Transportation
Randy's Travel Tips
on Transport In the Third World
Copyright © 1992-2012
Randy R. Johnson, all rights reserved.
Transportation Table of Contents
Long Distance
Bus or Train?
Buses
Trains
Mini-Bus
Share Taxi
Trucks
Boats
Sailboats
Overland Companies
Hitch-Hiking
Domestic Flights
International Flights
Where to Buy Air Tickets
Private Vehicles
Airport Transportation
Local City Transport
You Drive It
Footloose and Fancy-Free Table
of Contents
You're visiting Randy
Johnson's Travel Page!
This is where
the rubber meets the Road.
The essence of traveling is the part where you are actually in motion,
On The Road! The temples, the markets, the mountains, the
beaches -- they are only context, scenery, backdrop. Where travel really
happens is in the back of a rickety bus somewhere in the middle
of nowhere, as you and thirty half-frozen Indians (American or East,
take your pick) gnash your way, white-knuckled and bleary-eyed, to the
crest of an icy pass overlooking most of the known universe.
Many of my favorite travel stories are the Road Tales:
the worst roads in the galaxy, the worst buses in the universe, the
slowest boat, the most crowded train ("Aww, that's nothin', man --
I was on a train once..."). The most bumps, chickens, dead dogs,
diarrhea stops, blow-outs, check-points, accidents, or puking children
per kilometer -- this is the stuff that the Travel Mythology is made
of. Around any travelers' figurative "campfire", the most compelling
stories are not of rip-offs, banana pancakes, or great bargains, but
of the odysseys of the great travelers themselves (those telling the
stories), out there on the very Road itself.
It is also the dustiest, grittiest, most bone-jarring, teeth-rattling,
knee-cramping, kidney-pounding, and patience-trying part of the travel
experience. Where patience is useless, "riding bus" separates the
travelers from the tourists. It is the Eternal Rite of Passage,
and it stops only long enough for you to relax on a beach for a
few weeks before it all begins again. Getting There makes
all the rest of it worthwhile -- and vice versa.
"C'mon, mate," says my old buddy Ray, "If you're
gonna travel, then you've got to ride some bus." And ride
bus you will.
If you cannot appreciate the romantic adventure in a really
excruciating bus ride, you may not have travel in your bones. But
nowdays you can get around much of the world avoiding the harsher
realities of public transportation. Traveling is not nearly as
difficult as it used to be, but rest assured there are still a couple
of those dilapidated old Blue Bird school buses waiting for you out
there on horrible hard-pan roads. The windows are already jammed up,
the chickens are in the aisle, the flour sacks stowed above your seat
in the back,
and the kids have got a belly full of candy-floss. So what are you
waiting for? Come on aboard, mate, and let's ride some bus!
[Continued on next page...]
Randy's Travel Page
.....
Transport Table of Contents
...........
Next Page
Randy Johnson's "Footloose and Fancy-Free in the Third World"
All text Copyright © 1992-2012, Randy R. Johnson.