Inhumane, degrading, uncomfortable and totally weird. For some god unknown reason I decided the bus would be a perfectly good alternative to a short flight, my was I wrong. As the journey started the driver made a short announcement to the seated passengers -
"If you smoke crack I throw you off the bus. If you have sex I throw you off the bus. If you drink alcohol I throw you off the bus. If you take off your shoes I throw you off the bus. No toilet!"
With that strange welcome we were off.
The seats had no padding so it was impossible to get comfortable. It was cold. We were in late October just before winter. It was bloody cold to be clear, in fact the air conditioning was seriously blowing. Maybe it was colder inside than out.
Non of this made any sense to me. As we continued through the darkened landscape stopping occasionally to pick up, drop off and 'toilet' I decided to ask the driver if maybe he could turn off the chill air blast and maybe turn on some heat. I politely presented this request to which his reply was simply a shout:
'NO!'. "No?" I am freezing to death I told him. "What do you mean no?" "The smell" he said. "The smell. Any more trouble and I throw you off the bus."
At one place we stopped for about 40 minutes. It was some sort of downtown bus station. I witnessed a huge black dude walk through the seating area masturbating with his pants down around his ankles, otherwise fully clothed. He sort of shuffled past lost in a world entirely of his own.
USA is one strange place..