I was told to be at the bus stop to catch my minibus to Penang at 8:30 in the morning. I hate to be late, so I was there at about 8:10. I saw some other people about getting people sorted out for other buses. They asked me about my plans and they told me that my bus was just over yonder and I should just wait there. So I did. And I waited. I saw my bus go off around the corner. I figured it was off to pick someone up and would be back shortly. I waited. And I waited. 8:30. No minibus. 8:40. No minibus. 9:00. No minibus. I finally started to think that maybe it didn't have any other passengers and I was going to be stuck somehow. 9:15. No minibus. I was just about to head to the tourist information office to find out what was going on, when at 9:20, the minibus turned up. Ah! I had also just realized that I had left my cap at the hotel, so I figured that since everyone had kept me waiting and worrying, I would go and try to retrieve my hat. It took me about three minutes, but it felt good to delay everyone for even that couple of minutes. Revenge is fun.
I asked the driver what had happened, why he was so late. He said there had been a problem at the hotel. He didn't elaborate, so I was left to try to figure out what sort of problem it could have been. That sort of thing usually means that someone has slept late and has held the whole process up. There were six people in the minibus, so I looked them over suspiciously, wondering which one had been the sleepyhead. They all seemed to be together. And then when I went to get into the van, they were all sitting in the three rows of three seats with one seat between them and some of their stuff on the empty seats. They said they thought I would have to get in the front seat next to the driver. I readily agreed, since that is about the best seat in a minibus, but I could this situation ending up being a rude awakening for them as to how things work in the transportation business in Asia. We headed off for the last pickup at a really nice looking place just out of town. However, because the minibus was so late, the people there got tired of waiting (I think) and they made other arrangements with another company. I think the people in the back kind of thought they were in the clear at that moment, but I knew better. The driver made a call and sure enough there was someone who could replace the lost fares in the minibus. We headed back into town to pick them up. There were three. And with all of us (the six original people turned out to be all from the same family and they were travelling together with a fair amount of stuff between them. The three new additions also had fair-sized backpacks and there was just lots of stuff that had to be fit into the minibus. Too much, really. So we spent about 15 minutes trying to get everything, and everyone into the bus. In the end there were bags under feet, and on seats and on people, as well. It was quite cramped. To their credit, the family didn't make too many complaints about the situation, but they did seem to be awfully surprised about how uncomfortable this was going to turn out to be. And once the roster had been passed around to list names and nationalities and such (I presume so the bus company would know where to try to send any bodies should anything untoward happen), I discovered that the family was Dutch. Now anyone can be new at the Asian transportation game. There is no particular reason why they ought to know how it works, particularly since it seemed they had been staying at some higher-class hotel.
And at a rest stop part way along, I found out that it hadn't been anyone sleeping in. There had been a storm the night before, and it's possible that it disrupted telephone lines to and from the town. When they had been trying to pay for their room, the credit card machine wasn't able to get through to process the payment. The hotel staff also couldn't call the credit card company directly to try to process the payment that way because the phones were down. They had had to haggle out a solution to the situation and it had all taken close to an hour to sort out.
I don't know if I was supposed to change to another minivan after about an hour or what the deal was supposed to be. A comment from the driver suggested that I was only supposed to be in the van for an hour or so before changing to another vehicle. But whatever the case, it ended up that I travelled all the way back to the Cameron Highlands before changing to another minibus to go the rest of the way to Penang. I had suspected that I would end up back there, but it hadn't been my preferred route. I didn't end up staying in the town in the highlands, though, so it was no big deal. But it ended up with another Dutch family joining the minibuses passengers. This time it was a family of four. The two children (well, young men really) were deaf. And for some reason it seemed that neither one wanted to sit on the seat beside me. They seemed to have a little fight about it. And after being told to be in the back by the driver, one of the boys just went and got in up in the front. Then the driver came back and looked in and seemed a bit puzzled by where everyone was. He discovered the boy in the front seat and told the parents that he had wanted to put some of the luggage in the front seat and the boy would have to come back to the back. And the sour look on his face as they realized that one of them was going to have to sit beside me was enough to give a guy a complex. I have been discriminated against before, but it seemed an odd reversal that deaf people should be showing some kind of a prejudice against me. They even moved my stuff before asking, when we stopped at a rest stop part of the way to Penang. I was a good deal miffed at that, but I let it pass because I did end up with a more comfortable seat in the swap. But they could have asked first.
And again, here was a Dutch family showing a rather pronounced lack knowledge of how things work in the transportation industry in Asia. I know that it doesn't mean that all the Dutch are like that. But it did leave me wondering what goes on in the Netherlands that the Dutch would go out travelling in Southeast Asia assuming they were going to be getting their way because that's how it would work at home. The mother even had at the driver for seeming tired and that she was worried. She was telling him how to drive. It was strange.
In the end, all was well, and I got to Penang, only a little late because of the late start. But the second trip was altogether less comfortable because of the people in the minibus being quite excitable and, well, annoying.
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