Remember that bus I told you about? The one that’s going from London to Sydney? Apparently it has broken down in Tehran and the passengers are none too happy.
The Guardian contacted me to see if I had any advice for them. You’ll find my response here >>
(Feel free to leave a comment there too. I’m aiming for the top spot on the ‘Most Comments’ chart!)
[...] Once again, Peter Moore’s blog is the source of the Ozbus update. The main Guardian article has disappeared for some reason, but the message and response from Moore in the blog remain. While I agree with Moore in that the unexpected is very much a major part of independent travel – and related very much to the difference between travel and tourism – I’d expect the bus to last the journey if I paid ₤4,000. [...]
[...] and I think that’s some of what came up with last week’s Oz-bus issues. Granted one could argue, and probably successfully, that paying that amount of money takes ‘backpacking’ out of the equation but I still think that anyone participating in such a trip should expect the unexpected. On that note, there’s some interesting discussion in the comments of Peter Moore’s post on the topic. [...]
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Sounds like someone should have taken the Contiki option…
I mostly agree with you – I’d have expected a bit more if I’d shelled out that amount on the trip but then again I think shelling out that much takes the adventure out of it. I agree with one of the Daily Mail commentors – were they expecting fully catered Starbucks breakfast?
It seems reports are sketchy as to what is actually happening. The Guardian report I was asked to comment on was based on an email one of the passengers sent to her parents.
I agree though, if the trip doesn’t go to a good percentage of the places promised then it’s a bit of a worry. For example, if they can’t cross into China and hence have to back track to a port in India to ship the bus to Western Australia, for example, then a good half of the trip – and in many ways the best part of the trip – has been abandoned.
Having said that, I can sympathise with the guys organising it – the situation at some of those borders is so temporal you can’t count on anything staying the same from one day to the next.
I have been reading the blog of a fellow on the ozbus. If he is representative of the rest of the passengers, then itinerary changes would appear to be irrelevant, as his major pre-occupation is to go “on the razz” every night. Drinking and shagging seem to be the order of the day. Where they might happen to be gets mentioned in the title and that’s about it.
Hey Barry
Have you got the URL for that blog? I’d be interested in reading it.
It almost sounds as if the whole drama was spread by the one traveller’s call home and stirred up by that. From the reports I’ve seen, it doesn’t seem that too many destinations have been eliminated. That said, there’s some mis-information going on since some reports say ‘drastic delays’ but none mention where these delays are… I don’t see a half day’s delay prior to entering Iran as drastic. Border delays are to be expected.
Hey guys,
Thanks for all the comments. It does seem that the whole ‘mutiny’ thing was overdone. But the Guardian asked my what my advice was to ‘would-be mutineers.’ My answer was to embrace the things going wrong. I still stand by that, even if things aren’t as bad as reported.
If you Google OzBus Diaries you’ll find the blog being written by one of the passengers. Seems the ‘breakdown’ in Tehran was a wing mirror being broken!
Ah, your more recent post refers to the blog I’ve been reading, so you’re on top of it.