4th October 2011
Today at 18:00 we took a 15 hour bus journey to Banjarmasin. Well, I say bus journey but a few hours in it turned into a kind of death rally as the driver (sporting a mullet akin to that of Rambo from Rambo 3) and his 2 co-drivers took us along the worst road I've ever seen. It was so rough and bumpy and very narrow I couldn't believe they even considered driving a huge coach along it - I started to wonder what was in the cigarettes they were chain smoking.
I'll never complain about pot holes again! The co-drivers were giving guidance as to which way to go to avoid the worst of the bumps, trenches and oncoming traffic while the driver swerved and drove into the better of the bumps and trenches as fast as possible.
I was in the very front row of the bus and I had fallen asleep, but I woke up because of the noise of the bus being shaken to pieces and then watched the show/ feared for my life for the duration of the journey. Being at the front and having no seat belt I imagined myself being the one to break the glass and fly through the air in the event of a crash, I thought if I got a good roll into the landing I might come out unscathed.
It seemed impossible but someone near the back of the bus was spark out asleep, snoring loudly despite the noise and bouncing around. I tried to film the road but it was too dark for my camera to pick up any images, however, the sound depicts it pretty well I think.
Near the beginning of the journey we took a ferry for 1 hour, during the ferry ride I was entertained by the co-drivers who set about the task of super gluing a home DVD player to the dash board of the bus. The dodgey wiring they put in was sparking all over the place! After they finally got it stuck down and working properly I imagined we would watch a few films on the samsung flat screen hanging from the roof, but instead they put on some depressing film which one of them had obviously downloaded that seemed to be about religion and war and children with guns, all backed by some horrendous music made worse by the distortion - lovely. After that fantastic piece of film finished they played karaoke DVDs for the remaining 10 hours of the journey, from where I was sitting it was impossible to drown out the sound with my iPod. :(
We stopped along the way a few times to eat and use the toilet as there wasn't a toilet on the bus. I came across possibly the worst toilet I've ever had the pleasure of using, I had to take a picture. Mada assures me its not the worst toilet in Indonesia and pointed out that the water is still clear, so I guess I can look forward to seeing worse.
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Today at 18:00 we took a 15 hour bus journey to Banjarmasin. Well, I say bus journey but a few hours in it turned into a kind of death rally as the driver (sporting a mullet akin to that of Rambo from Rambo 3) and his 2 co-drivers took us along the worst road I've ever seen. It was so rough and bumpy and very narrow I couldn't believe they even considered driving a huge coach along it - I started to wonder what was in the cigarettes they were chain smoking.
I'll never complain about pot holes again! The co-drivers were giving guidance as to which way to go to avoid the worst of the bumps, trenches and oncoming traffic while the driver swerved and drove into the better of the bumps and trenches as fast as possible.
I was in the very front row of the bus and I had fallen asleep, but I woke up because of the noise of the bus being shaken to pieces and then watched the show/ feared for my life for the duration of the journey. Being at the front and having no seat belt I imagined myself being the one to break the glass and fly through the air in the event of a crash, I thought if I got a good roll into the landing I might come out unscathed.
It seemed impossible but someone near the back of the bus was spark out asleep, snoring loudly despite the noise and bouncing around. I tried to film the road but it was too dark for my camera to pick up any images, however, the sound depicts it pretty well I think.
Near the beginning of the journey we took a ferry for 1 hour, during the ferry ride I was entertained by the co-drivers who set about the task of super gluing a home DVD player to the dash board of the bus. The dodgey wiring they put in was sparking all over the place! After they finally got it stuck down and working properly I imagined we would watch a few films on the samsung flat screen hanging from the roof, but instead they put on some depressing film which one of them had obviously downloaded that seemed to be about religion and war and children with guns, all backed by some horrendous music made worse by the distortion - lovely. After that fantastic piece of film finished they played karaoke DVDs for the remaining 10 hours of the journey, from where I was sitting it was impossible to drown out the sound with my iPod. :(
We stopped along the way a few times to eat and use the toilet as there wasn't a toilet on the bus. I came across possibly the worst toilet I've ever had the pleasure of using, I had to take a picture. Mada assures me its not the worst toilet in Indonesia and pointed out that the water is still clear, so I guess I can look forward to seeing worse.View Larger Map
Mada is right, I have been faced with toilets much worse than this!!!
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