Dude Where's My Cab?

So we decided to go to the temple today. Got a call at 0930 hrs asking if I'd be interested in joining a bunch of classmates headed out to the temple.

The Plan
Meet up infront of school at 1030 hrs. Take a bus from there, to a mall near the temple, and then cab it from there to the temple. Simple?

What actually happened
We met up at the bus stop at 1030 as discussed. Unfortunately some people turned up a little late. And the bus came early. So we missed the 1020 bus, and the next bus was scheduled to arrive at 1127. And the wait began....

The bus arrived as per the Port Authority Transit timings, and 9 of us boarded it. The journey was as expected, a 40 minute journey to Monroeville Mall, which is where we thought we would get off. As we continued, we started wodnerign where to get off. Thats when RC decided to ask ppl around for some directions. A lady sitting besides her told us to take the bus further down to Lowes in Monroeville, and then take a cab from there, as it would be closer and more convenient for us. New to this city, and considering the helpful spirit of the populace, we beleived her.
Another 10 minutes and we got off at Lowes. Meanwhile, we were joined by 4 more guys, making us a large party of 13.

The fun begins
Calling a cab is supposed to be an easy task. So we thought. Unfortunately when u travel to places like Monroeville, things tend to get dicey. It took us 10 minutes of being on hold to get through to the yellow cabs and ask them for 3 taxis. Three people tried calling... but only one got through. In this country, where cell phone minutes are an expensivc commodity, it seemed to be quite a waste.
The wait began, again.

The callers of the group.

Pretty soon, everyone started getting bored... and tired..

Thats when hunger made her presence felt..... the non-vegies headed off to Taco Bell, while the vegetarians went to the usual, SubWay.

We enjoyed our meals.... u can see our smiles....


Having eaten, we then proceeded to wait again. Taxis were summoned.. but the taxi companies refused to answer the calls. If we did connect, we were put on hold for ten minutes before being disconnected. Sometimes you wonder whats on the mind of the cabbies here!

As we waited and contemplated our next plans, one of us went into the neighboring doughnut shops, and enjoyed the sweet bread with the hole ;-)


Boredom caught up with us again, and some ppl decided to catch some sleep....



It had now been three hours since we had reached Lowes at Monroeville and we were still there... waiting. Patience had worn thin, and we finally decided to cross the road, and catch the bus back to campus. As we approached the road, we saw our bus zip past us. Knowing our luck, you can be sure the frequency of the bus was quite low. To be precise, it came once every 45 minutes!

So we just had a new place to wait, and for a new destination as well. Thats when the blame game began. I had some videos of that, but am still trying to figure out how to upload them... suggestions welcome.

Whats a story without some drama?
It seems two of our gang, who happened to be room-mates were involved in some sort of tiff at the Sunrise Inn. Here you can see them as they part..... and then you can see the frustration in the one left behind.... ;-)




Its all about perspective.
What we saw as a running away from a situation.... they saw as the arrival of a taxi.. so dont jump to conclusions just yet! They saw a taxi standing where we had asked for one... and ran... across a bustling highway...

How many trips?
So we now had 13 ppl and one taxi. The taxi had a carrying capacity of 4 passengers. How many trips did the taxi make? If you said 4, you were wrong. It actually made 6 :-)

How? Simple. The temple was 10 minutes away. So one group of 4 got in, and headed out to the temple, while the rest waited. 20 min later, the second group of 4 takes the taxi. By the time the taxi heads back for the third group, it turned out that the group had become one person! The group of four whom we met along the way, completely frustrated, and with the sight of the bus for home, gave up and ran for thebus. They went to the temple the next day. So group of 1 came in the third ride for the cab.
By this time, the first group were done, and we took the same cab to the Monroeville Mall. And so the cycle continued, with groups of 3 taking the cab to the mall.

Ok.. now the temple!



Back at the mall, and what do u expect, the girls had to shop!! So off they went and got themselves their first non-Wall Mart purchases of their stay here.... while we waited...



Home finally?
And so the adventure ended with a bus ride home..... with everyone sleeping peacefully in the bus...



What a tiring day it was!!!!