Adventures in Transportation

May 29th:

Trip to K'pitiya.  Get in the bus, travel for 2 hours, get off.  How complicated could this be...?

We left the house at 6:45am and dropped the kid off at school - parked the car some distance away and walked him to school - watched while he crossed the road and entered the school premises - right before the start of school at 7:15am.  Then off to Pettah to the Central Bus station.

It was fun to be in the middle of Pettah - the market with truck loads of chickens in small cages, men hauling 50 pound bags (maybe more) of peppers and carrots and onions and other vegetables to the market, etc.  The wheeled and foot traffic were both a lot less that I remembered from years back.  We finally found the bus stop for K'pitiya.  There was a regular bus Rs 140/= or the AC bus with curtains for Rs 210/=.  Gihan recommended the AC bus - a 26 seater mini bus.

This whole situation was hugely better than what it was in the 80's when I used to live here.  The bus had AC, the bus had curtains to cut out the hot sun, there were seats for everyone - no one was standing in the bus, people were not stuffed in like sardines which invariably lead to the men touching the women inappropriately - none of that this time - I was relieved.  I was not looking forward to being molested.

For the most part I had a 2-seater seat to myself.  I had one companion who quickly took another seat - he must have felt my anxiety - wondering if he would lean inappropriately against me etc - old experiences are hard to erase.  Then the seat was empty for a while but soon I had another companion.  Uneventful - yeay! And then I had a third companion - also uneventful.  And that is it for seat-companions until the end of the journey.  I let out a sigh of relief. I must be living right.  I can handle this.

But, of course  the whole trip was not entirely uneventful.  There were some amusing situations...

First...  More than half way in to our trip there is a huge big noise in the engine - sounds like springs breaking... The driver, conductor, and a friend all get excited and buzz around.  One pulls out a tool kit, one jumps out of the vehicle to check on who-knows-what.  There is talk about the gears and a ball - doesn't mean anything to me.  They have a passenger step on the clutch while they fiddle with the engine.  The engine is running and the AC is running through this whole exercise, so I am content.  After some tinkering they decide it is good enough to drive to a mechanic place nearby.  More tinkering and talking at the roadside mechanic's place, and then it seems we are good to go - all in all, not even a 20 minute delay for what seems to be a malfunctioning gear.

Meanwhile, the woman behind me continues to talk on her phone to the n-th person, telling them yet again that she accidentally got in to this bus when she meant to go to Kurunegala.  I hope I get there in time for visiting hours at the hospital, she tells one person.  She tells another, the woman in the next seat tells me I should have got off and caught a bus to Chilaw instead.  And to another she tells that she thinks there are connecting buses to Kurunegala from where she is now headed.  And then to another she laments about our apparent engine troubles.  Much drama in her life - but she is calm through the whole thing.

The second amusing situation happens about 5 miles from our destination.  There is a ssslllooooowww car in front of us and our driver gets impatient and tries to pass it - crossing the dividing line, right in front of the two cops standing there.  Oh - shucks! (or something like that!).  So, we stop again.  The passengers are all a-buzz...  Didn't you see the cops, they were standing there under that tree, how could you possibly not see the cops, oh you should have known that they always stand right there, now you are done for, now you will have to cough up some money etc etc.

The cops are all dour faced and stern-looking.  Our driver hops out and in just a few minutes he is back and we are off again - and the cops are all smiley-faced.  Christmas has come early!  I am sure any "fines" that were paid will never reach the government coffers. Such is life on the island.

And then - finally, off we go and arrive safely at our destination.  Nanda and Lochu mami are there in their car to pick me up and drive me the half a mile to their house.  Nice.  All is well that ends well.