Zjabi

One of the nice things here is public transport-it is 100% entertainment. In my last story, I have explained you about the little bus (Bemo). Well, in the meantime, I have had the pleasure to have some rides on some different ones and I just cannot resist writing another story about it. First of all the price is very special, for not even one dollar you may hobble for 3 long hours in the big bus from Surabaya to Madiun. I have absolutely not got any time to get bored during the journey and the show starts when we get on the bus at the bus station. There are more people selling things than there are passengers and it seems that everybody in this country is selling something. The pathway of our bus is on the route of 99 % of the sellers and the speed of passing lays around 15 persons per minute. Everybody tries to sell his stuff with great ambition; in this country social security does not exist, so selling is simply surviving. An endless parade of products pass us, all kinds of drinks, peanuts, mangos, Indonesian crackers, fried tofu, sweets, tissues, cookies, razor blades and even whole banana trees. Some sellers get in at the front, throw a bag of peanuts on the lap of half the passengers, get out at the back, get in at the front again and pick up the bags of peanuts. During this minute with these peanuts in your lap, you might think, "Actually quite nice, some peanuts!" and they have got you where they want, another bag sold........ Now that's what I call marketing. We leave the bus station when the bus is more than full and the only person who still has some space left around him is the bus driver. I actually expected someone on his lap as nothing surprises me anymore! On the first part, a musician travels with us. A boy with his guitar treats us to some of the hottest Indonesian hits. This live music actually sounds a lot nicer that the singer we met at the bus station of Surabaya last week. A man with a sexier appearance than Julio Iglesias and all his singing sons together, comes and stands next to our little bus with his sound machine and starts singing. Just by the looks on his face, he really likes his own voice but unfortunately.......... we don't. We just think that the volume of his sound machine is way too high and can explode any minute now. Travelling with this man selling earplugs would definitely earn good money. His charming wife passes with the little plastic box and some more passengers and we give some change..... My ears still hurt 2 hours later. Now, let's get back to the bus to Madiun. We have been on the secondary and tourist road for over an hour now and we take over complete truck convoys while blowing our horn. I feel a bit like Sandra Bullock in the movie Speed but I awake from that dream because my left foot has been stuck since the beginning of the trip and my right calve is getting cramp. I suddenly get jealous of the passengers that have the privilege to stand in the pathway, but I also know that it 3 hours standing is not the most pleasant thing so I take my complaints for granted. Every time the bus slows down only a little bit, new sellers jump in through the backdoor and the bus is so full that it takes them at least 10 minutes to get to the front and hop off. This circus continues the whole trip until we finally reach our destination.
We have also been to Jakarta by train and because this trip takes around 8 hours, we reserved seats in the executive class. Well, well, very luxurious, we can enjoy reclining seats with (for the first time) enough room for my legs, an evening meal, a television (at 30 meter distance, so we cannot see a thing but anyway) and air-conditioning. Boy, was I happy, this trip was going to be easy. I partied too early because the airco was so damn cold that spontaneous thoughts of the North Pole came to my mind. Then they came to check our tickets and the checking man in charge has more stripes on his uniform that any first pilot of KLM Airlines. Boy, you can see that grin on his face; he is really enjoying wearing that uniform. I want to ask him when we are taking off but my Indonesian is still not good enough for that. Thinking about it afterwards, I was actually happy that we had reserved this train because at the train station in Jakarta, waiting for the train back to Surabaya, a couple of normal trains passed my eyes. They are even more full than already very very full............. so in that case, I'd rather have that damn cold airco!