Embracing the Road

I opted to take a bus back to Semarang from Bali over flying to improve my almost broke condition. I boarded the bus at 5.30 pm and was told that I will reach Semarang by 5.30 - 6 am the next morning. I had my flight back to India a day later at 4 am, which meant I would have just enough time to manage everything.
Six hours into the bus ride, I felt the pressure building in my bladder. After an hour, I decided to ask the driver to pull over. It took me half an hour to successfully communicate with the driver and another half hour for him to pull over, by which time I was convinced that I had a ruptured bladder.
Once back in the bus, I drifted off to sleep. I was woken up by a stream of water falling on my face. It was raining heavily outside and the bus had innumerable leaks. Water gushed in from the roof, the window seals and the AC vents. At around 2.30 am, the rain stopped and I managed to go back to sleep again.
When I woke up next, it was already 9.30 am and was worried I had missed my stop. I asked the driver about where we were. He smiled at me and kept on driving. After about twenty minutes, the driver stopped at the train station, by which time the bus was almost empty. He came over to me and said that I needed to change my bus to go to Semarang. He also added that I had already missed the second bus which left at 6 am and that I would have to wait till 6 in the evening for the next bus. Speechless I looked at my watch and saw it was only 10.30 in the morning. I managed to find my voice and asked how long the second ride would be. He answered 8 hours. I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time! How did I manage to get myself into this! I usually read about things like this happening to others. 8 hours from 6 pm meant I would reach at 2 in the morning and then have to reach the airport in another hour. In the one hour I would have to manage reaching my friends place, pack my bags and then reach the airport.
I asked him if I had any other option and was told that I could take the public transport that leaves every hour and it won't be with the package I paid for. Grateful, I decided to opt for the public transport. I finally reached my destination 14 hours later than when I was supposed to at 8 pm. This was the longest bus ride I have ever taken lasting for almost 28 hours. When I finally got down from the bus, I felt like it was the single greatest achievement of my life. A day of an epic journey that I'll never forget!