A story a day: Bus drivers and passengers (part 1)

I got a couple of chances going abroad. Singapore(of course ), Malaysia, India, Czech Republic, France are the places I've been to. So let me tell you some bus stories in those countries.

Vietnam:

Buses are quite new and small. I heard that they were assemblied in VN by some "xi' nghiep xe bus". Recently, some 2-level-buses have been released. Travelling by bus is definitely a good choice as it's safe and clean.

Bus drivers are the greatest ones in the world. They can move extremely fast even on a crowded streets (and most of the streets are crowded indeed). They can make the whole bus become a giant sandwich by putting more than twice[1] the number of passengers allowed. While the busstop is at lane 1 (right hand side), they normally move in lane 3 or 4 (extreme left hand side) so that they can move fast, and only start changing to lane one at about 10m or less before the busstop. Finally, no bus stops at the bus stop as they just slow down for the passengers to jump off the bus. If you don't dare to jump, they will either push you down, or you'll miss the stop.

There is one helper on the bus who "helps" the passengers to jump on and off the bus . He is also the ticket officer who write the tickets and tear them before giving it to the passengers .

Bus passengers: most of them are students and puppils. Great passengers indeed. Once a girl moved onto the bus, most of the guys there are willing share his seats. 2 years ago, when I was in Hanoi for my holiday, I was seating in a bus while a girl stared at me . After 10 mins, by looking around, I realized that I should offer my seat to her. But it seemed to be a bit late as the girl, after sitting down, looked at me quite angrily

My advices:

- Be alert: offer your seat as soon as you can

- Don't stand near the doors. They are sometimes not closed (so that the passengers can alight easily )

- Be careful: when you jump on the bus and off the bus, use your right leg first. That would help you to avoid accident. I'm serious

- Be fast: Jump off the bus right after the doors are opened (if they are closed when the bus was moving), or the bus will accellerate soon and you'll miss the stop or you will be pushed off. Never wait for the bus to stop. Most probably, it won't.

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[1] Some documents may state "three times" instead of "twice".

A story a day: Just another bus story

Some of you may wonder when will this crazy guy (in your context, that implies me ) stop talking about his bus trips and things like that. The answer is that i'm gonna stop it soon, as soon as I have no more thing to talk about it, or I no longer want to talk about it

Well, today we will enjoy some stories about people on the bus. For clarification, "people" here means "nice people" as I normally don't remember those "not so nice" ones

As usual, we first jump on a normal morning bus in a normal working day, say, 1st Dec 2006 (not so far huh). At a bus stop, there were a little girl and an old lady boarding onto the bus. When the girl tapped her EZlink card (the prepaid travel pass I mentioned sometime before in my blog), she realized that the card balance was negative. So she moved to the old lady and said:

"Grandma, my card has no money. Give me some coin"

"No need lah [1], you're in already", said the old lady.

"Grandmaaaaaaa, I don't want to do that , give me some coin", she insisted.

"Aiyo [2], so annoying ", the lady complained and gave her some coin.

"Not enough, give me 20 cent more ", said the girl after looking that the coins she was given

".... ", her grandma said something that nobody could hear.

Having collected enough coins, she ran to the bus driver to get the ticket. All of us, who were sitting in the bus observing the story, smiled with her, for a great new day.

Well, that little girl, like many other children in this small island, always keep in their mind the "Pay your fare and pay the correct fare for your bus trip". How many of us don't remember (or pretend to forget) that lesson?

A story a day: My car

Today, I went to a party. One of my friends, like many other Singaporeans, asked me a typical question "How did you get here?"

"Well, I got my driver taking me here ", I replied.

"Woa lao eh [1], you got your own car, and a driver ", my friend said anxiously, "what's the brand, how does it look like? "

"Uhm, a 8m long Volvo, painted in red and white", I said

"A limousine , how's the facilities inside ?"

"A mobile TV, great 7 unit speaker system, of course there're buttons to open and close the doors automatically as doors are quite far from the driver [2], of course it's equipped a GPS system"

My friend was shocked and he could not say a word. After a while, he pulled me out and said, "Go go, let me see your car "

When we were outside of the house, I pointed to the busstop next to the house "See, my car is comming "

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Well, though that's not a really funny story, I hope it tells you something about the buses in Singapore. There are 3 kinds of buses here:

• Single level buses, like in many other countries

 

• Two level buses, you may find them now in Vietnam

• Long buses, hm, I think they just don't want to double the height of the bus and try to double the length instead. These buses move like snakes

Different buses have different kinds of facilities. But you may enjoy air-conditioners, mobile TV (great isn't it).

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[1] Wah lao eh: a popular way of expressing surprise in Singapore. In Vietnam, you may say "Bó tay"

[2] In luxury cars, the doors may be openned and closed automatically, (well you may think of a Maybach )

A story a day: Father and sons

(Well, my first entry)

Every morning, I have to take a 40 mins bus trip to school. Days after days, I have had great chances observing very beautiful moments which brought me a lot of special emotions.

And here's the 1st one.

I have a habit of choosing the 1st-row seat at level 2 of a bus, as it allows me to look around and enjoy the morning sunlight. Yesterday when I was in my familiar seat, a dark-skin guy moved up and sat beside me. His dirty and cheap t-shirt made me think that he would be a Malaysian worker, like those working in construction sites.

I had not put so much attention to him until when the bus left the stop, and he started waving his hand to someone on the street. I looked down and found 4 small boys there, also waving to say good bye to him. The bus passed through them and soon stopped at the cross because of the red light. The man stood up and walked (or ran?) to the end of the bus where he continued waving to those children until they were no longer within his sight.

He returned to the seat beside me and I saw a happy smile on his face. The smile was just as bright as the sunlight ray spreading on his face...

When I was a child, I (and the children at my age) tried to wake up early in the morning to say bye to our parents when they went out to work, even in the cold winter days. We waited until they were out of sight before going back into the house. In the afternoon, after one working day, when our parents started moving back home, that was when we gathered at the beginning of the road, waiting for them. It had always been a wonderful feeling seeing my mom or my dad from very far, and I started waving: "mom, dad, you're back".

For my 6 years staying here, this is the 1st time I witness such a nice scene. It happens rarely, or I have been closing my eyes for long?

The photo named "father and son" has been taken from www.pbase.com/mhlau/botanic_gardens_singapore