Travelling with Terrible Buses

A recent report said The Shwedagon Pagoda is the most checked-in places of all on Facebook in Myanmar. When you head to the golden pagoda ordinarily, one easy route is to take no. 204 bus line, along with privately owned shiny new SUVs on the road. Almost all the buses of that line are quite old and rusty with some windows that don’t move up and down. Interiors are replaced by local untidy decorations. You'll hear a lot of bangs and clunks and two rows of wooden benches are sometimes shaking when the bus turns left or right. Double stack of long CNG tubes are under these benches, but there's never been reported any danger resulting from sitting above them! 

At rush hours, buses are overcrowded and it's the right of the bus conductor to put in as many passengers standing on the middle rows as he likes. Until a few years ago, old war-time buses like no. 39, 61 were running along Yangon's streets. Hilux models dating back as far back as the 80s in faded condition were only recently replaced by mini-bus lines like no. 3, 54, 38, 33, and then some.

With these new changes, and along with new year comes a new bus line in Yangon known as Evergreen linking the route from North Dagon to Downtown, according to a daily newspaper. One thing they added is that the bus fare is only to be paid via electronic card system known as iPay. Since around 2011, these iPay cards are announced and set up to be used on buses, and soon these slots seem out of service, out of wire on the door stand of the buses. No one uses, perhaps no one even learns how to use. This new bus line is trying a new strategy and it'll need some time to pursue people to get used to it.

 
Surprisingly, a 204-line bus driver was once overheard by me as saying he hoped that one day our city buses would be like those from foreign countries like Singapore. I heard that two years ago, still not much changing now; his own bus line might be one of the worst conditions of all, I guess. Easy and comfortable transport system is a must to attract tourists and I hope a day when a local or foreigner will travel by bus in Yangon without sitting in frighteningly shaking wooden seats should be foreseeable in a few years.

The Country's Most Dangerous Vehicle

'Jakarta is a city of motorcycles,' I still remembered what a friend from Indonesia once said. Others would also argue that in Singapore and Malaysia, motorcyclists deliver parcels or food to specific clients. What about Yangon?

In Yangon however for some reasons motorcycles have been prohibited though you can see several motorbike carriers in suburbs like North Okkalapa and Shwepyithar, calling for passengers informally day and night. In many other cities including Nay Pyi Taw, you can easily hire a motorcycle and visit some places—and these vehicles are legal with registered licenses. And Mandalay is even a Myanmar city of motorcycles, one can be sure.

Recent ease of restriction for registering motorcycle and driver license cause a great surge in the  number of motorcycles in every towns and villages. Opening markets for cheap Chinese brand motorcycles cost just 300 to 500 thousand Kyats to own one. Jie Gao, a Chinese town nearest to Mu-se in northern Shan State, is a hub for motorcycle resellers from Myanmar, displaying several varieties in spaces as large as a football pitch. Also, whenever you are on short trip or driving highway, you will surely see small huts behind one or two stands of red or white 1 liter bottles inside which are petrol for any motorcycles. Cheap and easy to fill fuel for your motorbike anywhere.

One sad news about increasing number of motorcycles everywhere across Myanmar is countless accidents involving either two motorcycles or one motorcycle with pedestrians or other vehicles, and death is inevitable in many occasions. In my hometown also these news have prevailed for some years. I recently even saw an early morning accident between a young student driving her motorbike and a bicycle in front of my home.

The difference between driving a motorbike and other vehicles is the experience you could enjoy. The other day I played two games on my Android device. One is car racing and the other game is a hyper-speed motorbike rushing shoulders with driving cars. It's quite easy to control and avoid danger when you're driving a car than a motorbike. Surely, It feels like so much exciting to collect points, but you will crash motorcycles in many more competitions than car games, however exciting it is to play. It can even raise your stress hormones level. The scenario might also be the same, needless to say, in real life.

These days, when you are on the street, even if you follow traffic rules it cannot be guaranteed that a rushing motorcyclist would not head straight to you in its uncontrollable speed. Who knows that might be a trend of danger? And reckless motorcyclists, including those from far-flung areas, are mostly those who know no knowledge of traffic rules. That leads me to wonder how some friends of mine from station or township hospitals are handling with such rising accidents. Statistical death toll from motorcycle accidents might be at a frightening level, I'm afraid to reckon.

Some good news is that there has been some news of taking measures for illegal motorcycles in some cities which at least will halt accidents in that area presumably for some time. Self-discipline and taking care for one's own danger is critical, however trivial your riding out may be. And avoiding competition on the road with other vehicles and giving ways to other people won't cost you more than a minute's delay to your destination, but it can say a lot on ensuring your safety on the road. Ease of travel should not mean a vehicle for racing at all. Hopefully when there's standardized driving practice among the public, some day one can see a parcel-delivering motorbikes in the cities like Yangon too.