Washington DC to New York via Chinatown Bus

I finally got to do something I've been wanting to do for some time. I took a Chinatown to Chinatown bus from Washington DC to New York. This is budget travel at its best.

There are several bus companies operating this route. I went with Apex Bus, as they have the most frequent departures.

My reason for taking the bus was purely economical, in terms of both time and money. Since I'd be stuck in Washington DC for some time, I had decided that I should take a trip or two to NYC. There's only so much to do in the Washington DC metro area, after all. And New York is a fun place to visit, though I'd never want to live there for an extended period of time.

I had thought about making the 4 hour drive up to Manhattan, parking the car and leaving it there for the weekend while I roamed the city by subway, and then driving back to DC the following day. After thinking things over, I realized the following:

• Gas would cost $60 round-trip
• Tolls would cost around $35 round-trip
• Parking would be free if I could find street parking in SoHo - otherwise it'll run $60 to park in a lot for two days
• Hotels in Manhattan are expensive this time of year

So we're talking in the neighborhood of $300-400 for a weekend in Manhattan all by myself. I finalized my plans to do a day trip, which was a no brainer from a financial standpoint:

• Gas to DC and back is $5
• Tolls on the Dulles Toll Road is $2.50
• Bus is $35 round trip
• Parking in DC is $20, though they initially told me $10. Whatever, still a bargain.
• Earliest bus leaves DC at 3:30am, arrives in Manhattan Chinatown by 7:30am
• Buses leave Manhattan Chinatown practically hourly through most of the day, so I opt for the 9:30pm bus, returning to DC by 12:30am

A grand total of $62.50 for a very full day in Manhattan. And I get to sleep on the bus both ways. And I could have as many cocktails as I wanted before returning home (as long as I sobered up before picking up my car). Not a bad day to spend a day, if you don't mind dragging your ass out of bed at 2:30am!

Some thoughts about the bus ride...

Since this was a Chinatown bus, I expected the bus to be dirty. Quite the contraty. The buses were fairly clean and well kept. Sure, there was a grease mark on the window from a previous passenger's greasy head, but otherwise all was well. There was no trash or litter anywhere, which could be attributed to the plastic garbage bags they place on the armrest of every row. The seats were in good condition. The toilet was pretty funky, but that's to be expected, especially when you have half-asleep, groggy old men using it while the bus is driving on city streets in stop-and-go traffic.

The bus stopped a couple of times (I have no idea where, maybe Baltimore?) to pick up more passengers. My biggest complaint was that the bus driver would stop at a parking lot, open the doors, and start yelling in Chinese to the boarding passengers while all of the other passengers were sound asleep. I have no idea what he was saying, probably something like "are you going to New York?" and what not. At one stop though, the driver got into an argument with a boarding passenger and the screaming went on for a good 4 to 5 minutes. The argument continued to intensify, and the boarding passenger got off the bus and the driver drove off. Great, just what I need at 5am!

As for parking, I think I was lucky that they allowed me to park there. Their parking lot is small, and can only fit a couple dozen cars. They seem to offer event parking for the Verizon center, so if you want to park there and take a bus departing during an event, you'd probably be SOL.

My alternative parking spot would have been Union Station in Washington DC, which is about a mile away from Chinatown on foot. Union Station has a parking lot open 24/7, and it costs $18 to park there for 24hrs. Not a bad deal, if you don't mind the walking. There are a few other parking lots in the vicinity of Chinatown, but I hadn't researched their rates.

The Dulles Toll Road - Virginia State Route 267 - SUCKS!

I hate the Dulles Toll Road (VA SR 267). Not that I'm opposed to paying tolls, but the way they have it set up is pretty lame.


When I first arrived at Dulles Airport a couple weeks ago, I got my rental car, and found my way to my hotel in Herndon by luck. The directions I had from my hotel seemed fine enough, but the signage leaving Dulles Airport didn't jive with my directions. I got onto 267 and off at exit 10 (where my hotel is) without having to pay toll.

A few days ago, I drove into DC. On my way back to Herndon, I got onto 267 towards Dulles Airport. I figured this was the correct way to go, since my hotel was only a couple exits away from the airport.

Wrong.

There are two dedicated lanes that go from DC to Dulles Airport (and vice versa) that are partitioned off from the rest of the highway. There's basically no way to exit until you get to the airport. The good news is there's no toll either. I ended up spending an extra 10 minutes driving to the airport, turning around, and going back to my hotel. At least I saved $1.25 in tolls, right?

Wrong again.


I tried to find my way back to my hotel from Dulles Airport. Confusing signage again, no map or directions this time either. So I was going by memory. Knowing my hotel was only two exits away, I stayed in the right lane to avoid being trapped in the dedicated barriered lanes to DC. Next thing you know, I approached a toll booth, just past exit 9B. Two lanes were marked EZ Pass Only, which as an out-of-towner, I don't have. The other two lanes were marked Exact Change Only - 50¢. Unfortunately, I didn't have any coinage. And none of the booths were staffed.

WTF?

I slowly approach the booths, only to see another vehicle pulled over on the shoulder. I decide to join him. As I dig around my pockets for change, I see many vehicles approaching the booths, some stopping a good 50 feet away due to what appears to be confusion. A couple other cars pull up to the booths, stop for a good minute or so, and go right on through the red light, buzzer ringing and all.

I contemplate my options. Can I back up? No, I'm already several hundred yards into the turn off. What if I just go through the EZ Pass lanes? Well, I'll probably get my photo taken, and a ticket in the mail. Same with the Exact Change lanes. I pretty much felt like I had found my way into one of those traps that allow rodents to enter with no way out. The Exact Change lanes seem to be my only option. Maybe I'll just stick a dollar bill in the bucket and see what happens...

So I did. The light never turned green (which I suspected). I looked into the bucket, and there were a couple other dollar bills sitting on top. I went ahead and shoved all of the dollar bills into the neck of the bucket so that no one else could take them. I checked my mirror, and cars were starting to line up behind me, so I went ahead and blew threw the red. A buzzer sounded, and off I went back to my hotel, a single exit away.

After doing some research, I found out that the state of Virginia give out fines in the amount of $25 for failure to pay a toll. How is someone coming flying into Dulles Airport supposed to know to carry exact change before getting on the stupid toll road? It makes absolutely no sense to me that they don't staff at least one Full Service booth. Apparently, during the daytime, they do staff these booths. The evenings are another story all together.

The conspiracy theorist in me believes that by not staffing the booths and requiring exact change, the state of Virginia can hand out more tickets, increasing their revenue. Somehow that would seem illegal, but not surprising. There are enough people out there who would simply bend over and pay the $25 without a fight.

I called the folks at the Virginia Dept of Transportation (VDOT), and told them my story. I bitched about their lame system. I complained that this whole experience felt like entrapment. I let them know that I refused to pay any fines, since I technically paid my toll (a dollar, which is double the normal fine, and a whole dollar more than it would have cost if they had better signage - as I said earlier, there is no toll between Dulles Airport and Exit 10 if you stay in the left lanes bound for DC just long enough).

The guy at the VDOT was nice enough. He was sympathetic to my situation, and he said he'd do what he can to rectify it. So far, there was no record of my rental car license plate in their system, but it could take 72 hours for it to show up. He agreed to follow up on it and let me know sometime during the week.

What a horrible system. And what a hassle to go through. At least I was able to get a real person on the phone at the VDOT very quickly. I was seriously afraid that I'd have no options, except to write a letter.

My suggested improvements to the Dulles Toll Road include:

• Staff at least one booth 24/7. If staffing costs too much, raise the toll by a quarter during off-peak hours for those requiring Full Service. This will have the added benefit of encouraging other local drivers to buy into the EZ Pass system, thereby requiring less Full Service staffing during peak hours, and also relieving the toll booth areas of congestion.
• Have a change machine at the Exact Change only booths. Change machines are so sophisticated these days that they can easily accept bills up to $20 and give change in a combination of bills and coins.
• Accept credit card payment. Credit card transactions don't cost what they used to for high volume merchants. Self-pay parking lots in San Francisco and other communities accept credit cards for transactions as small as one dollar (I believe Union Station in Washington DC is no different). If needed, add a 25¢ surcharge for credit card payment. Those too cheap to pay the surcharge will either carry exact change or will get an EZ Pass. Those visiting from out of town will gladly pay an extra quarter than deal with the hassle of contesting a ticket.

I have now been stockpiling my quarters in the coin compartment of my rental car.

What a rough week... Washington DC, Singapore, Vancouver, ...

It's been a roller coaster of a week. As of last week, I was scheduled to come to Washington DC, stay 'til January, then go to Singapore for a year. As you'll see, I convinced myself that this was going to be the best year of my life. The food, the warm (but muggy) weather, the weekend getaways to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, and the people/culture. Excellent.

I arrived here in DC on Monday evening, only to find out that my plans have changed. Singapore is cancelled. I'll still be going overseas, but the location has not yet been determined. I might be leaving as soon as this coming weekend, a full month before initially planned.

Holy crap.

I've been staying at my hotel, scared to unpack my suitcases for fear of immediate deployment. And the weather here is pretty damn cold. Ahhh, walking around Singapore in shorts and sandals, stopping off for some hawker cuisine for dinner, sitting outside by the waterfront on a warm evening,... these all sound really great right about now. Roti prata, chicken rice, BBQ pork slices, chicken rice, durian (yes, even durian)... Ahhhhh, nice.

But that won't be happening.

Instead, I am to be kept in suspense for a few days. At this point, I am so frustrated that I'm ready to go back home to San Francisco. But I'll wait it out and see what happens.

On Wednesday, I'm told that some possible places I can go to in lieu of Singapore are Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, India, Oman, and Vancouver. Well, I'm only interested in going to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, or Vancouver, in that order. Any of these would be fine. Anywhere else, don't bother asking me again.

Shanghai and Taiwan would have been the most adventurous. Vancouver would be the easiest. And not unlike Singapore, Hong Kong would be the ideal balance between those extremes. It's where East meets West, where cultures are exotic enough to keep things interesting, yet Western enough to provide enough comforts from home. Of course, I didn't end up with Hong Kong. Or Shanghai. Or Taiwan. I ended up with Vancouver.

Cold, wet, and dark during the winters, at least compared to Singapore. Not a bad town, but not terribly exciting either. Especially for a West Coast American like myself. In fact, it sounds flat out boring right now. Why did I volunteer myself for Vancouver? What the hell was I thinking? At least it'll be comfortable. Easy. Close to home. And unfortunately, it's gotten more expensive with the weakening of the US dollar.

I can find a pretty tasty meal in Singapore for around $5 USD. Cross over to Johor Bahru and that price gets cut in half. Okay, I need to get over it. I'm not going to Singapore...
At least the food in Vancouver will be decent, I hope. The Chinese food will be better than San Francisco, which is saying a damn lot. There's all kinds of Asian, European, and fusion cuisines, which should round out my dietary requirements nicely. Last I remember, it seemed to be a youthful, hip town. And at least it's close to some great skiing. And there's lots of outdoors stuff to do in the summer as well. Which means I'll have to go home sometime after arriving in Vancouver to pick up my skiing, fishing, and camping gear. So much for the tropical beaches of eastern Malaysia. Whistler it is. Whistler it'll have to be.

Sigh.

I shouldn't complain. I should be happy to have this opportunity. My big regret is that I didn't go anywhere new this year for vacation. I was planning on exploring bits of Indonesia and Malaysia while in Singapore. At least there's lots around Vancouver that I haven't seen before. Sadly, it'll be nowhere near as exotic or adventurous as Southeast Asia.

They waited until today to tell me about Vancouver. I had a week's worth of some serious suspense and anxiety. And I'm all the more neurotic because of it. I'm just happy it's Friday. And I'm happy that I don't have to leave for another month. Despite not being terribly excited about the DC metro area, especially during the winter season, I'm pleased that I'll be able to stay put. I have a nice, large suite at my hotel, and I plan to spend a lot of time in it relaxing and winding down. Time to finally unpack.

I really have to convince myself that Vancouver will be a great experience, or I may end up insane.

Winter Driving Fun

I’m in the Washington DC metro area right now, and the weather is cold as hell. This morning, my rent-a-car’s thermometer gave an outside temperature reading of 18 degrees Farenheit. Maybe not so cold for you folks living in the northeast or the midwest, but for this San Franciscan, it’s pretty damn cold. Moderate climates rule :-)

Yesterday it snowed a few inches, which made for some nice scenery in this otherwise bland DC suburb. Unfortunately, it made driving a bit hazardous. Since I kept my speed under control, I felt fine with my own driving. It was the other cars I was worried about.

I frequently head to Lake Tahoe during the winter months for a bit of skiing. Often times, there’s not a whole lot of snow on the pavement, since roads and parking lots frequently get plowed (clear roads = more revenue for ski resorts and casinos). On those trips when there is snow on the ground, I like to find an empty parking lot and drive around a bit recklessly. This serves two purposes.

First of all, it’s a lot of fun going 10-15 miles per hour and spinning out in slow-motion. Just drive slowly, whip that steering wheel around until you fishtail around or spin out. If you’re driving a real-wheel drive vehicle, hammer that gas pedal and spin those tires, doing some donuts ala Tokyo Drift. Or step on the brake until you skid out. Just keep the speed under control.

The second, and more functional purpose of driving this way is to know how to respond when you lose control of your car. Vehicles behave similarly whether on dry pavement or snow-covered road. The main difference is that on snow or ice, control is lost at far slower speeds. While losing control of your car is rarely a good thing, learning how to regain control is always great. And what better way to learn to do that than in a wide-open parking lot while going a very manageable speed. Most of what you experience on snow can be applied to wet or dry roads.

Doing these exercises have definitely helped me keep my car under control in less than ideal driving conditions. And it’s a great confidence booster too. Not to mention lots of fun :-)

Some things to keep in mind…Only practice these exercises in wide open spaces. Large, empty parking lots are ideal. Keep enough distance between yourself and roads, buildings, other vehicles, any barriers, and most importantly, people. The faster you go, the more space you need. My advice would be to start slow (5-10 mph) until you get a feel for things. Never go faster than you feel comfortable going. And make sure your confidence meter is not giving you false readings. Safety is key.