Fung Wah is Child's Play

I can now look back fondly at my time spent on the Fung Wah Chinatown bus that runs between Boston and New York. Turns out it was the universe's very gentle way of preparing me for the actual China town bus.

Both Fung Wah and the Jiangyin long distance buses are crowded and cheap. And yes, Fung Wah offered the titillating hint of danger with the occasional roadside fire. But they totally assuage any concerns as you board the bus by passing out quarters and the phone number for customer service, asking that you return the quarter at the end of the trip if you are satisfied.

And then there is the actual Chinese bus. The bus for the relatively short 2-1/2 hour ride from Jiangyin to Shanghai:

• will have people spitting and hacking up lungs on the floor
• will have multiple people using their cellphones as ghetto blasters
• will likely have a driver employing the Chinese 5-seconds-on-the-gas-5-seconds-coast lurch method
• will stop randomly on the side of the freeway to pick up 'black market' fares that the driver will pocket directly
• will take an off-ramp to pick up more black market fares then perform a u-turn on said off-ramp while honking as if everyone else is in the wrong as it reenters the freeway
• will not have working A/C in 90+ heat and humidity
• will have heaters that are not only stuck on in 90+ heat and humidity, but will have floorboard heaters that singe your legs the entire trip
• will teach you that you can sit still and yet sweat thru everything you are wearing, leaving a little puddle of sweat in your seat that makes you feel oh-so-feminine and dainty
• will make stepping off the bus into 90+ heat and humidity in Shanghai feel refreshing
• will make Leslie run to the hotel and spend the first hour watching movies from here

Heaven.

After I sufficiently lowered my body temperature we ventured back out in to the heat to our favorite hamburger haunt, wandered town and spotted Waldo! All those years honing my eye in the orthodontist's waiting room finally paid off!

A masculine twist on Waldo's iconic look