Tuesday, January 2, 2007

The "Duck Tour" is In...........donesia !

After reading about Indonesia today, The MassPube has a suggestion because I know that the Indonesian government always reads my blog!

Seems they've had a bit of a problem the last few days ...and longer !

An Adam Air 737, a discount airline of Indonesia, crashed yesterday near the town of Ramalamadingdong or some such place as it flew between one city with lots of syllables in it's name and another with even more syllables, killing 90 passengers and crew. 12 survived.

This followed the sinking of an Indonesian ferry boat two days ago which killed 400.

Of course, all this follows the tsunami.

In September 2005 a Mandala Airlines 737, another discount Indonesian airline, crashed killing 143 people.

In 1997, a Garuda airliner, another Indonesian airline, had a crash which killed 234, closely followed by a Silk Air crash, yet another Indonesian airline which killed 104.

Indonesia is a giant string of islands and they've proven it can be a rough ride between them. I don't know about you, but the words "Indonesian discount airline" strike fear into my heart. It's sort of like an Iraqi insurgent offering to circumsize American soldiers at a reduced rate.

My advice is TAKE THE BUS!!! But which bus ?

Hence here is my suggestion for the poor Indonesian transport industry.

Indonesia should use the same vehicle they use for many city's tourist rides, a "Duck".

The Duck is a vehicle about the size of a small bus, it's open air and it rides on city streets. Then, in any city with water nearby, it plops itself into the water and becomes a boat. In Boston, they take you up and down the Charles River.......In Philly, The Schuylkill....., in NY, the East River, in The Wisconsin Dells they take you on a lake made of Cheese Whiz and in Fort Lauderdale, it's the local water treatment plant. You get the idea.

Reminds me of the old Jackie Mason joke, "A Jew 's car breaks down and he'll sit for three hours waiting for Triple A. A gentile's car breaks down and he takes out a screwdriver, opens the hood, changes it into an airplane, and flies home"

That's probably the way the Duck bus becomes a Duck boat. Being Jewish, it's either that or magic!

I can't imagine why everybody in Indonesia doesn't
a) have one and
b) isn't using it to go everywhere what with forty feet of water coming out of nowhere occasionally .........and varied and sundry items falling out of the sky on a regular basis.


I'd change the usual duck canvas roof to steel, just in case....and I also think I'd move!









2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The original version of this system of transportation is in China -- it was called the Peking Duck. It was introduced years ago as an alternative to the Lickshaw.

Maria de los Angeles said...

You know we have Duck Tours in Miami. Too bad the powers that be haven't thought of using it as a cross-bay form of transport.