Ride of My Life
The fasting month seems to have affected my creativity, if you can call what I've written so far as that. I simply can't find anything to write about. Can't be due to lack of sugar or nicotine though, as I surf and blog mostly at night.
Anyway, something interesting happened on my way to work a few days ago. Riding rickety MARA buses to town from the rural areas was never exciting but last Friday's had to be THE bus ride of my life. I noticed that they had a different driver as I got on the bus. I've never seen him before; he was probably on loan from other routes filling in for one of the regular drivers. This guy had very short cropped hair, a very stern look and a pair of MIB dark glasses on.
I knew that we were dealing with no ordinary driver when he tried to do wheelies on every take off from the bus stops. It was an old bus and of course he didn't even succeed to burn the rear tyres but all we got were rude jolts everytime he changed up. He really floored the old gal through the narrow rural roads and I was getting really worried while clutching the back of the front seat for dear life! Everything on the bus rattled and I could've sworn that I felt something came out of my ears!
Visions of what-ifs were flashing right before my eyes -- what if the tyres blew, what if the engine fell off its mountings, what if the rear axle decided to stay behind, what if the steering wheel came right off, etc. etc. There were so many possibilities for us to make it to the front pages the next day! All it would take was a stray goat to cross the road and we could all cancel our Raya plans.
At one bus stop, a passenger miscalculated his timing and was waving down the bus from the other side of the road just as the bus was about to pass him by. Other drivers would've just ignored him but this driver practically stood on the brakes, locking the rear tyres. The bus screeched to a standstill a good few yards away from the passenger. Good thing that it was on a rural road otherwise we would've quite a pile-up right behind us. One comforting thought though, the old bus had good brakes!
To cut a long one short, we survived the bus ride with all our body parts in their right places. I checked mine; they were all there. I didn't know how the poor bus itself fared but I felt I was ready for anything when I got off. Who says commuting to work is not fun anymore?
Anyway, something interesting happened on my way to work a few days ago. Riding rickety MARA buses to town from the rural areas was never exciting but last Friday's had to be THE bus ride of my life. I noticed that they had a different driver as I got on the bus. I've never seen him before; he was probably on loan from other routes filling in for one of the regular drivers. This guy had very short cropped hair, a very stern look and a pair of MIB dark glasses on.
I knew that we were dealing with no ordinary driver when he tried to do wheelies on every take off from the bus stops. It was an old bus and of course he didn't even succeed to burn the rear tyres but all we got were rude jolts everytime he changed up. He really floored the old gal through the narrow rural roads and I was getting really worried while clutching the back of the front seat for dear life! Everything on the bus rattled and I could've sworn that I felt something came out of my ears!
Visions of what-ifs were flashing right before my eyes -- what if the tyres blew, what if the engine fell off its mountings, what if the rear axle decided to stay behind, what if the steering wheel came right off, etc. etc. There were so many possibilities for us to make it to the front pages the next day! All it would take was a stray goat to cross the road and we could all cancel our Raya plans.
At one bus stop, a passenger miscalculated his timing and was waving down the bus from the other side of the road just as the bus was about to pass him by. Other drivers would've just ignored him but this driver practically stood on the brakes, locking the rear tyres. The bus screeched to a standstill a good few yards away from the passenger. Good thing that it was on a rural road otherwise we would've quite a pile-up right behind us. One comforting thought though, the old bus had good brakes!
To cut a long one short, we survived the bus ride with all our body parts in their right places. I checked mine; they were all there. I didn't know how the poor bus itself fared but I felt I was ready for anything when I got off. Who says commuting to work is not fun anymore?
posted by Kri at
4:55 AM
5 Comments:
I am glad you survived. Alhamdullillah.
Some bus drivers imagine themselves to be Schumaker.
By
Bustaman, at 12:58 PM
Pok Ku: I think he's a 'shoemaker' on drugs. heh heh
Kri: I was once on a KL mini bus (12yrs ago) and was sitting right next to the entrance. When he did the corner-baring, my files was thrown off my lap, pushed me to a standing position nearly thrown out of the bus but luckily God help me to grip the metal bar. Otherwise I'll hit the headlines too!
By
Honeytar, at 7:09 AM
Pok Ku & Honeytar: That Schumacher wannabe sure scared the sh*t out of me!
By
Kri, at 2:54 AM
Kri, if the same thing happen again, just remember the magic word from Trengganu. "Mujo" tak jadi kat saye, mujo tak terbalek, mujo dan macam2 mujo lagi.
By
Anonymous, at 3:55 PM
Try it once, Tiff. Pay your fare and say your prayers :)
Anonymous: In the final analysis, to us simple rural people, we'd say, "Mujo (or mujoq as we say here) ada bas tu, boleh juga naik!" :)
By
Kri, at 10:21 PM
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