往后走! 往后走! 刷卡刷卡! 没卡买票! 没卡买票!
(Squeezing, jostling)
Rs: Wa kao no more space already still push.
Me: Push back la.
Ah bui: 我还挺舒服的. (Fat boy said to his friends that he's in a comfortable position despite the crowd)
Rs: 你当然舒服啦. 躺在别人身上.. (Of course cos you're leaning on me)
Rs to me: And he's shoving his thing in my leg lor.
Me: (无奈) (Helpless)

下一站--寺! 下一站--寺!
Rs: It's here.
Me: I don't think so. I heard a 寺 at the back. I think we better ask people.
Me: 请问下一站是北海吗? (Is the next stop Beihai Park?)
X: 还有多三个站. (Another three more stops.)

--寺! --寺!
We still couldn't make out what the bus conductor was saying so we tried to look at the sign at the bus stop. It's 白塔寺 (Baita Temple). Sounds like 北海 (Beihai). No wonder.

Some buses have the electronic system that show and announce the next stop. Those which don't have rely on the bus conductor to announce the stop. However, even if u have successfully got onto the correct bus, u might not get off successfully at the correct stop bcos most of the time, the bus conductors speak with an accent which u wouldn't be able to make any sense of.

Still Day 1: Wrong stop #1

We exited by a different gate from where we entered Beihai Park and tried to take a bus back and change 814 along the way. He was suffering from gastric and I couldn't recognise where we should alight. I only know can alight at Xizhimen and take the subway. The bus was approaching Xizhimen but I don't know where exactly should we alight. I asked around and a lady told me I can alight at this stop, walk in front or the next stop and walk backwards to the station. We waited for the next stop and realized to our horror that the bus went on the expressway and it was a VERY LONG WAY BACK to the station.

Day 2: 永远搭不到的323

We examined the map the night before and checked there's a 323 at the bus stop outside the school. Unfortunately, there wasn't any 323 when we got there so we asked around. Someone told us to take some bus to Zhongguancun and change 323. Another person told us to take some bus to 人民大学 (Renmin University). We checked against the map and decided to follow the 2nd suggestion.

So we got off at Renmin University only to find there's no 323. We struggled for a long time at that bus stop. We asked for directions but they were not clear to us at all. In the end we decided to board any bus that comes next and ask the driver. After we got onto the correct bus, we saw 323 coming out from the other side of the road...

Even the map is not reliable.

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Day 3: Non-existence of bus lanes

Day 3 was pretty smooth-sailing bcos the places we went were quite near THU. As we stood on a bridge watching the traffic, I noticed the bus stops are too small to accommodate the number of people waiting for bus. Pedestrians, cyclists, buses and taxis all fight for the same lane. How not to get congested?

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Day 4: Wrong stop #2

We took 103 to Wangfujing from I don't know which gate of Forbidden City. It passed by the main street of what looks like Wangfujing to me from my faint memory of the place so I thought we should get off the next stop. However, the next stop was too far away from where we should be going and we had to walk again. Of cos the number of times we alighted at the wrong stop didn't stop here.

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Day 5: No more bus

After asking for directions again, we managed to find a bus stop. We saw the all too familiar 814 passed us. We waited for some time but 814 doesn't seem to come. He looked at the sign for a long time and said "I think no more bus already.."

My feet were all sore and painful from walking the whole day. It was getting late (and cold) and starting to drizzle. It was 10.30pm only and there's no more bus?

Sigh.

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By the 6th day, we have already gotten several free rides on the bus.