The bus leaves an hour after it’s scheduled to.
There’s a hole in the floor you can see the ground through.
The door doesn’t close all the way.
There are plastic bottles super glued to the sides of the bus full of water and a plant, you know, to make it feel more like home.
There are Cambodian men sitting on footstools in the aisle.
There’s a small child in the seat behind you pulling your hair.
Your driver takes the bumpiest road possible.
You almost hit a person, a person on a motorcycle, a cow, a car going the opposite direction (because you’re driving in the wrong lane), a dog and truck full of people.
Your driver slams his breaks on just before a huge pothole, so one of the men on a footstool almost goes through the front windsheild.
The bus goes so close to the edge of the road your teammate grabs your arm as a reflex.
A man on the bus hangs out of the door and hands a guy standing on the side of the road a handful of cash, the bus never stops moving, and you wonder what kind of transaction was just made.
The bus stops twice in the middle of the road so the men can get off and close the door to the luggage compartment underneathe the bus because it ‘s come open, and you’re pretty worried your pack is a mile or so back.
You and your teammate literally laugh the whole way because you’re on the World Race and this just makes the experience sweeter 🙂
