Sifu there and who's here?

In China, the drivers of the tourist buses are respectfully called “sifu” or master. The local tour guides give a lot of respect to their drivers and along the tour getting advices and suggestions from them particularly on itineraries of visit and so on. The tourism authority of China also gives high respect to their tourist bus drivers and as such you can see that those drivers assigned to ferry foreign tourists are well experienced and knowledgeable at times that they could even politely correct some incorrect information provided by the local tour guide.

Perhaps, the word “sifu” carries a lot of weight and along with it a lot more responsibility.

During our tour to Yunnan-Dali-Lijiang a month ago, we travelled on hilly terrain on high altitude from Yunnan to Dali then Lijiang. The bus that we ride on needed to stop quite frequently not only to pump up diesel but also to cool off the brakes as going uphill and downhill will certainly lead to some overheating and it is extremely dangerous if the brakes are overheated especially going downhill.

In midway to Dali, all tourist buses needed to stop at a check point for inspection by the authority to ensure that the busses are mechanically fit for a long mountainous journey. I asked the sifu why bother to stop for at least half an hour to one hour just for the sake of inspection as our bus was still new. The sifu said it was mandatory inspection regardless of the age of the bus simply to make sure that no untoward incident occurs as the roads along the journey are winding and narrow on hilly terrain. It was for the safety of the passengers after all.

Back here in Malaysia, too bad that we are not giving that sort of respect to our bus drivers be it tourist buses or normal passenger buses. They don’t have that “sifu” status here and most of them are overworked to earn a meager of salary and if they are too tired due to long distance driving, accident may happen. It is very sad to see that 27 tourists from Thailand were killed as the double-decker tourist bus overturned at Simpang Pulai after coming down from Cameron Highland. These people supposedly here to enjoy a holiday but ended up with a tragedy that could possibly be avoided if the tour company put more emphasis on safety.

Is a double-decker suitable for hilly terrain such as Cameron Highland? Is it stable enough? Too bad that we always wait for a tragedy to strike, then finger-pointing games by all parties including the authorities will start all over again and solution is still far from avail.