While I love travelling, I hate the inconveniences that come with it especially for long distance travels. Basically now, I'm fixated on road travel due to the high cost of plane tickets. I was contemplating trying out the train but I was greatly discouraged by people who had experienced it.
According to them, it's a penny wise pound foolish venture and when I added that I wasn't going to try it out because of cost but for time efficiency, I was told that travelling on rail to the destination that I had in mind is less time efficient than travelling on roads. I was quite disappointed and that has been delaying my journey as I am not really mentally ready to go far north on bad roads. For a very long time I have done well to avoid long distance trips on road because of how bad the roads are causing the journey to be longer and leaving one with body aches afterwards.
It's quite unfortunate that mobility is not a top national priority because even the rail system that was reintroduced recently after being abandoned for a long time, is fast deteriorating in providing service. Like the journey that I had in mind, I was told that where the train station is, is really far from the city and there are no tangible means of transportation for one to access in continuation of the journey and once the train is missed, that's the end of one's trip.
At a point, I contemplated saving up for a plane ticket because honestly that has been my best means of travel. It's time efficient when you take out the technical delays sometimes at the airport. Aside from probably bad weather, there is no traffic and once you take off, you'd be sure to land in your destination without feeling the burden of the trip as experienced on road travels.
Regardless, when talking about my best and worst travel experiences, I'd look at my recent trip on the road which was just last month when my family and I travelled for the holidays. Well, after noticing my major problem travelling on the road is motion sickness and overcrowding, I made arrangements for a private vehicle where I could have enough space and not be squeezed or inconvenienced amongst other passengers.
Again, road transportation becomes horrific for me with the rolling up of all the car windows and putting on the AC causing me to start experiencing motion sickness. You might want to get confused because after all, the inside of a plane is confined and the windows are also up plus the AC on. Well, a seamless journey not interrupted with traffic or stop over to fill gas, time efficiency, sometimes fewer passengers and also seat pattern is what makes the difference.
At first, the journey on the road is ok but after encountering back to back police checkpoints, traffic, stop for petrol and potholes, the thought of being trapped in the car and not seeing the windows down, kicks in and builds up my motion sickness. After coming to this realisation, I opted for a private travel and had two seats all to myself plus when I feel the motion sickness kicking in, I could tell the driver to turn off the AC and wind down for air to come in being that my family understands my situation, they are willing to bear with me and allow me my moments. Unfortunately, coming back from our trip was not a private trip as we didn't book early enough and could not get a vehicle.
We opted for public transport and that morning we woke up really early and got to the park by 5:00am so we could not only get the best car but also to move early so we could get to our destination early. Since it was the end of the festivity, there were lots of passengers to travel and even 5:00am wasn't early enough because most of the transport companies were already overwhelmed with passengers. After driving from one transport company to another, we finally got one to travel with. We paid for our fair immediately hoping to get a car so we could move as soon as possible.
It was not until over 30 minutes later that they directed us to one of their cars parked by the road side. The car was opened and we dropped our luggages at the back for the driver to come and load it. We were already getting comfortable inside the car when the company manager asked us to come down that another family wants to take the car and since they are more than us, we should wait for another car to be available.
Men! I was pissed, in fact we were all pissed. My family and I got angrier when we discovered that this family they are asking us to forfeit the car for, just came in and were about to make payment. The fact that the first come first serve rule did not apply pissed us off and prompted us to ask for a refund which was where the problem began as the management refused. While we were shouting for a refund at one end, another family was getting ready to fight the management for their own refund because the money they had paid according to the management was not enough so they were asked to pay more of which they refused. At a point, things were about to get ugly between the management and the other family that we had to now calm down and safe guard ourselves incase violence arise.
Well, long story short, the management refunded the other family their money and gave us the car. The car was loaded and we all got in. It was after we had covered a reasonable distance I realised that the car was more comfortable than the private vehicle we had come with. We were enjoying our ride and was about to divert for lunch when we saw the other family stranded and the car we were supposed to have rode in parked in the middle of no where.
Our driver quickly parked and we came down to inquire what happened, that was when they told us that the vehicle developed a fault and they've been there trying to get help since the last hours. It was a pitiable experience and at that moment we became greatful over how things played out. Thus, what ought to be my worse transportation experience became the best.
Above is my response to the Inleo prompt day 4, you can participate Here
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