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TRIPS * Tanzania - Braving "buses of death"
I'm relieved to have survived. Half-way through my first journey, I had re-named them the "buses of death"
Moshi,(in the shadow of) Kilimanjaro,Tanzania -The Citizen, by Ismat Abidi -31 October 2010: ... Inter-city buses in Tanzania are unreliable, uncomfortable, incredibly slow and, most of all, dangerous. Having just looked up the statistics on Tanzania road traffic deaths, I'm relieved to have survived. Half-way through my first journey, I had re-named them the "buses of death"... The ticketing system is bizarrely the one strand of order in what is otherwise a day of chaos - you may not be able to rely on reaching your destination in one piece but you can rely on your seat number... It took Razan and I almost 10 hours to reach our next city, with no time to get off the bus for a toilet break in case we were left stranded (bus drivers are notorious for zooming off). We were on a paved road for an hour before the driver veered off onto a dirt track through a barren, dry desert, which was home to the odd wild baboon.. Despite booking on the most expensive bus company ($2-$3) for a single intercity journey), I have never felt more frightened in a vehicle. Dust, sand and dirt continued to layer our bodies and many of the locals began to cover their faces with scarves, as did I. The swerving and loud horns continued all day and there were times where I genuinely thought the bus would flip over. Razan and I were so scared that all we could do was laugh... It was time for another ride on the "bus of death". Again, the only thing right about the journey was our assigned seat numbers. Although this bus had windows, it felt more unsafe this time around. Once again, we were the only non-locals on the packed bus and as soon as the dirt road track began, we passed an overturned bus and an overturned truck in the space of an hour... We still had 10 hours left. I contemplated texting our bus details back home in case something happened but was suddenly distracted... During that time we heard the crow of roosters from the front of the bus and the luggage above, providing a welcome distraction to the dangerous driving... Another unlikely but welcome distraction came about nine hours into the journey, when the bus broke down. At this point, we were more concerned about a toilet break and surviving the last hour of the highway than reaching our destination... (Photo from pages.cs.brandeis.edu: around Tanzania usually I get there by buses)Labels: public transport systems
1 Comments:
good picture
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