The Magical Bus

This was my experience with people from all across the country with different languages met through Backpackers and City Freaks (BCF) as we were on a road trip in Karnataka to Coorg and how crazy can the bus ride be with people in a bus singing songs of every possible wood resembling how diverse India is

To start with, this was my trip to Coorg with BCF, located exactly 248 km from Banglore. Just some demographics to elevate the point how diverse our group was – there were 22 people in the bus in which 2 were from Maharashtra, 3 from Andhra Pradesh, 1 from Chattisgarh, 4 from Tamil Nadu and 8 from Hyderabad, Telangana.

Location: KSR Bangalore Railway Station
Time: 6:41 am

We were 14 who started our journey from Hyderabad and met our co-travellers – 4 from Chennai and other 4 from Bangalore. So a total of 22 people heading towards coorg on a 6 hour road trip. Imagine a trip on a bus of the 2000s with open windows and looks exactly like the bus in the movie Into the wild. And unfortunately the music system was not working for us. I know what you are thinking! Yes, it will be definitely boring and I am sure you are going to say ‘what the hell!’. Even i felt the same. But to everyone’s surprise, it turned out to be one of my best trips I had ever been to and also the best trip for many of our travellers just because of the same bus.

The time I went on to make some ice breaking sessions to glue people up. The main problem was the language. Thanks to the diverse group! So the official language of communication was declared as english. It was not less than a training and placement session, considering me an Engineering student.

We were playing dumb charades, the problem was with giving the movie titles. It was more of South Indian movies Vs North Indian movies. We played each and every game that we can play on Bus. It was pure fun and engaging ourselves throughout the trip. I doubt if I had enjoyed the same way if we had all the music and everything in place.

Location: Irupu falls (coorg)
Time: 2:12 pm

There was a gathering going on at the temple as it was Maha Shivaratri and there was a huge mela at the temple. It was an added advantage as we get to taste the local food at the stalls at the temple and meet some people over there. At the same time it was a curse as there were many people at waterfall.

We spent around 1 hour at the waterfalls and we tasted some food at the stalls. And we were on our way to the homestay.

Location: Some Tea estate (coorg)
Time: Not sure

We were at a tea estate and every one over there became a photographer so much that we blocked the entire road just for ourselves and started taking photos on the road.

And here was the most unplanned thing had happened in the trip. We had to stop at a unknown village for 3 hours as our bus was having trouble

Location: Unknown
Time: 5:10 pm

The second surprise after the music system was this. The bus broke down in the middle of a small village with no facilities. As the driver was repairing and trying his best to sort out the things, we got some time to explore the village. We found a tea stall with some very good local tea and beside that shop there was a government school with a huge ground. We entered the gate  which turnout to be the gateway to our childhood days

We played many games which we had forgotten over the days and everyone over there became a child again. We played for like 2 hour non- stop. The game was current shock which includes running and escaping I didnt even imagine that we get to play all the games that we used to play in our childhood and that too far away from home and with some set of strangers that I met a day before. All I can say is it was a cray experience which all happened with a cray coincidence. We played as many games as possible in those 3 hours. Best time!

Location: Home stay (Coorg)
TIME: 10:07 pm

We had campfire. It was different because each of them were sharing different stories and discussing their local food and how they ended up to the trip. Being an engineering student everything to me was a learning from elderly people. It’s a boon to meet people working in corporates even before we joined one. Keep Travelling… Keep learning, huh!

Location: Same
Time: 12:00 am

We got to know that we had a newly married pair celebrating their 1st marriage anniversary. Some how we managed to get a cake from a local bakery. It was fun searching for a bakery late night and we managed to get a cake and exactly at 12 am we surprised them with cake and celebrated their anniversary.

Overall the day was good and some how we became good friends because of the bus. So I named it as the Magical Bus!

Thanks for reading my story!

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Notes from BCF:

We organize this trip very often through out the year. You can follow us on Instagram for regular updates. Insta ID –bcf.official. For more info on BCF upcoming events visit us here. About logo you can read here.

Article by Ravi Kanth. Thanks a lot to Ravi for penning down your experiences from the event.

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