Another Bus Adventure

Sunday, 6 February 2005

Getting back to Nakhon Pathom from Petchaburi on election day in Thailand was crazy. The bus was packed already, and of course about ten of us want to get on the bus to get home at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on a Sunday, so they motion us to come on. About eight of us squish ourselves into the stairwell of the bus near the front door. I see a ledge about one foot by one foot up a little higher, and decide to stand on that. I am basically standing at the front of the bus, above the stairwell, holding onto the wall. Eventually, a lady sitting in the front seat behind me let me put my bag under her feet, and she had a skinny girl sit on her lap. I stood nearly 1 1/2 hours straight, as people got on and off. At times, the door couldn't close and we rode like this people practically hanging out the door, until we could squish a little more. When people had to get off, sometimes the driver couldn't hear the people all the way in the back, we'd start going again, and have to come to an abrupt halt when someone would realize about ten more people were trying to get off the bus. I was actually quite "comfortable" as I had my own little ledge above everyone, so no one could squish me, and I had a nice, unobstructed view of the road as we drove. I almost took out my camera to take a picture, but didn't. We made friends with the people around us, as you almost had no choice as you were practically breathing on each other's face. The second hour of the ride, the lady let me share the seat with her (one cheek on, one cheek off), as she noticed it was getting more difficult for people to get off the bus with me standing where I was. When a family came on, she put the little boy on her lap, and went back to sleep. Two teenage boys up front were entertaining as they tried to be porters and jump off the bus at each stop to yell for passengers going to Bangkok ("Sai Dai Mai!" "Sai Dai Mai!" "Southern Bus Terminal!" "Southern Bus Terminal!") - almost seemed accosting at times - , then would jump back on the moving bus.