The worst bus you ever ride?

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Samouth
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The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by Samouth »

It started from the bus coming late to pick up me. I waited almost 1 hours which was quite long. Then the bus is really old. The air conditioning was not working sometime. So it was so hot. Moreover, the bus stopped countless time to pick up the passengers along the road. The bus was fully filled with so many passengers. The corridor couldn't access as people were sitting on the small plastic chairs along the corridor. The bus was so noisy, as there were so many children on the bus, moreover some of older Cambodians just talked to each other.
The bus was really slow, so it consumed so much of my time. As i was on my way from Kompongthom to Phnom Penh, the road is under construction. Therefore, the driver couldn't drive faster, and the fact that the bus wasn't new enough. No to mention, the bus was also filled with dust moving around as it flew into the bus through any holes?. I couldn't breath easily, i needed to cover my nose with my T-shirt for most of the time during the whole journey.
បើសិនធ្វើចេះ ចេះឲ្យគេកោត បើសិនធ្វើឆោត ឆោតឲ្យគេអាណិត។

If you know a lot, know enough to make them respect you, if you are stupid, be stupid enough so they can pity you.
Barang_doa_slae
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by Barang_doa_slae »

Very easily nankaï (Laos border) to Bangkok about 10 or 15 years ago.

To save a few bucks, rather than flying out of Vientiane I had booked a thai internal flight. However, arriving at the airport it was flooded like it never was before in human memory.
After an hour and a lucky hike to the train station I found it closed too and was left stranded on a sand bags island at a cross roads that looked like an empty ocean, except for a few pick ups equipped with snorkels that would send waves washing my feet and bags.
A couple hours later, miracle, a high seating bus arrives. It is a VIP one with 3 seats per rank only and empty too !
I was relaxing and feeling very lucky in the business class seat I was in, especially understanding the bus was headed to Bangkok but couldn't get whatever else the bus staff was explaining me.
It became very clear when the bus stopped at a nearby bus station and let all it's booked customer in...
I was then shown to the drivers berth were 4 locals already seated managed to let me squeeze in. The ceiling clearance was way too short for me so I spent the next 12 hours bending my back and head as I could.
As the bus was nearing Bangkok with about 100km to go it broke down... We had to wait a few hours for parts and repairs but after another 50km it broke again this time for good. So we had to wait yet another few hours for a replacement bus...
I can't remember what time i arrived at my Bangkok hotel but it was well over 24 hours after leaving Vientiane the day before...
Soi Dog
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by Soi Dog »

Early 2006 I decided to take a bus from PP to the Thai border before going on to Bangkok, after having flown in. The fancy, new VIP bus on the advertisement when i bought the ticket didn't exist. The actual bus was the worst piece of junk I have ever seen. The black exhaust fumes were coming inside the whole time. I got to the departure point by the central market quite early, but the bus left 2 hours late. I was the only barang on board, which provided everyone else with endless amusement, apparently. The bus was absolutely jam-packed with people and their cargo. One couple had sacks of insects they put in the overhead bin above my head. They were definitely not crickets, but looked 100% like cockroaches to me. I know because they sack ripped open and the roaches swarmed around and dropped on my head the whole time. The Aircon was not working at all.

Soon after departure, the heavy rain started and the water came dripping heavily through multiple places in the ceiling and from around every window, which had to be closed but still splashed rain inside. The bus became a sauna with the windows closed in a wasted attempt to keep the rain out.

This was back when very long stretches of the roads were not paved at all once you got a bit outside the city. Pure red mud. The bus slid left and right and left...moving more side to side than forward. It was like being in a 12 hours amusement park ride...IF that amusement park ride had cockroaches running amok and water splashing all over the place and was located inside a dirty sauna smelling of body odor and diesel exhaust fumes.

To top it off, every Khmer person on that bus, without exception, who were all snacking and eating away when the trip began, started vomiting from motion sickness mixed with the fumes and the stale air. At least the bus worker handed out some little black plastic bags for people to puke into, but the smell went from awful to horrendous. After holding onto their multiple, filled puke bags for a while, some flung them out the windows, but others placed them on the bus floor. And most didn't tie them up very well. Their puke mixed with the sloshing rain water already on the floor and swooshed around as the bus swerved back and forth in the massive wheel ruts in the awful excuse for a dirt road, in which the bus got stuck about a dozen times.

Anyone who yearns for the good ol' days before Cambodia was getting developed can go suck an egg.

By the way, the Thai bus from the border to Bangkok broke down too. 3 hours in the middle of nowhere.
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StroppyChops
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by StroppyChops »

Soi Dog wrote:Early 2006...
This would make a seriously cool short story. We should do that around here. They could be published on the front page, or something.
Bodge: This ain't Kansas, and the neighbours ate Toto!
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Bitte_Kein_Lexus
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by Bitte_Kein_Lexus »

Good story SD.
Ex Bitteeinbit/LexusSchmexus
wackyjacky
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by wackyjacky »

10 yrs ago. Koh Kong to SHV. The bus got 1/2 way to SHV, decided to divert to PP due to engine problems, but told none of the barang. I noticed about 45 mins < PNH. There were maybe 15 Germans w/me who were up in arms, threatened to sue, and wanted free 4* hotels & dinners in PP. I talked to the company manager on the phone & the Germans were all screaming at me. He offered free passage the next day. In PP, I went w/a tuk tuk driver who lead me directly into a 2m deep concrete hole in the ground right next to his unit (I had my bag in front of me). Tore up both my legs quite nicely. I had left Koh Chang at 6 am & arrived at PP 16 hrs later bleeding profusely & out a $35 hotel room in SV.
Soi Dog
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by Soi Dog »

I forgot the part where i was supposed to change buses outside Battambang, except no one bother to tell me that when i bought the bus ticket. And nobody on board spoke any English. The bus was stopping to let people off and take new people on board so often that I had no idea we were at any time anyway. It's not like the bus stopped and the driver announced "Get off here for the bus change to Poipet ...your bus will arrive in 3 hours".

All I knew is that suddenly the bus stopped, and the bus driver's helper came to me and pulled at my arm and yelled in Khmer and kinda pushed me off the bus, then opened the baggage compartment outside, took out my bag and put it on the side of the road and pointed back down the dirt we just came from in a kind of "off you go that way" gesture. It seems he remembered about 3 miles outside Battambang that I was supposed to get off back there, but since the bus wasn't going to turn around and take me there and inconvenience everyone else, I had to walk back alone to some location I didn't see in the first place and wait for another bus. I was caught so off-guard by what happened that I forgot and left another bag of belongings inside the bus as it drove away. That bag contained my only other pair of shoes. I was left with only the cheap, dirty, plastic flip flops I was wearing for the dirty bus ride. :(
prahkeitouj
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by prahkeitouj »

Hehe... interesting story, SD. :-)
កុំស្លាប់ដូចពស់ កុំរស់ដូចកង្កែប
Samouth
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by Samouth »

i feel sorry for you Barang_doa_slae, SD and wackyjacky. It seemed like you guys had a really hard time with Cambodia bus.
បើសិនធ្វើចេះ ចេះឲ្យគេកោត បើសិនធ្វើឆោត ឆោតឲ្យគេអាណិត។

If you know a lot, know enough to make them respect you, if you are stupid, be stupid enough so they can pity you.
Soi Dog
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Re: The worst bus you ever ride?

Post by Soi Dog »

Samouth wrote:i feel sorry for you Barang_doa_slae, SD and wackyjacky. It seemed like you guys had a really hard time with Cambodia bus.
It wasn't just us, of course, it was every person who rode those buses back then who was inconvenienced. We don't expect any special treatment or more comfortable experiences just because we are foreigners, it's just written from our own perspective. So whenever you hear some long-time expats complaining about "how much better things used to be" in Cambodia....just remember many things were much worse back then too, for everybody...mostly the Cambodians. All development has it's good and bad aspects, depending on one's starting point and perspective.
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