hotel?! No thanks. The other option was to go on the next bus at 8pm, which would arrive at 3am. Hilarious! Then try to find a hotel open at that time? I couldn't see what else to do – I didn't want to travel all through the day and lose that time so I said all right, I'll go on this one. We went back to get a ticket and they said they'd all been sold. I laughed out loud at this comedy of errors then the second driver said I could sit with him at the front and after 100km, someone would get off and there would be a free seat. I said fine and did that. Another man was also in the front and us two and the other driver were cramped on a side seat but by now, I just thought it was funny. This is the kind of experience you only get when doing an adventure like this.

I sat and waited and it was two hours before someone got off. The other passenger went out first and sat down at the back. I looked for the other seat but there wasn't one. I was now standing in the aisle thinking I would have to stand for the remaining 5 hours! I told the driver and he had to move someone out of his seat (I don't know why) so I was relieved to get one. It was on the back row in the corner and it didn't recline. But that was nothing compared to the fact that now the roads were so bumpy, it felt like I was on a rollercoaster. At times, we would literally jump out of our seats. I couldn't imagine getting one second of sleep on this. Imagine trying to get to sleep with someone holding your shoulders and shaking you violently for 5 hours – that's what it was like. I doubt that anyone slept at all on this journey, it was unquestionably the worst I'd ever been on. As I said, I didn't sleep at all, didn't even come close to it and was thinking about what to do if I couldn't find a hotel open. How would I arrange myself in the bus station... putting lots of clothes on and sitting on my rucksack... I'd have to hope I wouldn't get hypothermia or frostbite...

On top of this, I hadn't had the chance to check my email to see if I could get the phone number of the man who was going to meet me so he had no idea when I was coming.

We arrived on time and there was no station, just an empty space. I met an English couple as I got off and asked if they had a hotel. They said no so we'd go together. They wanted to go to McLeod Ganj, which is where the Dalai Lama actually lives so I said ok. It was better than going off on my own. We got a taxi up a steep windy road and the snow appeared as we went up another 500m (to 1700m). Everywhere was dark... We found a couple of hotels but there was no answer. This was looking very bad. Would we have to sleep rough in this cold? It was looking likely as we walked the desolate streets. Then Thomas tried a doorbell and someone came! They actually had free rooms, too so it was such a relief. It felt quite warm inside and the rooms were good and not too expensive. We took them without questions, of course and left the checking in until the morning. It was now 4am so we were happy to leave that for now! I got straight into bed and slept until 11.