Backpacking stories from India - Here's why hitchhiking is awesome and why we should all do it more!

Here’s what you should do when you’re stuck in Hampi and you really need to get back to your office, in Chennai, the next day.

Step 1: Consider convincing yourself and your friend to extend your trip. Hampi is awesome and you know it. Say shit like "the universe wants us to stay or we won't make it on time anyway man, might as well stay another day."

Step 2: If your friend doesn't climb, he'll probably talk sense into you and make you understand and that he really needs to be in Chennai the next day. You'll realise Hospet has no buses to Chennai. You'll ask around for the next biggest town and you'll get a bus to Bellari.

Step 3: You'll soon realise that there's only one bus from Bellari to Chennai and it's completely booked. You'll then find that the next closest town is Anantapur.

Step 4: If you followed step 3, you'll find yourself​ stuck in a small but weirdly overcrowded bus stop. You'll find that there are shit load of APSRTC buses but all of them are booked. You'll​ try talking to the conductor, asking him if you could travel in the front seat or sleep on the floor. He would be super stubborn, tell you it's against the rules and in the end take another Telugu chick instead of you! You'll end up shouting and swearing at him in the bus stop and give up hope on the APSRTC buses.

Step 5: You'll try walking around the town and search for private buses to Chennai. Finally you'll end up finding out there are no private buses to Chennai and that you've walked around 5 kms and wasted more than a hour.

Step 6: Next you will consider other options like going to Bangalore and getting a train but then that'll get you to Bangalore the next afternoon and you might have to stand in a crowded train for around 6 hours. Convince your friend that hitchhiking is a smart idea at 11 in the night. Get an auto to the nearest part of the highway with ample amount of light or food stalls (this might be hard to explain to the auto guy, especially if you don't speak the language). Talk to the lorry drivers and ask them where they're headed to. If you're lucky enough you might actually be able to convince a guy to take you in.

Step 7: Tell him interesting stories to keep him entertained and AWAKE. If you can't speak his language, that might be slightly hard and he might end up sleeping at the wheel. Finally he gets you off at god knows where, and decides to take a power nap. You say goodbye as you can't afford to waste any time.

Step 8: Wait patiently at the nearest junction again and try getting a vehicle to stop. You'll probably get a lot of lorries that go banglore and none that go to Chennai. You'll learn that Kadiri is the splitting point between Banglore and Chennai thanks to the highway tea shop guy. Get into a lorry that goes to Kadiri and find that the town is wide awake with Vinayaga Chathurthi celebrations going on. Most of them are pretty drunk and when they see you trying to hitch hike they'll probably be kind (read wasted) enough to make a road block and stop a bus which takes you no where near Chennai. xD

Step 9: Try moving far away from the crowd so that the drivers won't get scared and wait patiently for the right ride. After an hour of waiting you might start screaming "Anna, Chennai Chennai!" at every vehicle you look at. You might even end up shouting at a police jeep. The policemen may tell you that this is a very bad idea and that you should go sleep at the bus stand and wait till the morning.

Step 10: You go to the bus stand and roam around for 15 minutes so that the police go away and you can go back to the highway. But then you find 3 buses get into the bus stand and one of them goes to Kuppam. Your​ friend, who literally knows every village on Google maps, says that we can directly get a ride to Chennai if we take that bus and get down at Palamaner. But then they close the door of the bus saying it full. You cook up some story saying that you are a student and you have your semesters tomorrow​ and you really need to get to Chennai by 11. If the conductor is kind enough, he will let you in and you'll gain all the lost time waiting cos he drives super fast and you reach Palamaner at 4 45 in the morning.

Step 11: You wait for a bus to Vellore but you get mixed responses from people. Some of them say there's a bus at 5 30 am and others say there's not one till 8 am. So you decide to be on the move. You get on a bus to Chittor and decide to go there and wait for a bus to Chennai or Vellore.

Step 12: You find a bus to Vellore right away and you take it. You calculate the approximate time that it'll take for you to reach Chennai and you realize it'll be at least 11 30 am by the time you reach home. Then you suddenly have an 'Alan-hangover 2' moment. You remember that one college friend who was from Vellore and that she always takes the train. You check trains from Katpadi to Chennai and you ask the bus driver if we went past Katpadi. You realise you might just make it on time for the 7:03 Dehradun express.

Step 13: You run into the station get tickets and realise the train is already at the platform and it stops for only 2 minutes in Katpadi. Run like a mad dog, jump the tracks and get on the train just on time!

Step 14: Reach Chennai at 9 20 am, way before those APSRTC buses! Have a filter coffee, and tell yourself that everything happens for a reason! :)