Outing By Bus

Three weekends ago, VC suggested that we went outing to town by bus. It was two days after my first car accident. I knew he was worried that I might have phobia about cars. I actually did not mind driving, but I thought it was a good idea to use the public transport since it was still the Aidilfitri holiday and the road must be crowded with vehicles.

During my earliest year in Melaka, I used to travel by bus. After I got my own transport, I still liked to relax in an express bus all the way back to Batu Pahat or hop into a domestic bus to go to Melaka town. One of the reasons I chose to settle at my present residential area at Paya Rumput was that the invisible bus stop was within the walking distance from my house. As time passed, I preferred to take the steering by myself to go everywhere without wasting time in waiting for the bus.

After around fifteen minutes under a tree at the road side, I was in a "Tai Lye" bus again. The first day I came to Melaka to report duty in 2003, I remember I was sitting in their empty bus along the long village road to the unknown Lendu campus and suspecting if the driver was purposely misleading me to that remote area with the intention of kidnapping me. I was relieved when it finally stopped to take another passenger on the way.

The "Tai Lye" bus still gave me the same impression with its noisy engine and high speed on the road. There were also many exotic faces as foreign workers were some of the main supporters of the public transportation in Melaka.

Recent years, I went to Melaka Sentral

to either pick, drop visitors or pay bills. This time, I took lunch at a restaurant with VC inside the building before we took another bus to Mahkota Parade.

Several youngsters were smoking in the bus. I wished I were brave enough to give them health advice. So I just committed them into Jesus' hand with my silent prayer, hoping that one day they would know that Jesus loved them and wanted their bodies to be the holy temples. I suddenly felt that the children at Calvary care home were indeed blessed ones. Although they were not living with their parents, they were cared by other Christians all the time. Those boys in the bus might see their parents every day but they seemed to be neglected.

Since we did not have to think of the parking fee, we took our time to have cendol for dessert,

take a rest to digest the food,

then visited our favorite shops separately, met again to watch a movie at Dataran Pahlawan. Then we walked to the road side next to Mahkota Parade to catch our bus back to Melaka Sentral before another trip with the last "Tai Lye" bus of the day.

Thanks for your invitation, VC. I really enjoyed the day!