The Wanderings of busman7

Being somewhat knowledgeable on busing, having spent 25 yrs in the industry, it was interesting traveling in different countries buses.

Note that in Europe I have only ridden on a few shuttle & city buses so any comments are not about buses there. Have yet to make it to South America or Africa.

There is normally 6 classes of inter-city buses in use the world over.

1) the Luxury Coach which is comparable to 1st class airline seating & service, used on both, line runs & charter service Found in Mexico, Central America & SE Asia. Have never seen it in Canada, US or Australia.

2) Coach found the world over, even in the poorest nations used by tourists & wealthy locals.

3) older coaches usually with “tourist bus” written on them but used mainly by middle class locals & a few back packers. These are a pretty good & cheap way to travel & meet local people on day trips, not recommended for overnight travel.

4) the local intercity bus can be old coaches, city buses in Asia or American school buses in CA. These are basic but cheap transportation carrying passengers, goods & chickens (hence the name chicken bus)

5) trucks, vans & pickups that fill in the needs for transportation to outlying areas that the buses don’t service or in addition to city buses.

Used the luxury bus a couple times in Mexico when I first started my trip but soon learned there were less costly alternatives out there that were nearly as good, of course they didn’t come with the A/C waiting room & free toilets.

For any overnight travel or even a long days travel your regular coach is the best bet with A/C & reclining seats they are a pretty comfortable way to travel. A bit more expensive than the lower classes but nothing that’s going to break the bank.

WARNING!!! Some sadist came up with the idea of the sleeper bus in which you find 2 levels of pens in which you can NOT stand or even sit up properly, there is barely room to lie down & unless traveling with a partner they give a whole new meaning to get to know your neighbor. Don’t want to even think what would happen if one  was involved in a serious accident. These monstrosities are best avoided like the plague!!

Your “tourist” bus can make for some interesting travel as they tend to have no seating capacity, there is always room for one more, so there are stools & make shift seats in the aisles. They also tend to stop at the cheaper roadside restaurants (not a bad thing), eat what the locals do & soon soon any with a smattering of English will be practicing it on you, cool. However night time toilet breaks tend to be roadside with women to the left, men to the right. The 38 hr trip from Delhi to Kathmandu, while an experience is NOT recommended nor the overnight run from Vientiane to Hue, which carries more freight than people but hey they are survivable.

Your local buses are the cheapest, most interesting, most crowded, never get filled as there’s always room for 2 more. Normally in CA a few rear seats are removed to allow easy access for larger items, like a vendor taking his helado (ice cream) cart to the next town & selling some of his wares during the trip. Don’t have to worry about getting the wrong bus as in addition to the sign on the bus the drivers helper/fare collector always announces the destination at every stop & also at the markets where bus changes are made meets all incoming buses & even helps you with your bags.

When traveling past the bus routes or even on some busy routes an even cheaper, option is 2 ton truck or pickup with benches for passengers along the sides with freight in the middle which run on a loose schedule. Although the benches can be hard, the natural A/C always works great, just hope there are no dirt roads on the route as huge amounts of dust get mixed in with the A/C but hey you wanted to experience life as the locals live it!

You also find Collectivos, vans or pickups which leave when full.

6) the shuttle van, normally 12-15 passenger vans that due airport shuttles, tourist trips to out of the way places or between cities where bus service is erratic. The major problem with these is that when the manufacturer set the seating he failed to consider that they would be used to transport back packers with their packs but the operator figures it holds 12 so he sells 12 tickets which makes things a tad crowded. Except for airport trips I have learned they are best avoided. Also I believe that in Thailand a person must prove he’s crazy before he’s hired & they’re best avoided all together.

My favorite way to travel is now by boat/ship, didn’t care for it at the start but am now a convert. I don’t mean cruise ship, have seen too many of the sheep from them at the park in Antigua where they have been let loose from the flock for 1/2 hr to get their picture taken by the fountain. I mean ships that transport real people from point A to B.

Ferries are a really cool way to travel, especially overnight, just take your own food with you as they make up for the relatively cheap fare but make their profit on  the obscene food prices. Then you have the river boats from which you get an entirely different perspective of the country. Two trips really stand out, the 2 day slow boat down the Mekong from Huai Kai to Luang Prabang in Laos, tip sit in the back on the benches, to meet more people.

The second which Lonely Planet does it’s readers a great disservice in recommending they don’t take it (as if the the whole $2.40 the government receives in tax is going to make a difference), it also takes hard cash away from the vendors who sell food on board! Is the slow boat down the Ayeyarwady River from Mandalay to Bagan which takes you past villages & scenes straight out of Kipling’s time & was a highlight of the trip.

The 3 day trip through the Mekong Delta from Saigon to Phnom Penh was also well worth the money & beat the heck out any road trip by bus.

Although my Australia trip was on the whole a disappointment, The 2 nights on The Spirit of Tasmania wasn’t. it turned out to be one of the highlights of that adventure, as did the tiny portion of Tasmania I got to see.

My recommendation is that time permitting make use of ships, trains or buses over planes whenever possible as looking at clouds from 30,000-40,000 ft gets monotonous after awhile, like about 5 minutes!

This month, shall get to compare flying to Alaska to returning by ferry, stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 15:56 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.