Bus travel is not for the faint hearted. It does not cater for individual space, it cares not if the person next to you lacks personal hygiene skills,it is however, enjoying a renaissance, and quite rightly so.
I am by nature an individual and prefer being cocooned in my car, listening to my music with the correct temperature and only my own body odor to contend with, however, I have recently rediscovered public transport and have been converted to bus travel.
Life in Singapore is easy, its Asia Lite, everyone speaks English, everything works, everything that is, except car travel. It is prohibitively expensive to own and run a car in Singapore as well as being exposed to some of the worst drivers on the planet; so, I decided to use public transport from day 1 of my 3 year Singapore experience. This meant getting used to buses again. I started my working career commuting by bus and it looks like I will finish my working career on buses as well.
Singapore buses are great. They are quick, efficient, run good frequent schedules, are pretty much on time, have air conditioning and what must be the best payment system invented by man, the aptly named ezlink system. The ezlink card allows you to use this piece of credit card sized plastic, which can be topped up at machines everywhere, for public transport in all its forms, notably the MRT or Mass Rapid Transport rail and Metro network as well the buses. All you do is swipe it against a reader as you enter and you leave the bus or train, what could be simpler. Another useful feature of the card , is that it is accepted as currency in many fast food outlets, perfect for that Big Mac after a boozy night out on the town, when you are on the last 400 meter walk from the bus stop to your apartment.
The bus network is vast and the buses are mainly double decker’s. As most of the commuters live in the outer areas of the island and travel to the CBD on a daily basis, peak periods is often very crowded. The trick is to go in to work that little bit early and come home that little bit early, if you can discipline yourself and your work commitments to these times and genuinely manage your life work balance then you will always get a seat. Sometimes I also slipped up. Getting onto the number 10 at 08.15 in the morning was reminiscent of the films you see of Japanese commuters being pushed into train compartments by white gloved guards. The only advantage is if you are tall, as I am, you can look down on a sea of hair as opposed to having your nose uncomfortably close to the dock workers armpit.Ah well, you cannot have everything I guess
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