Tales from the marshrutka: Chapter One
So...To give you a little feel for Russia I'll tell you about the marshrutka system. A marshrutka is a 15 passenger van that taxis people around on the bus routes. It is much faster than the buses as marshrutka drivers are psikh (nuts). For instance, today while we were stuck in a traffic jam I look out the window and see a marshrutka driving parallel to us on the sidewalk. ... Although psikh, marshrutka drivers are pretty talented; they have to change money, drive in a crazy manner, change gears and pick up and drop off passengers all at the same time. (I've even had one talking on the cell phone.) ... The system of payment is interesting as well: people collect and exchange money with each other and then hand it all to the person closest to the driver. ... In the same vein in the buses one can buy a ticket by passing money from hand to hand and receive a ticket and change back in the same manner.
posted by Jacob Aleksander @ 8:09 AM
1 Comments:
this sounds like a 'combi'...they have them in mexico too...i never really realized that other people found passing the money weird...but i guess it is if your not used to it...but i haven't seen any driving on the sidewalks...and dats bcuz the sidewalks are way to small...or there are too many parked cars in the way...
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