FLIGHTS

Cruise news: R11,911 for 4 adults & an infant sharing a cabin on MY008, the MSC Melody cruise from Durban to Cape Town on 3 Jan 2012.

The Purple shall rule! "I hitched down to Port Elizabeth to go and buy a Kombi which turned out to be nothing like promised. Took 36 hours to get there.

The reason I hitched is because i don't trust the buses. On finding the vehicle to be a dud I didn't feel like another 36 hour journey so found a bus. City to City.

The first half of the journey was to East London and all went well. The second half started out with 1 driver who drove well. I don't know 
where it happened or where he got on but woke to the bus being driven  erratically.

Some offences:

Stopping on the highway to drop passengers.
Crossing double solid line to overtake, sometimes even on an uphill.
Driving at 90km / hour 1 car length behind a taxi.
Using a cell phone while driving.

Driving 100km/hour round bends with road warnings for slippery conditions and falling rocks, this all in very windy conditions.
Attempting to overtake with oncoming traffic, having to pull back in on a hill  with a sign on the left showing road widens to 2 lanes in 500m (surely they know the route and could have waited)

When I approached the first driver at the stop in Kokstad and told  him that he should warn the driver to drive properly or take over, he 
told the driver. He came to me with a very aggressive attitude  and said "I hear you have complaints, now I am going to drive and I 
don't care what you say or do. You can call head office or whoever you  want, I will show you how to drive."

Things got progressively worse, at one stage he was driving so fast I took my camera, whose batteries were unfortunately flat and pretended to take a picture of the speedometer which was sitting right down below the 120 km mark as far as it would go.

A lady passenger told the driver in Zulu that the Umlungu was taking a picture. The driver pulled over and threatened me to sit down. Said something about getting rid of the SOUZA ( spelling??) fart in English.

Its funny to try to be responsible and save lives and suddenly it becomes a racist incident with all the passengers taking the side of the
driver.

Fortunitely for me the driving lesson the idiot was trying to give me came to an end about 25 km after Kokstad as suddenly there was so much trafffic nobody could race, we were reduced to below 80 for the journey up until Port Edward where he went through a red robot just before stopping to drop a passenger.

By this stage I had decided to get off and hitch the rest of the  way, we were running very late and I didn't want to be on the bus on the
open road between Port Edward and Durban. I took my jacket and bag,  went to have a cigarette and to write down the bus number and 
registration before they left. At this stage our now hero driver said something about the MASINDA (spelling ??) Balls taking the 
registration down.

At that point the first driver climbed into the drivers seat so i got back on. Unbeknown to me it wouldn't have made a difference. They took 
the old road and the traffic was worse than before and didn't allow for high speeds.

We arrived at 22h10 much later than our 20h30 arrival time and by this stage I was so shaken and relieved. I went to the office and told them i want to make a complaint, nobody was very helpful.

Its a funny thing, when accidents happen people stand and cry and wail like stuffed pigs, when you try to protect lives they all turn against you. Never ever will I catch a bus again and I am not the only one.

When will this end?
Are these people a law unto themselves?
I told the people on the bus before I left that I hope one day they will be on a bus that has an accident, that some will survive to see the death and carnage around them and that they who survive will remember the UMLUNGU who tried to help.

Besides not wanting to die I was a customer on the bus but that doesn't count.

I will be driving myself or flying from now on, for the rest of the people who decided to make me the ass hole and making it into a racist 
thing, I really don't give a @#$, they will one day suffer the consequence.

Unfortunately it costs the tax payer and the country because nothing is done.

If I knew something would be done I would love to charge him with Reckless Endangerment to the lives of passengers but have no faith in the law and fear I would be wasting my time.

To the driver my message is, and this is written as I would say it and don't know the Zulu spelling. "Mau funu ghofa, hifa whetwa"
If you want to die, die alone

The bus details are:

City to City

4766
YYW 112 T

The drivers names were Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, according to the office (names changed).

Dr Jeckyll I believe was the erratic dangerous idiot.

Ps If you manage to get this story to the owners of the bus company please tell them that golden handshakes are happening.

Mr Hyde, you think all people are blind? I saw the handshake at Umtata station".

Views expressed here aren't necessarily those of SouthAfrica.TO's. If you would like to get your opinions published, please email them to cheapflights@southafrica.to

The Bottom Line: Uh oh, Deutche Bank's Long Term Asset Return study predicts a recession in the United States in 2012.