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.