Geylang East, Singapore
The bus was crowded with passengers on their way to the train station.
It stopped a bus stop as someone was alighting.
Both the front entry and back exit doors opened to allow passengers to board and alight.
Many people were trying to squeeze their way up the packed bus from the front door.
Just as a lady exited from the back door, the monk (click here for my previous encounter with him) jumped onto the bus which is for exit only.
A young man followed what the monk did. But when he tried to scan his card on the reading machine to pay for his bus fare, he was unable to do so and had to alight.
The monk was holding a ten dollar note and waving it on his hand as though he wanted to pay for his bus fare.
Now, every Singaporean knows that if you are paying cash, you have to board the bus from the front entry door as there is where the cash machine is located. If you know how much the bus fare is to your destination, you inform the driver the price of the bus ticket. If you do not know how much it costs to go to your destination, you tell the driver and he will be able to advice you how much you need to pay. The driver will then issue a bus ticket to you from the machine.
Another interesting thing about public bus in Singapore is that you need to have the exact amount of cash or coins to pay for your bus fare. The driver will not be able to give you back any changes if you have overpaid. For example, if your bus fare is $1.40 but you pay using $2 note, you won't be getting your 60 cents back. So for those who only have big notes in denomination of $10, they would ask others if they have small change or they would go get something from the convenience store so they can have small change.
"WOW."
Is he going to pay for his bus fare with that $10 note? The maximum fare is $2.50 which can get you from departing terminal to ending terminal. Although not entirely impossible, I've yet to see someone paying $10 for a bus journey that costs $2.50 (which is 3 times more) in my life so far.
Perhaps the monk is rich or feeling rich? Or is he trying to give away his material wealth?
But didn't he know that passenger can only board the bus from the front entry door? I've seen him taking bus before and I'm pretty sure that couldn't be the reason.
And by boarding the bus from the back exit door, there is no way he could squeeze his way to the front to pay for his bus ticket when other passengers are squeezing their way up from the front.
He acted as if he wanted to go to the front but was frustrated being blocked. However, his body language showed that he was just pretending to do so. He then pushed his way to the back and sat down on one of the empty seat without paying for his bus fare. I'm pretty sure most of the passengers standing near the exit door saw what he did.
I was standing about one meter away from him and continued observing him.
As I alighted, I took another look at him.
He noticed me and quickly lifted his hand to block his face.