easy travel to other planets
over thanksgiving, the mavis and i took a bus up to san francisco from los angeles via a very unique service.
seems that the ever growing chinese/asian communities don't much care for the appropriately malinged greyhound bus lines ("hell in tin"), so they have their own fairlly luxurios service to and fro various cities.
and anyone can book seats. hell, you can even book the one next to you, if you want guaranteed room.
these former tour buses have cushy seats, lots o' leg room, quick stops, and a roughly seven hour travel time (about an hour more than driving yourself), with none of the crappy sad greyhiund terminal experieces that we all treasure. the buses go from 'chinatown to chinatown' and it's just great.
the one catch:
the mavis and i were the whitest folks on board, and no one spoke much english. it was just like being elsewhere. and that was fun. the drivers really tried to be nice, especially at stops. barking 'ten minnis' or 'tirty haffa ow' at the casa de fruta or lovely coalinga.
the only two odd things were the canned 'classic chinese pop' played by one driver (note to self for next time: discman), and the just sort of dubbed ultra violent gangster/slavery ring martial arts shoot out dvd that culminated with the bride machine-gunning her unwanted groom after he killed the two leads. i think.
mavis just grooved to her discman, and i tried to read or nap.
oh, yes, one other oddity: about half-way each trip, the driver would stop the bus, give a little lecture and go down the aisle taking the 'general tip' of a few dollars per passenger. everyone doled out.
one assumes the bus would go no further if payment was not given.
i really look forward to more trips.
seems that the ever growing chinese/asian communities don't much care for the appropriately malinged greyhound bus lines ("hell in tin"), so they have their own fairlly luxurios service to and fro various cities.
and anyone can book seats. hell, you can even book the one next to you, if you want guaranteed room.
these former tour buses have cushy seats, lots o' leg room, quick stops, and a roughly seven hour travel time (about an hour more than driving yourself), with none of the crappy sad greyhiund terminal experieces that we all treasure. the buses go from 'chinatown to chinatown' and it's just great.
the one catch:
the mavis and i were the whitest folks on board, and no one spoke much english. it was just like being elsewhere. and that was fun. the drivers really tried to be nice, especially at stops. barking 'ten minnis' or 'tirty haffa ow' at the casa de fruta or lovely coalinga.
the only two odd things were the canned 'classic chinese pop' played by one driver (note to self for next time: discman), and the just sort of dubbed ultra violent gangster/slavery ring martial arts shoot out dvd that culminated with the bride machine-gunning her unwanted groom after he killed the two leads. i think.
mavis just grooved to her discman, and i tried to read or nap.
oh, yes, one other oddity: about half-way each trip, the driver would stop the bus, give a little lecture and go down the aisle taking the 'general tip' of a few dollars per passenger. everyone doled out.
one assumes the bus would go no further if payment was not given.
i really look forward to more trips.
posted by mo figuls at 11:43 PM
1 Comments:
Good friends of mine and many many church folks knew of someone who used to run something like that (his service was called Xe Do Hoang) which was used by many Vietnamese folks traveling up and down CA. This unfortunate guy didn't "dole out" to some of his "acquaintances" and was gunned down. Everyone was shocked to learn of it, and I was in Vietnam at the time it happened. Very tragic. I hope you guys are careful if we continue using these (and any other services). But, I'm guessing now that BBeyes is down south, you won't be traveling up to SF much in the near future...?!
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