I am the kind of person who sleeps in bus stations...
Monday, Oct. 23, 2006
Today was a big transit day: 3 hour boat back to town, 3 hour bus back to KL, and 5 hour bus to Georgetown, on the island of Penang.
However, today was also Hari Raya, a holiday I know nothing about (despite the fact that signage fêting the occasion has been posted everywhere for a month or so), so our boat was late. An unapologetic rep for the company we'd unwittingly booked our ticket with was quite unhelpful. I won't do the full rant, but here's the summary: NKS Travel sucks.
It seemed fitting that on our bus ride to KL, our bus ( steered by the same driver who shuttled us, haltingly, from KL just a few days before), overheated and broke down on the side of the highway. After forty minutes we were on our way again, and in the early evening we pulled into KL Chinatown.
The roads in that area are lined with narrow booths and slivers of storefronts selling bus tickets to destinations all over the peninsula. We asked a lady when her next bus to Georgetown was, and she replied "7PM". Since this meant we'd only have to wait half an hour, we went ahead and bought our tickets. At 7:10PM, I politely asked her what time the bus was supposed to arrive. She looked at me dully and replied "7:30." At 7:30PM, she told us to go to the bus depot, across the street. At 8:00PM, the bus actually arrived and we were off.
The bus ended up arriving somewhere on the island of Penang, but not in Georgetown. Taxis, charging 30 ringgit, offered to take us into town, but this was ridiculously high, so we opted to sleep/wait out the night at the snack bar in the bus station. The Indian music wafting out from the snack stand, a three-note trill which tinkled incessantly through the whole night, was our constant conscious companion as we drifted in and out of restless sleep.
Today was a big transit day: 3 hour boat back to town, 3 hour bus back to KL, and 5 hour bus to Georgetown, on the island of Penang.
However, today was also Hari Raya, a holiday I know nothing about (despite the fact that signage fêting the occasion has been posted everywhere for a month or so), so our boat was late. An unapologetic rep for the company we'd unwittingly booked our ticket with was quite unhelpful. I won't do the full rant, but here's the summary: NKS Travel sucks.
It seemed fitting that on our bus ride to KL, our bus ( steered by the same driver who shuttled us, haltingly, from KL just a few days before), overheated and broke down on the side of the highway. After forty minutes we were on our way again, and in the early evening we pulled into KL Chinatown.
The roads in that area are lined with narrow booths and slivers of storefronts selling bus tickets to destinations all over the peninsula. We asked a lady when her next bus to Georgetown was, and she replied "7PM". Since this meant we'd only have to wait half an hour, we went ahead and bought our tickets. At 7:10PM, I politely asked her what time the bus was supposed to arrive. She looked at me dully and replied "7:30." At 7:30PM, she told us to go to the bus depot, across the street. At 8:00PM, the bus actually arrived and we were off.
The bus ended up arriving somewhere on the island of Penang, but not in Georgetown. Taxis, charging 30 ringgit, offered to take us into town, but this was ridiculously high, so we opted to sleep/wait out the night at the snack bar in the bus station. The Indian music wafting out from the snack stand, a three-note trill which tinkled incessantly through the whole night, was our constant conscious companion as we drifted in and out of restless sleep.
posted by Stefanie at 4:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home