We need a bus union in Suwon, Korea

Hello fellow blog reader. Come take a bus ride w/ Palmer to Yongjusa Temple, just 40 minutes north of Suwon. It costs about 2.00USD round trip to see this 400 year old national treasure, round eyes. Along the way you'll love the sights, sounds and smells (I will wear this Spinal Tap reference to the ground, baby!) of Korea. Hold on to the noisy leather straps; not the kind you use at home, you pervs but the ones that hang low from inside the bus because it will be crowded and the turns sharp like my cheddar cheese I left in my vacated Culver City apartment three weeks ago! Yuck!

This Sunday afternoon I took the 3.00USD cab ride to Suwon Station to pick up old bus number 46 that runs to and from Yongjusa Temple. I remember this bus number because I was singing a Turn me On Dead Man song and switched the lyrics out to include bus 46. The band is from Frisco, man . Don't be upset you sensitive "City" people when I use an out-dated hippie word for San Francisco. Okay, dawg?

I got onto the bus and showed the bus driver a hand written note in Korean (Hangul) that the kind and helpful lady at the Suwon Station tourist office gave me. It asked the driver to please take me, the lost and confused looking American, to the humbled temple to pay homage (i.e. an entrance fee) and take pictures of this wonderful national treasure. He nodded. I paid. I held on.

It was hot on the bus on this spring afternoon and I managed to slip off my Navy blue Gap imitation Navy P-coat. Whatever happened to good Gap products? This coat is 10 years old and still looks great. We drove north for about 40 minutes when the landscape changed. The buildings and homes looked "poorer" and there were some nice out door vegetable and fruit stands. Strawberries are sold all over Suwon and they look delicious!

The city got smaller and the traffic lighter and the bus stops fewer. We had some cool sharp turns. I was happy. I felt good. I had a regular size Dunkin Donut Original drip brew flailing around in my belly; it was my day off and I was going to sight see and take some nice pictures, damn it! We drove by this out door looking old building but there was no sight of the temple. I got worried. It had been about 50 minutes. We did hit traffic so I figured to allot more time for my arrival and to look for the huge ass sign and maybe a picture to the temple with a poorly translated caption that would say: "American: you have arrived at Yongjusa Temple. Exit the rear door, and come walk our sacred ground to experience real Buddhism in a tranquil peace that your yuppie ass could not get at your expensive 120USD yoga class at that trendy new age center where people wear expensive clothing made of hemp and other hippie materials..." Hum...the bus drove on for another ten minutes when I realized: Fuck! I missed the temple! It was that humble looking building five miles back! You know, the one with some old looking stone fences and a small dirt area, a patch of it where no cars were parked. There was no big ass sign. No bald Buddhist monks walking around, smiling and eating those mayonnaise and peanut butter sandwiches we would get at the Buddhist Lsi Hsi temple in Hacienda Heights where I tutored kids at their after school program. Ahh!! And the stupid bus driver didn't even honk, nod, wink, mumble or burp to me, the lost and confused tourist, that this is where I was supposed to get my dumb ass off his bus and get some enlightenment! How frustrating fellow blog reader! Can you feel my spiritual pain?

I could not get off the bus because the time I spent thinking about getting a cab or taking another bus back, I was already half way back to Suwon station! The trip to the temple is about 40 minutes but the trip back is 20 minutes! We took the highway back. On the highway there were men hand painting the speed limit on the pavement. I saw one man with a large roller, painting in white the arrows on the road! In Korea where they have a machine for everything, they don't have one for painting the highway? Now I am totally confused!

We need a bus riders union here in Korea. It would help these disgruntled bus drivers who are under appreciated for their safe and boring work. If he was a happy camper, he would have said something to me. I can't blame him for his hatred of "round eyes" though. We sort of deserve international hatred for our propagation of "freedom" and involvement in helping the little guy overthrow the big guy and then abandon the new guy in order to help the little guy.

I think every bus driver hates people. People complain, they piss in their pants, their crying children won't shut the fuck up, they drop their groceries on the bus floor, they spill their Dunkin Donuts coffee too. And there are no garbage cans on these buses. They are not your home, homey. You are only on this bus for a short time unless it's the little yellow bus...

Perhaps bus drivers are naturally mean. It could be just their Buddha nature and if the passenger is foreign, then hate him more! If that prick with the Alan Watts British accent doesn't know when to exit then forgettabout him.

I should of been more active in asking and spotting the temple. Tomorrow I will try it again. Look for some pictures of smiling monks and their interesting vegetarian sandwiches. Watch for the hot and sweaty looking American with the Navy P-Coat in dark sunglasses. Until then, my friend, stay on the bus and smile at your bus driver.