Sometimes (usually when I'm on the bus and the reality of it hits home) I'm appalled that I make my children catch a bus to school that leaves at 6.30am. But when I get downstairs and see what teeny tiny children are being sent by other parents to schools all over Bangkok and I look at my big thugs....then I give myself a break.
Our bus snakes out into the green route (back roads) and we meet other school buses, coming in and out of different condos; we give way to a Japanese school's minibus and then a guard blows the whistle to signal us in to the entrance to pick up our next child or group. It all appears so carefully choreographed that it reminds me of the dance of the fork lift trucks. (I'll have to look for that on YouTube from home to link it.)
I always think of the person whose job it it to organize the buses and what a massive, horrifying job it is. All the buses come in for the same start time but the finish time is different for kindergarten, from early years and different again for the rest of school. Depending on after school activities you can be on the end of school bus, the late bus or the late late bus. They even accept changes to the system: I just email to ask 'please can you put Daughter on the late bus today?' If I were in charge, presuming I did manage to get it organized in the first place, I'd scream 'NOOO! It's all set in stone NO CHANGES ALLOWED.' There's a huge fleet of buses (100 or 200 I'm guessing) and they wend their way all over Bangkok picking up the kids and taking them to school. If I'm at school for the end of the day when they repeat the whole thing in reverse I'm even more in awe. Just thinking about the whole logistics of such an operation is enough to bring me out in hives.
As we get closer to school I spot other buses with their code numbers on the back window to denote their route, all heading to the same destination. I'm not sure any of my talents are particularly useful but when we arrive at school, get ticked off by the girl with the clip board and slide into our numbered space, I give thanks that someone has the particular skill to work out how to get nearly 2,000 kids in and out of school on time. I can't even catch the right train on my own.
But I do love Bangkok at this time of day. The traffic moves, the weather is tolerable and the monks are out walking barefoot with their alms bowls. Perhaps I should go out more often at 6.30am....
7 comments:
Bangkok is magic at that time in the morning...the day we headed off I showered watching dawn break over the city and thought it was a fitting end to our holiday!
Oh and no...I wouldn't want the coordinating buses job either!
C x
It is isn't it? I see lots of dawn because of the time we get up for school and I used to take pictures of them but then I had a gazillion pictures of dawn and actually, the best thing is the dawn itself.
I can imagine you and I coordinating buses together! Ha ha ha ha. What fun that would be. Children everywhere...none of them where they're meant to be.
OMG - you two organising the buses... well, at least the kids would be giggling!
I think it's 300 buses - the school has the largest fleet of privately run buses in Bangkok (bit of trivia for you there). Don't feel bad about getting the kids up so early, mine have a party on the bus with their friends, they love it!!!
Jane x
Jane, can you imagine it? It'd be like Carol trying to sort the restaurant bill out multiplied by about 100! I think the older they get, the less fun and the grumpier they become.
I like the early morning anywhere in the world. Best time of the day IMO.
Although I hate getting up early, when I do (usually by force) I'm always amazed at how beautiful it is. This really brings me back to the old days of school runs, especially when they were little and you'd ride the bus with their little hands in yours. Oh God, I'm getting all teary now :-) xo
It does sound incredible. And yes, it probably is best that someone else is organising it ...
Post a Comment