In Transit

If I were a contestant on the Amazing Race, I would probably be eliminated early if we ever have to board buses. Why is that? Read on.

For those who didn’t know, city buses here in the US (and other countries as well) work differently than buses in the Philippines. In Manila, we’re used to just telling the driver if we want to board off the bus and he will gladly stop, even in the middle of the road, not minding the other cars and the bright pink bus waiting sheds. Buses here are organized and efficient but really inconvenient for us not used to it.

I wanted to watch Night at the Museum today and the only nice theater here in our area is Century 25 in Union City. Everyone I can ask to take me there went off to work so I’m left with no other option but to take the bus.

511.org is a big help. All you have to do is enter your starting point, destination address and a few options and it will give you what bus to take, the time it will arrive and transit points if you ever need to. It says that it would take me almost an hour to arrive, compare to only 11 minutes by car. If you are not familiar in the area, be sure to get some maps from Google to be prepared in case you miss or get off the wrong stop.

The bus is amazingly right on schedule. Being the guy that I am, I acted like I know exactly where I am going so I sat in my seat, plugged in my earphones and lost myself in music. And then I got excited. I requested a stop early and ended walking about a quarter of a mile to my transfer point. That also happened in the second bus on my way to my final destination. This is what I get for being too proud by not asking the driver. I thought to myself that it’s OK because that will probably the last time I would make that mistake.