Bus Travel

It is interesting how interaction between people in public changes in different countries. In Germany, I have actually gone up to the train driver and asked him, in my broken German, about my destination, and got decent, useful responses. The same is possible in India, you may go to a bus driver but be prepared for any kind of response from useful to useless to indifferent.
In England, people actually thank the bus driver when they are getting off the bus. I thought that was only the case when travelling by the company bus, but even in public buses people do that and the driver actually responds to each one with something like thanks or bye.
The driver stops the bus only at a stop where he sees someone waiting for the bus. If you want to get down you press the Stop button before your stop and he'll stop there. This morning, twice it happened that the guy at the stop shook his head in the negative before the bus driver could slow down, meaning that he was not waiting for the bus. Very small occurrence but made me smile!