The Night Bus

Finally, I got the chance to ride the SBS Nite Owl Service, as I happened to be in town last Saturday night. (Don't ask why I went home so early. The story is lame and depressing.) Anyways, I was around the River Valley area, and I was walking towards the bus stop outside UE Square. As I was approaching the bus stop, the first bus 2N passed me by completely. Never mind. I went to the 7-11 across the road and got myself a snack. And then I waited. For quite a long time. I tried using AskIris to find out when the next bus was coming, and it told me 9 minutes. 9 minutes later, no sign of bus. I used AskIris again. It said 9 minutes. Again. Sighing in frustration, I resigned myself to enduring the wait while seeing SMRT buses whizzing by. (Seriously, while I was waiting for the 2N, all the Night Rider SMRT services passed by, with the NR1 and NR7 coming twice.) Finally, when I was about to cave and flag a taxi (like last time), then I saw it. I got on and sat near the back. The TV behind wasn't working like the one in the front, so I was not able to watch "Walk The Line". I was quite sleepy at that point though, and once the bus went up the ramp towards the ECP, I had dozed off. I slept for most of the way past Eunos and Bedok Reservoir. Luckily I woke up 3 stops before mine and managed to get off at the right place. I was surprised to see so many people still around at that hour. But never mind. In conclusion, because of the somewhat dim lighting on the bus, it is very easy to fall asleep while riding. So those who have been out drinking, I recommend the taxi still as the safest way to get home. And the taxi is quicker, too.

Embarkation Time - 12:53am

Disembarkation time - 1:32am

Fare - $4

Fare Decrease and the New Ezlink Card

So the bus and train operators are going to cut their fares by two cents starting from April. Whoop-dee-hoo. Public transport fares are supposed to be link to fuel prices, according to SMRT and SBS. And oil prices are lower today than two years ago. But since 2007, the fare has gone up two times - by 2 cents, then by 4 cents. Now the 2 cent decrease means the fare would have gone up by 4 cents compared to 2007. Do these people think that we don't notice the previous price increases but only think, "Wow!! This is so generous of them!!"?? Thanks a bunch for trying to make public transport more economical, public transport operators.

Now on to a non-joy!-related topic. I haven't changed my ez-link card to the new one yet. It's not just because I am lazy to queue up (although the line at Bedok Interchange was long enough today to put me off), I can't abide the new rule requiring you to have a minimum amount in your card before you can ride the bus or train. What was wrong with the old rule? I mean, the most you can get on your card is $-1.00 before it will stop working, but there is a $5 deposit on the card. Do you think people whose card goes into the negative will suddenly think, "Oh. It's time to ditch this card. Let's go buy another one with a $5 deposit!" instead of paying off the negative. I guess they do need to revamp the card so it can be used for other things as well. But I really think it is a stupid rule.

Change of MRT signs

I was at Bedok station today when I realised that between yesterday (when I last took the MRT) ad today, the signs and the route maps have been changed, to show the extension of the East West line to Joo Koon. I am not sure when the two new stations are opening, but judging from this it must be pretty soon. (And when they do I shall be there to check them out. ) When the extension begins operations, it will either mean journeys on the Green line will be more jampacked and crowded than usual, or it could just mean that those commuters who normally get off at Boon Lay will be able to alight from the new stations, thus relieving congestion there but the overall number of people taking the train will stay constant. I'm personally hoping for the second. 

Anyways, something funny happened yesterday while taking the train really early in the morning. It was around 6:30 am and everyone was kinda sleepy. And really, half of the people in the seats were dozing off. (I was not one of them.) At Outram Park station, the woman in the seat opposite mine was sleeping, and her head started to droop, eventually coming to rest on the shoulder of the middle-aged ang moh guy sitting next to her. He either didn't mind this intrusion onto his space or he didn't want to wake her up - I dunno which. (I only noticed this because the aunty sitting next to me was pointing this out to her friend and laughing.) Then two stops later, at Redhill, the train had already stopped and the doors were open. People were already disembarking. Suddenly, the woman awoke with a start. Unexpectedly she got off her seat and literally ran off the train. Was this her stop and she just realised it when she woke up or was she embarrassed at leaning on a stranger's shoulder and decided to get off rather than continue sitting next to him? I have no idea either.

Indecent Behaviour

Something really embarassing happened last Thursday. (The person involved was annoyed that I told others about what happened....but who cares about him. Now everyone will know!) It was nights out and I was going with a few campmates to have dinner. So there we were, walking out of camp towards the bus stop when we found that person, who shall not be named. (For convenience, let's call him, say, H. Those people in the know will be able to guess his identity in a flash.) He was listening to his MP3, sitting at the side of the road, and was kinda stoning out, looking emo. So we asked him along with us, and he agreed. But we couldn't decide where to go - Jurong Point or West Coast Plaza. Anyways, H wasn't paying attention to our discussion and we decided on WCP, not knowing he wanted to go to JP instead. So we got onto a very crowded 154 bus to make our way towards Clementi. It was so jam-packed that the group of us had no choice but to stand right in front of the bus, next to the driver's seat. H was standing on the step below me. He was acting weird and moody all the way. Halfway, I adjusted the zip on my pants - checking to see whether it was still up. Then suddenly, H was like "Is your [crotch] itchy? Here, let me help you scratch. And he did. That was gross enough by itself, but to make it even worse, there was a little girl sitting on the seat facing us, and she had a shocked and disgusted look on her face. H didn't even notice, and tried to grab mine again. Luckily he stopped after that. When we got to Clementi, he then found out he didn't want to go to the same place as us and ditched us. And acted like a drama king in the process. I feel bad for saying this, but this worked out for the best - at least we had a peaceful dinner after all. But this was still an incident of pretty icky behaviour from this person.

Sleeping on the Bus!

Yesterday I was taking the service 65 - I got on at Dhoby Ghaut station and I was going all the way home. It was a very, very, long trip. And a very boring one. I was reading the newspaper for a while, until I got a mild headache. And 3 different people already had come up the double-deck, sat next to me, and got off at their stop already. The third guy got off at a stop on Circuit Road. By that time I was really sleepy (hey...I had to wake up at 6 so I could go all the way to Maju Camp to handcuff people) and since the seat next to me was empty, I decided to go to sleep. I tried all sorts of sleeping positions (leaning my head on the window, leaning my head on my hand against the window, leaning back with my head drooping) and then suddenly I just dozed off. I only woke when I heard somebody pressing the bell to signal the bus to stop. And I looked out the window and saw the block opposite mine and I suddenly realised I had arrived at my stop. I quickly rushed down the stairs and got off. Now that was a miracle. (Note: This is a true story. I dunno why people suddenly just wake up when they reach their stop. Maybe I have been taking buses too long. Or something.)