Buses and trains.

image via weheartit.com

Are you more a bus or a train person?

Me, I've always fancied myself a bus kinda girl, and I thought I'd travelled enough on public transport to know – I may live right smack in central Singapore, but I've spent a good 9 years shuttling to both the east and west, first for school and then for work.

I have very fond memories of my bus rides to and fro Temasek Polytechnic – trading gossip with my hospitality course mates, late-night rides home snuggling up to my then boyfriend, solitary afternoons buried in a Nora Roberts novel or lost in my thoughts... I couldn't understand why anyone would choose the invasive chaos of a packed train over the undisturbed tranquility of a bus.

Things changed when I enrolled at university. Taking the bus to the extreme west of Singapore was no longer a choice, both for efficiency and the well-being of my behind. And so, I begrudgingly squeezed into a crowded carriage, and over time, assimilated myself into train culture – nudging my way into a seemingly packed peak-hour carriage, staying upright through hearty jerks without holding on to a pole, narrowing my eyes at over-eager seat grabbers, and perfecting the art of discreetly checking weirdos out. In fact, I'm quite sure you wouldn't spot the bus girl in me should you spot me on the train tomorrow.

I came to realise that trains can be unwelcoming, but also super efficient. They're fast and almost never prone to traffic delays (congestions maybe). And when I'm overseas, the metro system often makes more sense to me than the intricacies of a city's bus routes. Can you blame me for switching loyalties?

If I were more philosophical, as I was this evening, I'd liken the switch to the realist taking over the idealist in me. It is true. I'm always in a rush to make it from point A to point B these days (I fear I have progressively serious punctuality issues), I almost forget what it's really like to slow down and enjoy the ride.

That said, I would have been happy to remain a train girl forever (until I get my hippie VW beetle that is), but by some strange stroke of luck, I downloaded a gem of an iPhone app called gothere.sg last night and out of curiosity mapped my home to office route. The results changed my life. Instead of braving the peak hour train crowds for a 68-minute journey to work (of which I am constantly checking my watch to see if I've missed the feeder service), I could in fact hop on a bus for a 77-minute ride in relative peace.

Have I been rushing around like a crazed bee and fumbling my way into crowded trains for squat? No guesses how I'm going to work on Friday morning... I'm thinking it's time to slow it down a notch, if I can roll out of bed 10 minutes earlier.