I missed out watching The Reader again!!

I went today to Great World City to watch a movie. It was the only cinema where both "Doubt" and "The Reader" were showing, so I trekked across the island from home on the 5 bus all the way there, standing up for about 40 minutes of the trip, which was annoying but tolerable. Although I ended up not watching "The Reader", as the GV people countered my plan of sneaking into the R21 movie by not starting any other movie within 45 minutes of the 3:25 screening of "The Reader". Sigh. I dunno who I am more upset with: The GV people for being so cunning, or for the Censorship Board for not cutting out the supposed "sexual scenes" and making it M18. But then again, I cannot believe I am advocating censorship. Anyways, since I went home early then, I took (the 5 again!) to Tiong Bahru to take the MRT. I had never been there before, but it looked like any other mall in Singapore, and therefore wasn't too exciting. In other not exciting news, I took the shortest bus ride ever, on the 9, from Bedok MRT to Bedok Stadium, lasting all of 90 seconds, and costing $0.31 for that. Oh well. That's what I get for being too lazy to walk 500m.

Never pay cash for bus trips!

I had a really tiresome trip back home from camp yesterday. (We only got to go home on a Thursday after enduring a rowdy steamboat dinner, featuring splattered eggs on the floor everywhere and endless ear-piercing toasts. The night was an embarrassment for everyone involved.) It was my usual public transport commute which I usually use when not taking taxi home - bus to Clementi MRT, train to Bedok, then a bus home. I take this trip so often I dunno why yesterday was unusually annoying. First I didn't have enough credit on my ezlink card (although this never stopped my card from working before... so thanks for not informing us, SMRT) so when I got on the 184 I had to pay cash. It was a journey of about 4 bus stops, and cost $1.00. Which is a total rip-off, because if you pay by ezlink it is $0.71, which represents a 29% discount. This should be enough for everyone to get ezlink to pay for bus fares. And makes it hard for me to understand why I still see so many people (who are evidently not tourists) paying by cash. Oh yeah, and paying by cash meant I could not get the transfer discount for my MRT fare, which ended up costing a whopping $1.59. Total fare - $2.59. Fare if I paid for the bus using ezlink - $1.90 ($0.71 for the bus, $1.19 for the train) which is about a 27% discount in total. Luckily it was quite late so the MRT journey, while feeling longer than usual, was comfortable enough as you can get standing the whole way for 30 minutes. Then I got off at Bedok station. I am always torn between waiting at the bus stop outside the station along New Upper Changi Road and waiting at the Interchange for my bus ride home. I elected yesterday to wait at the bus stop. The 67 came soon enough, but again, the bus ride back, which is about 4 stops, again felt unusually long. The bus was stuck for long periods of time on Bedok North Avenue 3, which is surprising - it was like 10 o'clock already and I didn't see why there should have been a traffic jam there of all places. In other news, I think this was the first time I took 3 straight SMRT services (67 and 184 are SMRT bus services, instead of SBS). And at least I am not discriminating - now I am whining about both bus operators, not just one.

28 vs 59

Last Sunday, due to circumstances outside my control, I ended up at Toa Payoh Central. And after that, to get home, I decided to go to the the bus stop at Toa Payoh Lorong 6 just outside the supermarket, where I had a choice of buses I could take - the 28 or 59, both taking me home, but using different routes. (Actually, there is the 506 as well, but since it is way more expensive, I didn't even consider using it.) I kinda knew the 59 was the fastest way, but I waited almost 20 minutes with no sign of a bus. Then when the 28 came up, I got tired of waiting and just got on. This 28 was a single decker, unlike the double deckers I usually see during peak hours. (And believe me, there is a need for them - once I could barely squeeze onto one while getting on along New Upper Changi Road). But since it was a Sunday afternoon and nobody was likely to be out it was justified. It was a pleasant ride, going past nice quiet houses along Braddell and Bartley and passing the Geylang Serai market and Bedok Central. And it wasn't crowded - I got my own seat almost the whole way. (On an unrelated note - Why is the new Bartley MRT station in the middle of nowhere? Seriously, the station entrance is a chunk of glass and metal in front of a wooded hill. The only sign of life nearby is the school opposite. The reason they need a station in such a deserted area is, again, beyond me.) But it is not a good idea to read on a bus - I got bored halfway and started reading, only to develop a headache approximately 7 stops later. On disembarkation, I thought, okay, this was not as bad as I had expected. But I still wanted to find out how it compared to the 59.

So, just now, I found myself in Toa Payoh again. Yeah, I have no life, so instead of going home from Orchard by the conventional way (i.e. being like a sardine riding on the East-West line), I decided to take the train up to Toa Payoh and then take a bus from there. It would be better than taking yet another eastbound journey on the MRT which I must have done about a hundred times since I came to Singapore. And at least I would get a seat instead of standing and suffocating the whole way. (To be fair, on the Green line, the only really squishy part is between City Hall and Bugis. After that, from Bugis to Aljunied, you can start to breathe, but you have to be careful turning about in case you elbow anyone. It is only after Aljunied, then you can move about. You can only ever think of getting a seat after Bedok, which is the stop I usually get off from, and thereby I almost always end up standing on the MRT.) So this is how I ended up at the same bus stop as I was six days ago. Fortunately, this time, the 59 bus only took 7 minutes to arrive; I only waited from 6:26pm to 6:33. The bus was quite full, so I had to make do with the backward facing seat, which I usually try to avoid unless I have no choice. But this journey was relatively quick, zipping down the highway back to the east. And I almost didn't notice my stop; I must have zoned out from all the traveling backwards feeling. Anyways, here is a comparison:

Journey Time

28 ~ 57 mins (12:41pm to 1:38pm)

59 ~28 mins (6:33pm to 7:01pm)

(The journey on the 59 took less than half the time than that on the 28.)

Fare

28 ~ $1.33

59 ~ $1.33 

(At least SBS is fair in that traveling the same distance gets you the same fare.)

Conclusion: When choosing buses, always pick the one that can take you to your destination faster, if the fare is the same. Because you have better things to do with your life than spending an additional 29 minutes in a bus. You can't even read, and to listen to music you have to pump the volume way up, damaging your ears. The only way the 28 wins in this contest is in cost per minute - it is $0.023 for the 28 compared to $0.0475 on the 59 - but I would argue that maybe, for buses, it is better to have a lower cost per minute than a higher one. 

The Chinatown Express - CT 18

This morning, I went to Chinatown to eat at a dim-sum buffet. Because I was lazy to take the train, I decided to take the only direct bus from my area, which is the CT 18. I have no idea why SBS decided to name their Chinatown services CT 8, CT 18 and CT28. I know that 8 is supposed to be a "lucky" number and all, but what it has to do with buses is beyond me. It is weirdly irrational for them to name their services this way I think, but oh well. Anyways, I forgot to check the bus schedule online (this being a special service, it has a special schedule as well.) So I went to the bus stop, and checked the service sign. I arrived around 10:20am, and the sign (as seen in the pic above) said it would arrive at 10:45. Seeing I had a while to wait, I decided to sit and listen to my ipod. When 10:45 finally arrived though, there was no sign of the bus. I panicked for a while, thinking that by being too engrossed in my music I had missed the bus. As I was to find out, it was just that the bus was late - 5 minutes to be exact. I am already used to this and so the delay didn't bother me much. What did was a selfish taxi driver which refused to move out of the way of a bus stop at Bedok Reservoir Road, which resulted in a lot of horning. Apart from that, the journey was uneventful, and fast when you look at the distance covered. I was supposed to meet at Chinatown MRT at 11:15, and when I got off at the bus stop at Chinatown Point, I was a bit late, no thanks to the bus delay. But luckily another guy was even later than me, so I did not have to suffer the embarrassment of letting everyone wait for me. Haha.

Time of Embarkation - 10:50am

Arrival at Destination - 11:22am

Fare - $1.80

My Peeve with SBS Nite Owl

So, last Friday night (or Saturday morning, but either way it's the same) I went out to Mohamad Sultan Road at night. I decided to be frugal and take the SBS night service, called the "Nite Owl" home. I checked the website for details. Turns out that they revamped the service quite a bit, and the timings were different from last time, not that I had ever taken it before, but I just checked up on it in curiosity. So I checked, and it said that the bus (I was taking 2N) would arrive at my bus stop at around 12:50 am. It also advised me to be at the bus stop 5 minutes early (though that was clearly a mistake). Ok. So I said goodbye to everybody and made my way to the bus stop, arriving at approximately 12:45, as advised. I waited. I used AskIris to find out when the bus was coming, only to be told that it was not in operation. So I started panicking. Until I saw the 3N bus coming. Then the 5N and 1N. (CLearly it was not the night for even-numbered buses). I waited in vain, until I got fed up around 1:10 and hopped into a cab. Now that was a mistake. As the cab pulled out of Mohamad Sultan to River Valley Road, guess what was finally pulling up. The 2N. I could have screamed in exasperation. Evidently it must have been the service that, according to the website, was supposed to arrive at 1:30 am. I was fed up, as I really wanted to try the bus to see how long it would take to get home, as well as me wasting $17 on the cab when the bus would only cost $4. Oh well. At least I got home early, not that I was very sleepy at that point anyways.