In Reply to: Bemo rides of the past? posted by Zonder on Monday, 6. November 2006 at 18:00 Bali Time:
was in a vehicle in Burma (or Myanmar as it is now known) about 18 years ago, which sounds remarkably similar to the recipe for a Bemo ride above. We loaded in 14 people down each side on the bench seats at 5am in the morning to go Mandalay to Paga - a few hours drive. Then we put six more people on small stools down the middle, including a little old lady and her chicken in a cage on her lap. Then add a few more on the tailgate which is down, encouraging fumes to flow into the vehicle, which was light a long wheel base jeep. Just when I thought we couldn't get any more in, they started loading people on the roof! I couldn't see how many until we started driving and the sun came up. The shadow on the road allowed me to see at leastr a few more up there! Oh well I though, until when driving on an elevated raod on a flood plain, we blew a tyre, and the driver had no control over the vehicle, and I was sure we would roll down the embankment to our deaths. Somehow he managed to stop on the top of the road, and we got out to watch the farce of trying to change the tyre!
The things we do when we are young and travelling in the third world country on low budgets!! If I remember correctly, when we bought the tickets the days before it was for a seat on a minibus!