Interesting Bus Ride...

The public transportation in Seoul thus far has been A+. We can get around just about anywhere (anywhere we have needed to go that is) on the Seoul Metro.
This is what the inside of a typical car looks like...


We figured that having so much success on the the subway, busses should be the same. With that, we boarded one last Saturday (May 14).

Sidenote: The traffic in Seoul is ridiculous....truly it is a disaster. Jams everywhere, people walking in and out of it, road rage to the extreme.

Here Lauren and I are, along with our friend Lourdes (another teacher at BIS), riding the bus merrily along when suddenly the bus comes to a complete stop slamming everybody forward. After regaining my balance I peer out the front and see that we have been cutoff by a rude blue truck. No big deal, this happens all the time, I am sure the bus driver will keep his composure as he surely experiences this everyday. Nope.

The bus driver, after reversing about 5 feet in the middle lane of 4 lanes of traffic, guns the bus, swerves around the truck and begins heading down the road. "Ok, that was a bit aggressive but I think we're alright" I thought to myself right before the bus lunged back in front of the truck and slammed on its brakes.

Now at this point, I'm starting to consider why a government employee (the bus driver) would endanger citizens (and resident aliens). I am still dumbfounded by this. I didn't have much time to ponder the thought at the time though because it was about to get very interesting.

Peering out the window here comes the little blue truck from hell roaring up in the right line shaking his fist in rage at the bus. Logically, the truck driver, who we'll now refer to as truckman for the story, swerves back in front of the bus and throws it in park. Of course this brings the bus to a screeching hault, and it's passengers to a face full of the person's back in front of them. At this point I turn to Lauren who has a face that can be described as puzzled. A "wow, how did the bus driver get a job with such poor anger management skills" face.

I look back out the windshield to see truckman jumping out of his truck (quite a long jump for a man who is 5 feet, 1 inch tall). He is headed to the driver's side of the bus with a full head of steam. The bus driver, who will now be named busman, quickly opened his window to exchange polite words spoken at high volume (I can say they are polite words out of ignorance, who knows what they were saying?). After about 30 seconds of this back and forth yelling stuff, Truckman goes back to his truck. Crazy right? Not yet...

Busman, clearly had not said what he wanted, so he opens the bus door runs out up to the passenger side of the truck and flings the door open. Busman leans into the car screaming and shaking his pointer finger at the man like a teacher to a child. He then reaches fairly far into the truck, grabbed something of Truckman's, and whips back out onto the street runing back to the bus. Truckman of course hops back out of the truck runs toward the bus door, but not before Busman could slam it in his face. Pounding on the bus and screaming something was Truckman, while Busman sat there for a few moments.

Some time passes (I estimate, 45 seconds). Busman gets up, and steps of the bus to meet his nemesis face to face. They scream more. Busman then slams whatever he grabbed out of Truckman's truck onto the pavement smashing into pieces. Truckman then signs for Busman to "put up his dukes", but Korean style. So imagine, instead of closed firsts raised in front of the face, you get spread hands in the form of Karate chops.

The two men engage in a chopping match that lasts about a minute before a patron of the bus gets off, grabs the Busman and shoves him back onto the bus while yelling something at him (I can only assume something like "Ehem, excuse me sir, will you please get back on the bus and drive me to my desired destination").

Busman utters a few things under his breath at the front of the bus while Truckman returns to his blue truck and remains parked. What to do? Oh, of course, reverse in the middle of traffic, again, to swerve around this blue truck that has now delayed our lovely bus at least 12 minutes.

The end...well except for when we were pulling up to the bus stop (about 30 yards away from it) guess who swerves back in front of the bus and brakes to a stop again? Yes this is true. So, for a third time, this big public bus, reverses in traffic, swerves around the truck, and continues on down the road.

This seriously happened. I tried to snap some pictures from the Karate match, but they didn't turn out too well, here they are none the less to give credit to the story. Truckman, is the short man in the middle picture with his arm raised. Busman is the guy with glasses and a vest. The guy with a hat is the bus patron who wanted to get to his destination.