I'm here in a small town in India called Hansi and I need to get a bus back home to Delhi.
This is actually my wife's hometown here in Haryana. So let me show you guys how to take a bus in India.
If you're coming to India, assuming you want to travel by bus, it's basically the most economical way to travel
if you can't get a train.A train is definitely the most comfortable way to travel but buses go absolutely
everywhere. They go the places that trains don't go. So yeah, let me show you how to catch a bus here in Incredible India.
Now, so this is what an Indian bus station looks like. You've got all the terminals along here.
There's about 20 at this bus station and different buses leads to different destinations from each terminal.
There's always a toilet, temple.You got to have a temple at a bus station, right? We've got another temple
over here,this pink thing you can see and then it's a petrol station and you're going to find a bunch of snacks,
and Information Center in this terminal behind us as well.
So there are two types of buses that you can take, there's the local government owned buses and there's
the private buses and both of them are quite different.
So the locally government owned buses they're the cheapest option you have here and of course
they're going to be the most uncomfortable. They're not gonna have AC either and often times they won't have
sleeper buses that you can sleep in. For long journeys they're not that great, right?
This is inside the bus and this is a government bus, this is the kind of place you would be sitting in.
But the private buses, they have AC, you can get a sleeper bus so you can sleep overnight, they have a timetable as well.
For the government buses here, the one to Delhi, it just leaves every 15 minutes and there's no kind of fixed timetable.
But the AC bus, the private bus has a fixed timetable, I'll show you that soon.
So for short journeys, the local buses are great. But anything kind of over four hours and you're gonna want
to take a private and an AC bus, I think!
You've got to be careful sometimes,there's a huge rush to get on this bus sometimes, see people running
after the bus there? Go further back through the window to reserve their seat, that's a way of reserving your seat here.
Sometimes they'll climb for the windows or some people will just go straight for the rooftop to sit on the roof.
So yeah, these local buses can get a bit crazy, you know! And you can't book these government buses online.
Some states you can but generally you can't. You can book these private buses online, but I find the online
portals like totally useless. They're missing so many of the bus services, so for example, the bus service that I'm
using today from Hansi to Delhi that's not available online at all.
Now there are buses leaving all day from this terminal to all over India and all over Haryana.
But, the problem is it's all in Hindi, every single terminal window it's written in Hindi to where the bus is going
and on the front of the buses it's written in Hindi as well. So if you can't read Hindi, you know, it becomes a bit difficult.
So I'd really suggest that you come to the bus station the day before and you find out what time your bus leaves.
It's gonna take you some time and if you're going to a smaller place in India, there's only going to be one or two buses a day.
I'm going to Delhi so there's a bus every 15 minutes, you know, it's a big destination. You'll be fine.
But a small destination you're gonna have to come a day before and work out where to get the bus from and
at what time. Find someone who speaks English around here and they will help you get on the right bus.
They'll help you find out all the information you need and these bus stations often times it's a bigger one, like this one.
They have an information center you can go to. Now I'm not saying the guys there can speak English, but they're
gonna lead you to the right place. You tell them you want to go to Delhi or you want to go to Jaipur, wherever
you're going and they will help you get there, that is part of Indian hospitality and Indian culture to help guests here.
And for these rickety old government buses you just simply board it and then you can buy your ticket on it.
There is a bus conductor who will come down and take the money from you. For the private buses, you have to
go to like an agent or to their booth. Sometimes it's the same as the government bus, you'll board the private
bus and you'll pay on board. And actually speaking of hospitality I've already had the police here. They are
offering me tea or a soft drink and to sit down with them and hang out,so yeah,it's really easy as a foreigner here
in India to get help, to get to your bus safely.
Now one other issue I've come across the train stations and bus stations recently is fake water. I mentioned
this in my Daryaganj counterfiet book market tour. And yeah, this is meant to say Bisleri but it says Beslare.
A few other things you'll find here is usually a police station, this is the traffic police. And you'll find
somewhere to drink water as well. So yeah, every bus terminal should have a toilet, should have somewhere to
drink water for you as well.But just try to avoid that fake water and maybe even bring your own water. Because,
I don't even know if you can buy real water here.
Now guys before you trust a stranger, you need to double check where the bus is going from the driver.
Okay, so you just need to learn like four words in Hindi, say to the driver
And basically what you're asking him is, will this bus go to Delhi? Will this bus go to Jaipur, wherever you're going, okay?
Now you'll sometimes hear these guys yelling out the destination of the bus as well, so he's yelling out Rohtak.
The government buses are all going from this government paid for terminal, okay? The private buses
usually have to go from a different part of the terminal or sometimes even outside the terminal.
Now guys, so this is the private bus timetable.Like how're you going to know it's the private bus timetable right?
Like there's no English on it at all. This is where you're gonna get the AC bus from, which is what I want
because everything is quite far to Delhi. So it's in Hindi, Hansi to Delhi.You're gonna have to ask somebody
like a guy at the store. Anybody here is gonna help you and you will find people that speak English. A lot of the
police won't speak English, I haven't met a police officer here today who speaks English.So you're gonna have to
find some like a school kid who looks like he's going to school. They're learning English at school, maybe a more
professional looking person. They may speak English, but they will help you find the bus.
Okay, so I did finally find some water that's not the counterfeit type.This one's fine, so you're gonna have to
ask the shop around actually. The rest of that Bisleri water, it's all counterfeit and fake and who knows if it's just tap water or what.
And here's the AC bus, you can see it's much nicer than the other buses, right? And you can find the sign Delhi.
Now once you're on the bus the next problem is where do you get off right? You're gonna need your phone and GPS.
You're gonna need to know where to get off the bus, so keep an eye on your GPS during the ride. If you're lucky
the driver will remember where you told him you're going and he'll help you but there's so many people on these
buses sometimes that he's just not gonna remember to help you get off, okay? If you really need help and you're
really worried, go and sit right next to the driver. There are seats along there and he will make sure you get off
your bus. If you sit really close to him, you can just keep asking him and know what you want, right, like
everybody else on this bus just wants to get off at the right place.
So people are really friendly on the bus and you'll always find friends and people that will help you get to where
you're going okay? And the driver is so sweet as well, really friendly people here.
The other benefit of sitting up the front is you have a good view of where where you are, where you're going
and perhaps you can read signs a bit easier out on the street, so you know where to get off easier as well. If the
bus gets crowded, you know, there's not much you can do, you just have to adjust that's part of being here in India.
You learn to adjust and you know squeeze for a seat if you have to. If you get on those local buses you
definitely will be squeezing. You know, more than three in an aisle. You'll be like four or five in the seat and like a
kid on someone else's lap. The local buses can get super busy, okay? Now work is complicated if you have
to transfer buses, right? Sometimes there won't be a direct bus to where you're going. I'm going to Delhi so
it's a direct bus, it's easy. But say, if I was going maybe I had to go via Rohtak or something I have to get off the
bus at Rohtak, at the bus station then I have to go in again, find the bus to Delhi. So, sometimes you're gonna
have to do this like multiple times in a day. Ask for help to get to your next bus if there's no English anywhere.
And this AC bus is really comfortable, the AC is on and it's like 21 degrees and it's clean as well. And there's
less people on this bus obviously like the bus is not full, right? So that's a benefit! And I haven't paid in advance
for this, the conductor is gonna come and he's gonna take the money off me soon.
And so this is the bus ticket you get, this bus has actually come from Hisar and it's going all the way to Delhi.
During the ride they are also gonna have a lot of like snack sellers come on to the bus and often they sell you
like coconut or little bags of chips or drinks. So yeah, there will be food available during the journey as well.
And just don't buy this stuff because you know these guys have been carrying it all around outside. I've seen
them spraying dirty water on the coconut. But like the packaged food is fine, it's safe to buy. And the bus
driver and the bus conductor just got there pieces of coconut for free because that's the payment for allowing
the vendor to come on their bus and sell.
All right back in Delhi and the driver's driving was very good.
They basically just dropped me off in the outskirts of Delhi. This bus will keep going to the very center of
Delhi now. But this is closest to my home. And guys if you need to pee while you're on the bus, I suggest you go
to the toilet beforehand. Don't drink too much water in the morning, like I didn't drink any water this morning
just like a cup because you know, that's the most annoying thing. When you're all along in the bus, you
need to go bathroom, you can go and talk to the driver and get him to stop the bus, but it's kind of annoying
to everybody else. But whatever, you can do it and I guess the learning from today is don't be afraid to ask for help!
Ask for help and you will get the help that you need. Now guys go in to get the rest of my channel, I've got heaps
more traveling tips for here in India and go to India Survival Guide and get my QuickStart safety guide so
you can travel safely and confidently here in Incredible India, Jai Hind!