I made it! What a journey! But to be honest, the most notable part was actually getting to the bus rather than the bus journey itself.

My uber dropped me off at the Connaught Place travel agency at the allotted time. However, there was an awkward wait for about 10-15 minutes because the bus was 'late'. I was then walked by an agency employee to a nearby highway where buses for several Himalayan cities were leaving. I had a long chat with an IT worker from Pune heading to Kullu, whilst various 'employees' of the travel agency 'looked after me' i.e. just stood near me at the highway for a period of time until the next one came along.

Just as the buses for Manali and Kullu were leaving I was told the Dharamsala bus I was taking was actually leaving from another location... so I was put on a cycle rickshaw. I have to say that navigating the insane traffic of downtown New Delhi in a 3-4mph Cycle rickshaw was one of the most exhilirating terrifying experiences I've ever had travelling. The rickshaw driver clearly didn't really have a clue where he was going as he kept asking traffic police and random passerbys where the bus was. The saga ended with us cycling the wrong way down a packed highway towards a bus that was heading to Manali (a different city) anyway.

The bus then dropped me off at a petrol station in Majnu Ka Tilla, a Tibetan enclave on the northern outskirts of Delhi. I was then waiting outside this petrol station by the side of a busy highway in the outskirts of Delhi for roughly 90minutes to two hours. Thankfully, I met a hostel entrepenuer from Varanasi travelling to Dharamsala to look into opening a hostel.

Eventually it transpired we'd been on the wrong side of the road and the stressed bus conductor got us to the other side to wait for another half hour before the bus eventually arrived. The bus was a normal AC bus but was relatively comfortable and was only say half full. About 90minutes into the journey we had an unexpected stop at a very fancy Punjabi vegetarian restaurant.

Darkness fell however, but the Indian highways were mostly easy to sleep on. There weren't too many potholes or too much lurching around. I think I got around 4-5 hours kip. The mountain ascent only really started once dawn had broke and we got some stunning views as we snaked through the Himalayan foothills.

It was really interesting driving through Himalayan villages, cows munching from dustbins, overly apologetic road signs and ambitious advertisements abounded. Am now in Bhagsu, which is a touristic Israeli-Indian enclave just north of McLeodGanj - the Tibetan capital in exile.

I confused a restaurant that had a very similar architecture to my hostel, for the hostel and ended up having an accidental omlete and coffee for breakfast there. When I got to the hostel, somehow the staff seem sleepier than I am. There are also loads of flies. Plan is to head down to explore McLeodGanj this morning as I can't check in until 1 anyways. Going to take it at a slow pace today!

Alavida!