You don't have to be in Fiji long to get acquainted with some of the quirks of living here and transportation is one of them. When trying to get from A to B in Suva there are only two options - bus or taxi. I wish I could say one is more "unremarkable" than the other, but both are fantastically odd and will ever-amaze you with their tackiness. In fact, I think it is each driver's personal mission to deliver the highest quality of ridiculousness in their little moving houses of fun.
When I rode the bus for the first time a couple of months ago, I wasn't sure what I was in for. Yup, let's just say it was a little strange. The decor was pleasant to say the least - plastic covered seats with pealing paint on all the metal-worked framing, matted looking tassels dotting the front windshield, faded pictures of Hindu deities taped up along the dashboard, and this huge pleather-tassely thing covering the stick-shift (driving with one of these appears similar to palming a basketball... seriously). I gotta say the combination of all of it made the ambiance strangely charming. The music really topped it off though. The radio blared hit after hit of today's chart-toppers from India. It was like listening to the soundtrack to the Bollywood version of 'You Got Served' - epic! If it weren't for the sounds and smells of the transmission about to drop, I'd have thought I was in a nightclub. Meeting capacity standards is not exactly priority for the good ol' 'Central Transport, Ltd.' It was incredibly packed. I've never seen anything like it actually; there were three to a seat all the way back and the people in the aisles were practically on top of each other. It was, of course, a million degrees out as well, so the bus created a sort of solar oven in which all of us would eventually roast to our death. Let me tell you, it was a good time.
There is equal effort put into the "entertainment" sector of the taxi industry here as well. Often the dashboard will be plastered with bumper stickers or bobble heads and tinker toys. The seats are almost always covered in plastic so that your butt sticks comfortably to the surface and usually makes a squeaking sound as you move in and out of the cab. Again, you'll commonly find yourself listening to 'Hindi-Hop' (as I have affectionately termed it), and staring bedazzled at the enormous and fantastically stupid-looking tassely stick-shift cover. The makings for the best of transport atmospheres is, of course, when there is an additional seat cover placed between the plastic one and the seat itself (they really like their seat covers...). The most tasteful of these 'tweeners' are made of fake animal skin (leopard is my favorite) or out of a gigantic doily. So avant-garde!
Regardless of whether you take bus or taxi, if you're headed out for a night on the town in Fiji, the entertainment starts before you even get to where you're going!
When I rode the bus for the first time a couple of months ago, I wasn't sure what I was in for. Yup, let's just say it was a little strange. The decor was pleasant to say the least - plastic covered seats with pealing paint on all the metal-worked framing, matted looking tassels dotting the front windshield, faded pictures of Hindu deities taped up along the dashboard, and this huge pleather-tassely thing covering the stick-shift (driving with one of these appears similar to palming a basketball... seriously). I gotta say the combination of all of it made the ambiance strangely charming. The music really topped it off though. The radio blared hit after hit of today's chart-toppers from India. It was like listening to the soundtrack to the Bollywood version of 'You Got Served' - epic! If it weren't for the sounds and smells of the transmission about to drop, I'd have thought I was in a nightclub. Meeting capacity standards is not exactly priority for the good ol' 'Central Transport, Ltd.' It was incredibly packed. I've never seen anything like it actually; there were three to a seat all the way back and the people in the aisles were practically on top of each other. It was, of course, a million degrees out as well, so the bus created a sort of solar oven in which all of us would eventually roast to our death. Let me tell you, it was a good time.
There is equal effort put into the "entertainment" sector of the taxi industry here as well. Often the dashboard will be plastered with bumper stickers or bobble heads and tinker toys. The seats are almost always covered in plastic so that your butt sticks comfortably to the surface and usually makes a squeaking sound as you move in and out of the cab. Again, you'll commonly find yourself listening to 'Hindi-Hop' (as I have affectionately termed it), and staring bedazzled at the enormous and fantastically stupid-looking tassely stick-shift cover. The makings for the best of transport atmospheres is, of course, when there is an additional seat cover placed between the plastic one and the seat itself (they really like their seat covers...). The most tasteful of these 'tweeners' are made of fake animal skin (leopard is my favorite) or out of a gigantic doily. So avant-garde!
Regardless of whether you take bus or taxi, if you're headed out for a night on the town in Fiji, the entertainment starts before you even get to where you're going!
Hi, it's a very great blog.
ReplyDeleteI could tell how much efforts you've taken on it.
Keep doing!
LAUGHING SO HARD RIGHT NOW....wow. It reminds me of a frantic exit I had to make off a bus once due to the 'solar oven effect'and proceed to puke my guts out on the side of the road. Claaassy.
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