We got an invitation from a friend to visit San Antonio for a weekend while they were staying there. I had a trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon planned the next weekend (24 hours drive, one way), so, I didnot want to drive five hours to San Antonio. Thus, we decided to travel by bus! Flight & rail were ruled out after investigating the cost factor.
Bus here is Greyhound. I mean Greyhound seems to be the prominent bus line. I booked tickets to San Antonio leaving from Dallas DownTown at 6.00PM and arriving in San Antonio DownTown at 11.00PM, same times and boarding/destination points for the return. That our trip involved having to be in DownTown in the night, twice, created some apprehension. It was not supposed to be the safest thing to do, but there was no other choice; and by gods grace, everything went well.
Driving in Dallas DownTown to find the bus station, I had my first visit from the police after starting to drive in the US. I got a honk for a sudden lane change, and almost missed a red light while recovering from the honk, and the next thing I saw was this police guy by my side on a bicycle. Anyway, he asked me - "Are you OK? Do you know where you are going?" and let me go.
Travelling by bus, I found that this country is absolutely not much different from ours. There were lots of things similar. There were lots of ordinary people to start with. There were people travelling exactly like back home, with all sorts of luggage, except probably that almost everybody had strollies. There were coolies wearing red shirts and a towel on their shoulder but these people were real huge in contrast to their counterparts in our place and had huge pieces of luggage placed with complete ease on one shoulder.
There were many other things similar - I am going to mention it, that I noticed it. There was no conductor in the bus, but the driver was punching the tickets with a steel punch, exactly like in TTC. Then, the driver came into the bus with a steel briefcase, again exactly like in TTC. Also, the bus used to stop at bus stands on the way, and believe me, I was just reliving my bus journeys from Bangalore to Kerala. And, midway through the journey, the bus halted, the light came on, and we got down for snacks. We got into the snack bar, and, guess what, the snack bar was owned by an Indian. And more surprise! He asked me in Malayalam where I was from in Kerala!!!
There were only these two other things worth mentioning from the bus trips. 1. When the bus stopped at a bus stand, this mexican got up to get out of the bus to stretch his legs. He had almost got out of the bus, when he decided that he was missing some thing. Then he started searching on the luggage loft in the bus, pulled out a mexican hat, and donned it before stepping out! I was amused! 2. Then there was this lady who smoked in the bus (I believe) and was spoken to by the driver. Anyway, she demanded the law, a police officer came, and took her away!
Now, to get to San Antonio. San Antonio is supposed to be a historic town, but we sure did not visit any historic attractions. We went for the river walk - a canal, resembling a 'nala' back home, highly commercialized, with restaurants donning both sides, and supposed to be romantic! May be at night, ofcourse not at noon, that too in summer.
The next day we went to the SeaWorld in San Antonio, this is an amusement park coupled with some killer whale / dolphin / seal shows. The killer whale show was the best part of this trip. We were left with amazement as to how these giant killer whales were trained for the show. The whale splashed water on everybody in the rows near to the pool, both while falling back after the upward jump and purposefully whacking its tail.
So, that is all about this trip.
