Minivan travel in developing countries - strap yourself in, it's gonna be a rough ride

If you are traveling on the cheap like I have been doing for the past 25 years or so, you are probably going to be subjected to some pretty dreadful travel situations. Minivans are used around the world to shove 12-15 people into a space that wasn't ever really meant to have that many people in it but that is just the norm in developing or poorer nations. In my country of origin, this sort of travel is not allowed because it is unsafe or at least that is what the government has decided. I suspect that there is some sort of lobbying going to so that people have to use larger coaches or so that people have to buy cars. I think that if you can fit that many people into something and they are willing to do it, it should be allowed. As a consumer you always have the option to not travel like that and most places that I have been to have higher priced options that will have fewer seats in them.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself if you are willing to suffer a bit of a cramped environment for a few hours in order to travel somewhere kind of far away for just a few dollars? For many in these places that is their only choice because of economic reasons. For me at first I was truly stingy in my travels and was willing to endure whatever for a couple hours so that I could save money. As I have gotten older I find that I am more willing to shell out more money in order to have more comfort.

I will always remember the early days in my travel when all of this was very new and foreign to me though.

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This has been the view from the interior of so many minivan rides that I have been on in the past but the first time I experienced exactly how much they will cram inside of this thing happened to me when I was traveling in Malaysia on my first ever foray into the great beyond. This was around the year 2000 and I had no idea what to expect but since I was traveling with a group of friends that I had just met in Singapore, I was willing to take on anything.

For starters, we were kind of duped by the rather shady tour agency that sold us a "VIP Bus" ticket from Singapore to Malacca. It was suspiciously cheap in a city that everything is relatively expensive in. I don't remember exactly how much it was but it was under $10, that much I recall. This is over 250 km which isn't that terrible but when we walked up to our "bus" we were expecting an actual coach, an actual bus. Not some little Toyota soccer-mom vehicle. Our laughter started to kind of turn to dread as they continued to pile more and more people into the van as well as a load of packages onto almost every single available floor space area. At one point the driver was indicating that he was going to put some packages under our legs and while I complied, the large Scottish person that was travelling with us refused and it took about an hour for me to discover that he was correct to be a bit of a dick and not allow this to happen. As I sat there with my knees near my face I started to have my legs cramp up and there was nowhere for me to move to.

It was so uncomfortable that I can still whisk myself back to that exact moment in time even though it was more than 20 years ago.

About 30 minutes into the trip we all had to get out of the van while customs I guess they were made us all get out so they could inspect the vehicle. I found this all very bizarre seeing as how Singapore is one of the most tightly controlled societies that I have ever experienced so I kind of wondered what they thought someone would possibly be smuggling in from there. Also, most of the people on the bus were Malaysians who worked at some sort of job in Singapore for I presume, much higher wages than they could get in their own country.

This is before the days of smartphones so we just had to guess how much longer it was going to be before we arrived at Malacca. All of us were completely unaware that this bus was not just traveling from Singapore to Malacca but instead was stopping at wherever the hell all of the other passengers wanted to go along the way. Also, this bus was also serving as a postal service of sorts and the driver would exit the highway on a regular basis to drop off and also pick up packages along the way. I suppose I can admire how they maximize their profits by picking up and dropping off as much as possible along the way but good grief I was uncomfortable.

At one point 3 of the women got off the bus and we tried to spread out a little but only to have our hopes crushed when the driver pulled over along the side of the road and filled those seats back up with other people.

Years later I would discover that it is common for people to stand on the side of the road and minivans will just pick up anyone that is heading in the general direction that the bus is going. These were not pre-booked tickets or anything like you would expect in the west but rather a sort of always picking up and dropping off shared taxi.

I guess you could say that I am glad that this happened to me early on in my travels and that the total trip was only 250 km. I think I would have lost a leg if it had been a longer journey the likes of which I would encounter later on in this very same trip. I made certain that I saw photos of the vehicle that I would be riding in during later bookings and was certain that when they said "bus" that it was what I consider a bus to actually be.

It is all part of the learning process when you are backpacking I guess and I am happy that I learned it first hand and that it was a relatively short journey.

So if you are backpacking just make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into. I have been in countries where not only was the bus completely packed but I've been in ones where livestock was on the bus as well and there was one time that an old man without even asking just sat on my lap.

Cultures are different all around the world and that can sometimes be part of the fun. It doesn't mean that I want a 70 year old man sitting on my lap though and in that situation I didn't allow him to do so.