Like a rolling stone

From Bir I caught a bus back to McLeod, which was meant to be a short stop over so that I could catch an overnight bus down to Derhadun. Well, when I got to McLeod i was told that the busses only go every second day, so i would have to spend the night in McLeod – which I did after a very long and exhausting day. Friday was spent waiting... and then the bus, it was an overnighter and went surprisingly well, despite the bumpiness. There were hardly any people on the bus, so I could spread myself out over 4 seats, including my luggage, so there was space to spread my legs.
I had no idea what was in Dehradun apart from the Sakya monastery which is the seat of Sakya Rinpoche (the one that blessed me in Dharamsala), and I had no guide book to say where a cheap place to stay was. So when I got off the bus, there was a monk who was heading in that direction, so we shared a taxi and i was dropped off at a nearby guesthouse. But the guesthouse was full, so they sent me to another one down the road, they were too expensive though so I kept walking... I tried to book into an ashram, but they said i had to be devoted to the ashram in order to stay there... so I passed on that one. And then I decided to just leave town and go to Rishikesh instead. So i hopped on a couple of busses and arrived in Rishikesh and hour later. By this time i was tired from interrupted sleep on the bus, as well as from the heat and not having eaten (because I was on the bus), so i just walked to the first guest house that looked inviting and stayed there.
Rishikesh was hot and busy. It was the end of the Kumbh Mela and there were a lot of Indian people streaming in to do a pilgrimage to the temples, as well as to take a bath in the Ganges. It was hot, I hadn’t quite acclimatised, and i was irritable (i think that was because i was hot). I didn’t really meet any people, i didn’t feel like doing yoga – and if there is any place to do yoga, Rishikesh is the place – so no yoga, no relationship of any kind to the place, so I decided to leave after 2 nights. If it was cooler and less busy I probably would have given it more of a chance, other people seem to love it, but it was not for me right now.
So I hopped on a taxi, and then on a bus, then another bus... and 12 hours later, 42degrees, and a lot of bumpy roads travelled, I arrived at the border town of Banbasa. I managed to not get sick the whole way – and i thought that i had done so well in ‘training’ myself, really focusing.... And then came 8.30pm and time to get off the bus.... I was suffering from heat exhaustion motion sickness combined – not a very pretty combination. And I happened to book into a guest house with a greedy manager that had zero compassion. And to speak of the room, it was like an oven all night and noisy 24/7, with the generator kicking in at 5am. So, suffering from heat, motion sickness and no sleep, i picked myself up in the morning determined to leave.
I needed to get passport photos for entering the Nepali side of the border, so i dragged myself down the road looking for a place that could do the photos for me. I found the place, after first stopping at a pharmacy type place that gave me tablets called ‘Vomit Stop’, after first trying to give me cough syrup... LOL! Everyone seems to have generators as the electricity supply is few and far between. So in order to do my passport photos the guy had to start the generator, but then he noticed that the fan belt was too loose, so he had to change the fan belt. Then after doing that, the engine restarted, he took my photo from the distance of half a meter on a really low megapixel camera, and the printed result – well, it could be anyone. For 3 photos I payed IR25 (35p, R4), and surprisingly they accepted that at the Nepali border.