Day 13: Getting out of Pune

Plan: Find a travel agency and book a trip out of Pune!

Today we hopped into a rickshaw and headed back to downtown Pune near the train station where our trusty Lonely Planet listed a traveling agency from which we hoped to book a ticket out of Pune. The reason we were so anxious to leave is that we found out that the municipal government was looking to shut down Pune (imitating what was done in Mexico City during its outbreak) and waiting only for state and national government approval. This would mean everything but essential buildings would be closed for the next 3 days at least. Clearly our time would be better spent visiting another area of the state! Finally finding the agency (which had relocated), we booked two bus tickets for an overnight trip (11pm to 4am) to Aurangabad, from where we could visit the historical caves in Ellora and Ajanta. Now that we knew where we were going and when we were leaving, this didn't give us much time to wander around the city. We made a quick stop for some sandwiches and an eclair pastry at a bakery and ate that lunch on the steps of a very poshy mall that was closed because of swine flu but nonetheless surrounded by SEVERAL security guards (12 at last count). After browsing a few stores and walking down a main street , we headed back to the hotel to get ready. After packing, we hopped online to let everyone know of our plans, ate DELICIOUS pizza at our restaurant, and killed the next hour chilling in our room.

I must say that after not having a decent pizza for the past 5 years, this was AMAZING! And Yan even confirmed with me that it was a great tasting pizza (I think he even preferred mine!)

When the time had come to leave, we notified the manager of our plans as well (so he wouldn't stay up worrying about us again), and stepped out. As we passed by the restaurant's hotel, our favorite waiter saw us and, seeing the big pack on my back, thought we were leaving. He quickly rushed down the stairs to say goodbye but we reassured him that we were only leaving for a few days. It was really very sweet of him and we walked away with big smiles on our faces!

We hopped into a rickshaw and made our way to the travel agency from which the bus was to pick us up. It was across from a main bus station and while we had hoped to walk around a little there, a wave of people asking us if we wanted rides, tickets, a hotel, etc. made us quickly retreat back to the agency where we waited patiently. Around 11:10pm we were told it was time to go and pointed towards a big white van. We were more than confused as we had been told we would be riding in an air conditioned big bus. Instead we were cramped into this van, filled to capacity, with our bags on top of us. Not looking forward to an overnight journey in such conditions, we were overjoyed when our van pulled over 10 minutes later on a street where the bus we were promised waited among others. We hopped in and tried to make ourselves comfortable for the journey (good practice for the traveling we'll be doing later) but despite the comfort, sleep was still hard to get by.