was so nice to me even though I only had a 100-baht note for the 8 baht fare, another passenger I talked to had a different story to tell.
"The conductor was yelling at an old lady who got on the wrong bus," recounted Pratchaya Chaichana about some of his terrible experiences with this route "The bus would cut in front of all the cars from the far right lane to the bus stop on the left. The driver was smoking, too. I was sitting right behind him. It was hell "
As the road got a little clearer around Lat Phrao, the bus sped up a little. Quite a few times it went off swiftly to the right to overtake cars, and there were a couple of occasions when it didn't drop the passengers off properly at a bus stop. Still, it was a far cry from what a lot of people have been saying and there's a possibility that you'd need to ride in the early morning or late at night for the bus to live up to its notoriety
I got off in front of Big C Lat Phrao to wait and try the next bus. There are more than 70 non-air-conditioned No. 8 buses in all and it took no time for the next to arrive. The result, however, was quite the same. It was going a little fast but this was no different to other buses. Several times the bus cut off to the right to overtake cars before getting back to the left lane. It could appear reckless but you have to accept that it's the only alternative when there are always some cars, taxis and vans idling in the left lane, blocking the way.
Talking about the reasons behind Chadchart's survey results, a conductor who doesn't wish to be named assumed with a scornful laugh that people probably have too much time on their hands and they just use it to play Facebook.
''Other buses are doing the same thing but I don't see they get any complaints even though they use the far right lane to overtake other buses all the time,'' she said. ''We simply can't go straight when there are those taxis and vans parking. Sometimes the passengers are busy with their smartphones and they would ring the bell when the bus has already gone past the stop. We get complaints for stopping too suddenly and we get complaints for not dropping the passengers off properly.''