China Town probably is the busiest place in New York :-) Lot's of police and lots of crime. Should it be the other way around? :-) Never mind. As we rushed into the "Goto" bus office (a room full of boxes, posters and benches) we were informed that the bus to Washington has already left.
"But... wasn't it supposed to be at 7?" - Murali
A beautiful Chinese girl replied - "It got full and left"
"Then what about the reservation we made?" - This is Murali showing the ticket to the representative.
The bus had no reservation options as such atleast for shuttles.
It's only an option to pre-pay :-) and the best part is we have to rush into the bus to pull up a seat for ourselves. If we lag, then someone else takes it up and we should wait for the next bus to return from Baltimore as standing is not allowed. A scenario typical to boarding mofussil buses in my country. It was total fun.
As a bus arrived in front of the office after an hour I ran to board it even before someone can get down and secured 5 seats with my bag and me completely lying on a seat :-) Aiyaa (Rajesh) swiftly followed me to secure some more seats and finally it happened to be a bus going to the shed. We laughed at ourselves and half an hour later we boarded a bus in a similar fashion to start off to Washington DC.
The bus, to my surprise had a restroom and a wireless internet connection. It was awesome and comfortable. I browsed a little, spoke to my friends on phone and finally leaned on my best friend's shoulder as we discussed our past, present and future through the rest of our journey. We missed Mani and that's when our plan to travel to Los Angeles together sparkled. I didn't fail to revisit my hectic day as the bus was speeding at 100 miles an hour towards the most powerful capital in the world.
----Beginning of Retrospection------
Boss engira Ramalingam started along with me Murali and Aiya from the apartment as we strolled down the beautiful streets of New York. Radha with his brother "Kuzhanthai" (as I call him) joined us at the summit of concrete Mt.Empire State and Masthan from Minneapolis joined us at the China Town. Ketha (Murali's roomie) helped me by giving his bag. Chella paandi dropped off the trip due to a production move scheduled that weekend. Lunch at Madras Mahal and a foto shoot with the Empire state were the only relaxed moments of the day. Otherwise I was on a plane, train or bus all the day. Else I was running.
----End of Retrospection------
I lost 5 LBs when I returned home 4 days later
