Taking The Bus To Town - Part 2

Continuing from my previous post... I boarded the next bus from the national mosque (mesjid agung) area heading to Perumnas. Similar to the previos bus, the one that I got on has all the wondeful hippy colors and decors all over it.

This is a photo of the inside of the previous bus. You can see the Jamaican flag with Bob Marley hanging on the ceiling. This photo was taken right before it became packed.

Ok, the following photo is the one that I boarded on the way home. It has flowers all across the wind screen. I would have felt very cosy if I were the driver. Look at all the different colors on their seats.

This guy below is the bus conductor who collects money from the passengers. He will go around showing his "grabbing hands" (open and close quickily) to all the passengers demanding for payment as he walks around the bus. I can see that he does not keep track on who he has taken money from and who has not because he came around asking for payment from me twice in the past 15 mins! He also acts as an usher, shouting at the potential passengers at the bus stops to board the bus. He also bangs the bus' back door whenever passengers have gone up to bus to tell the driver to drive off. In order to get down the bus, you just have to knock on the top of the bus' ceiling and the driver will stop (I have not seen any bells on the bus though).


Along the way home, I saw the following interesting event happening along the streets in front of Cinde market. People are actually having their arms tatoo'd along the dusty streets!

It looked as if someone was taking jabs of drugs but was a more legal activity. Blood, paint and dust... yucks!

The following photo shows 2 entertainers coming on to the bus. One guy carried a guitar and has a mike on his headset with amplifiers at the side. The other guy carried his drum set which consists of a 6 piece joint percussion equipment. They started to sing and play DANGDUT music (popular Malay-Arabic-Hindustani music with strong drum beats & synthesizers). They performed for a mere 5 mins on the bus but they were pretty good. Therefore, they earned my Rp1000 (RM0.35) before they left for another bus.

After a bumpy 30 min ride, we finally got back to Novotel where we parked the car and went home. It was an interesting 1.5 hour excursion despite the heat and deafening atmosphere. Now, I can proudly say that I have gone on every mode of transportation in Palembang....;)

1. Bus
2. Ankut (mini van/truck)
3. Becak (trishaw)
4. Perahu (boat)
5. Mobil (car)
6. Keretapi (train)
7. Pesawat (plane)
   
   
   
   

Taking The Bus To Town - Part 1

Last weekend I decided to take the Bus Kota (local bus) to downtown Palembang. The locals call it "bis kota". My wife and son have both taken the local bus before. Even my father in law who seldom comes have taken it when he came 3 years ago. So I HAD to take this opportunity to try out the bus.

I invited my driver Iwan to tag along. I was taken by surprise when he came in his nice black shirt (he normally wears T-shirt - see adjacent photo). I asked him why he dressed up but he just denied it. I thought to myself he must have thought that this was "a day out with the boss", so better dress nicely!....LOL!

We parked our car at Novotel and crossed the road to take the bus. Iwan chose one that had "good music". My legs were too long to fit in between the seats, so I had to sit sideways. I guess they designed the buses for people less than 1.5 m to save space?

The music in the truck was deafening.... oops, did I just write "truck"? Maybe because it felt like sitting in a truck. They have no cushions. Only a PVC sheet covered wooden seat. Back to the music.... it was so loud and the bass was so extreme until I could feel my arm hairs vibrating! The seat was vibrating too.

After a few stops, the bus was packed like a sardine can. Iwan did warn me about pick pockets, so I only brought along some cash and ID with me. A bunch of students came in and they all started smoking in the bus. They are only primary school students! Along the way also came some "entertainers" with their guitars hoping to make a living from their 1 minute on the bus performance.

We reached the Ampera stop after half an hour of sauna, 2nd hand smoke and ear drum bashing. I have nowhere specific to go, so I decided to walk around the Palembang national mosque (which I will blog about in detail next time).

Then we went to the "bus stop" opposite the mosque. Iwan decided to buy me a drink and insisted that he has to pay. We drank this orange cordial cup drink called "Ale Ale". Normally I would not buy drinks from the road side but since it was in a sealed cup I thought, "what the heck"! Iwan does not like to smile when he takes photos, not even on his wedding day! I had to force him to smile but asking him to hold up the "Ale Ale" drink and pretend that he was promoting it. Out came this photo with his "smile" and I told him nobody would ever buy this drink anymore....

The buses in Palembang are actually color-coded. They have red, blue, beige, yellow and green colors. If you are not a local like Iwan, you would have no idea how to catch the bus! It only costs Rp2500 (RM0.90) to hop on and you can go from Simpang Patal (junction next to Novotel) to Ampera bridge (1/2 hour ride).

We had to wait at this bus stop for 10 mins because I had to wait for Iwan to finish his cigarette. While waiting along the sidewalk, we saw students across the road. Iwan said that this is a place where student gangs hang out. When they see other gangs coming, they will fight. Just as he said it, we saw a group of students chasing another group down the road.

Then our bus came and I had to continue the second part of my "adventure" in another post....

TO BE CONTINUED.

Mad Day of Departure

On Friday morning, I took a bus back from Ipoh to KL (LCCT airport) to catch a flight back to Palembang. I left Ipoh at 9:30am but halfway up a hill after Gopeng (30 mins away from Ipoh), the bus broke down! All the passengers had to come off the bus which emitted burnt rubber smell. It seemed like the timing belt of the bus broke. The driver called for help and he told us that there will be another bus coming to pick us up soon.

After 45 mins, a mechanic came on a bike to check on the situation. He told us that the office did not have any spare timing belts, so we had to wait for the bus which was supposed to be here in 30 mins according to the driver. Everyone was restless as time passed. Fortunately we had some shade at the side of the hill. Some people had to take a leak near the bushes along the hill.

After 1.5 hrs, a replacement bus finally arrived. There were a couple of empty buses which stopped for us but they were going to downtown KL and not the LCCT airport.

The replacement bus took off at 12 noon and reached LCCT airport at 2:45pm. I was really hungry because I did not have any lunch. I quickily rushed to the check in counter but was surprised to find that the Palembang Air Asia counter was no longer there.... they have combined all INDONESIAN destinations to one area and only had 6 counters. Of course there were long lines but luckily there were other PLM passengers. At 3pm the Air Asia staff finally opened a separate counter for PLM passengers. However, the stupid check in staff would not let me off the hook for a mere 1kg overweight baggage! He insisted that I could not take anything out from the luggage because there isn't any time left. Therefore I was forced to pay a RM20 overweight charge.

Upon completing the check in process, I rushed to the immigration area only to be stopped by another Air Asia staff who told me that my hand luggage is overweight! I was very pissed off and took some stuff out from my hand luggage and put them into a plastic bag. Then he told me that I was only allowed to take 1 piece of hand-carry. I pointed at the many passengers who had more than 1 piece of hand-carry walking past me and asked him why they were not stopped. In the end he gave in and let me through. By the time I reached the seat on the plane, it was already 3:25pm (my flight departs at 3:35pm).

I was also truly disappointed with the call centers at Air Asia. I had called the number for 3x and 15 mins each time but was always put on hold. If any call centers had to put a customer on hold for more than 5 mins, they should just close down their poorly managed call centers. After the rush, I was truly pissed off but also relieved that I got onto the flight on time to leave for Palembang.