Judy spends a lot of time travelling on buses to and from work. However, life has been complicated by the decision to make some buses ‘Express’. One Friday evening, Judy trotted off to No.6 Bus Station to catch her bus to the staff meeting. There was no sign of a Number 69 for some time, but then a double-decker swept into the station and the crowd who were waiting piled on board. Instead of turning left at the usual crossroads, this one carried straight on towards the city centre. Judy was pleased to see that she was not the only one to be totally baffled by this, many Chinese commuters were remonstrating with the driver (who ignored their questions completely). Judy managed to get off the bus fairly near her school and walked the rest of the way. Later that weekend we discovered that certain buses had been designated ‘Express’, but it seems to be a fairly random system, so life ‘On The Buses’ continues to be an adventure.
This week we decided to go swimming in the open-air pool on the other side of Kunming. This included a ride on the Number 130, a bus the size of a school minibus with no suspension. This bowls happily along the road, lulling you into thinking it will be a comfortable ride, then it suddenly takes a sharp left up a crowded alley and gives you a fascinating tour of the stone yards and timber yards of Kunming. The weight of the heavy lorries carrying tons of stone has broken the road surface into chunks, so that you bounce from one to another at high speed. If you are unlucky enough to be on the back seat you have to hang on for dear life as your head meets the roof and then you fall back to earth again. After about 20 minutes you are deposited beside a huge gold Buddha, which is sitting outside an ornamental masonry shop waiting to be sold. Next to the Buddha is the statue of David (last seen in Florence) which is considerably smaller and stockier than the original and has a coy grin on its face. We couldn’t tell whether it was made of white marble - or white plastic.
The swimming pool was lovely, outdoors, but heated to about 28°. Judy had to buy a swimming cap, there was a choice of two and she chose the nylon leopard skin one (she refused to have her picture taken in this new fashion item!)
Feeling clean and invigorated, we trudged back through the stone yards, where huge lorries drove past, covering us in red dust. We caught the bus along with a group of elderly ladies in their blue national dresses and embroidered slippers. They had large wide-brimmed pink and blue sun hats on, so it was obviously the WI outing. They were far too smart to sit on the back seat, but they enjoyed watching us bounce up and down enormously!
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