nice...ride?

Have you ever been onboard the “exclusive” bus decorated like chill-out lounge? (Or was it a pub?) For SBS’ effort to boost customer satisfaction, I would say “nice try, but try a lot harder next round”.

If you were to name the good things about taking bus rather than a train, you would probably not have anything to mention other than the opportunity of getting a window seat. Think about the narrow passage way which you have to stand while people squeezing you with their buttocks to make their way out, or taking the seat next to the passage way and still have the TVmobile mal-functioning or even having the window seat (which is the best seat) and having the air-conditional “fence” pulled out leaving it to blast you with freezing cold temperature through out the journey. With all these bad criteria when taking a bus, the only enjoyable part of it is to get yourself a window seat, look outside the window and not care about anything happening beside you.

So why do I hate this new bus concept? Simply because it takes away the only good thing about taking a bus when they have a seat arrangement of two rows of seats facing each other. The psychological aspects and human factors are obviously not considered here. Don’t they know that it’s awkward to be facing a stranger for 30 – 60 minutes? Picture this, you are in a bus like that and it’s the rush hour. You are lucky to get a seat or you may think that you are lucky to get a seat, but immediately after you sat down a group of passengers stood in front of you and blocked you entirely of any window view. You are stuck there with nothing else to look at except staring at groin and buttock of strangers. Then you quickly look side ways and find someone reading newspaper. You try to peak at today’s news articles but the guy gives you an annoyed look. Without any other options, you start playing foolish games on your mobile through the 60 minutes and you left with an aching neck pain. This is the kind of situation you will face with this “exclusive” bus concept.

And I am not even done. What the hell is with the bar seats facing a wall? There is nothing to offer you except a poster of this guy smiling at you. It’s not as if you are Cyril Takana and able to magically pull out liquors from the poster. Furthermore, Nokia kindly sponsored the irritating music onboard and a LCD monitor displaying "Who-knows-what". Having music is fine only when it's appropiate or when the music comes from your mp3. I really can't make out what the music was around with all the noises coming from the passengers, the engine and the traffic. That makes the music irritating, like some inconsiderate passengers playing their songs from handphone thinking that everyone will love what he loves. I know, it’s all bitching and bitching is not “constructive criticism”, but bitching is a lot easier to by pass the days.