Bus trips in our part of the world are never fun. Because of the mountainous roads, many people will puke on the bus, leaving the fragrant aroma for the rest of us to enjoy. But, to us, bus trips are a necessity because there are no flights or trains to the small towns that we go to.
This past Saturday I was on a bus trip home, expecting for it to take just 6 hours (thanks to the new highway). However, after an hour into the bus ride, at about 9am, the dreadful but common thing happened--road block. Because I was under the influence of Dramamine, the lifesaver-drug for me, I stayed on the bus and just slept. I thought to myself, "meh, what's the worst it can happen? Maybe an hour delay at the most."
After an hour, I woke up, got out the bus and walked for about 300 meters to the site of the accident. Wow, an excavator lying across the narrow, two-lane, mountain road, where the nearest town is an hour away. Not good.
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| Even the cows were getting impatient. |
Well, we waited and waited, and finally at noon, there was a rumor that a tow truck is coming. And apparently there were two police officers standing around, not knowing what to do. In the mean time, the friends that I was traveling with suggested that we should buy some watermelons from the guy that had a truck full of watermelons. So we did and we ate it up. It cost about a dollar and 25 cents for a pretty sizable watermelon--gotta love the villages :) (He later sold the entire truck of watermelons that he was originally planning on selling in town.)
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| At least the scenery isn't too shabby. |
Finally (and NOT the last finally), the big construction crane came at 1:30pm, about 4 and a half hours since we first got stuck. I was relieved, thinking we'll get going soon.
But, of course, people couldn't decide on where exactly to tie the cable on the excavator, so the site of the accident turned to a little town meeting.
After 15 minutes, the excavator was finally (again, not the last finally) lifted back to its own feet.
Well, it turned out that the excavator was damaged and could not be driven or moved, so a bunch of guys got on the heavy machinery and started tinkering with the thing.
Around 4pm, 7 hours from the time that we first got stuck, we started to see cars moving, and I got excited. However, because traffic had been stopped so long, traffic from both directions soon came to a standstill. Everyone wanted to go first and they started to cut in line. The little two-lane road became two one way streets going opposite directions that met at the site of the accident. So the TWO poor police officers had to direct traffic to untie the big traffic knot. Hours went by and unfortunately, the police decided to let the small cars go first, and also let the opposing direction first. By now, I had given up hope for seeing Noah before he goes down to sleep. It seemed like we were the last ones to be allowed to move. Sad.
The bus started to move sloooowy at 5:30pm and we were going at "full" speed by 6pm. So, then, I arrived at the bus station at 11pm and finally (the last finally) got home at 11:45pm, almost 9 hours later than the original ETA. My total trip duration was about 16 hours, which is one of the longest bus trips that I have ever been on. Needless to say, I was hungry, tired, and happy to be home.