Taking the M5 Bus in New York City

Owning a car in New York City (NYC) is a burden.  First, the streets are always congested.  Second, you need to park your car somewhere.  If you don't have a garage it means you have to park on the street.  That is like trying to play the lottery because street parking is a matter of luck.  You can circle the block around your apartment for an hour and still would not find a parking spot unless you are lucky to catch someone leaving in front of you.  Then you have to check the street cleaning sign.  If you did not move your vehicle on street cleaning days your car will be towed.  

The preferred mode of transportation for most New Yorkers is the subway.  It's an antiquated system that is over 100 years old.  It's noisy, sometimes dirty, and not always safe.  Recently a woman was pushed onto the track in front of a subway train.  There are homeless people sleeping on the train.  In the winter the subway stations are cold.  In summer they are hot.

Taking the bus in NYC is another alternative.  But it is slow - by traffic jams and passengers taking time to get on and off the bus.  Because I have plenty of time when I visit NYC I like to take the bus.  It sounds like a mundane task but you can turn it into an interesting journey.  

M5 Bus at 88th St and Riverside Parkway

Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument

Dog Walkers

I started the bus ride at Riverside Parkway and 88th St at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at Riverside Park.  This monument was built in the early 1900s' to honor New York State's veterans who fought in the Civil War.  Riverside Park is a park popular with local residents on the west side of Manhattan, next to the Hudson River, and stretching from 72nd to 158th streets.  You can encounter all kinds of New Yorkers here:  walkers, joggers, bicyclists, skateboarders, dog walkers, homeless people, etc.  This scene plays out in front of you while waiting for the bus.

New York City implemented a system of checking your oncoming bus schedule.  You text 511123 with the number of the bus stop that is displayed.  In this case my message is 404855, the number for that specific bus stop.  The return message will show when the buses are arriving.

How to find out bus arrival time

Response from the System

 There is also a QR code at the bottom where you can scan to find out the arrival times.  You have to bookmark the QR code for every bus stop that you use frequently.

The driver is also the conductor.  You either scan your Metrocard, pay with credit card or cash, and take your seat.  I like to seat almost to the back so that I can get a good view of what's going on in the bus.  The front of the bus is supposed to be reserved for older and other passengers who need help.  On NYC buses there are a lot of people who need help.  These are those who have trouble walking down the stairs of the subway stations and fighting with the crowd.  On the bus, things can move slowly.  The driver can lower his ramp so that a physically challenged passenger can easily get on the bus with his or her walker or wheelchair.  It's near impossible to do that on the subway train.

Inside the M5 Bus

Passengers with walkers

The buses are modern and clean.  Some are electric or hybrid.  There is even USB ports to charge your phone.

USB Port

The bus goes south on Riverside Parkway to 72nd Street where it turns left to go east until Broadway.  This is where the traffic starts to get busy because Broadway Avenue is one of the main arteries of NYC. South of 72nd Street on Broadway are some major commercial buildings, including a Mormon Church.  If this stretch looks familiar to you it's probably because you've seen it on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Then it stops at Columbus Circle, a high-end locale for shopping and ultra-expensive apartments.  It's also across the street from the southwestern corner of Central Park.  As it rounds the roundabout to go east on 59th Street it starts encountering heavy tourist traffic.  On the left is Central Park and on the right is a row of very expensive hotels and apartments, naturally so because it commands a north-looking view of Central Park.

At 5th Avenue the bus turns right going south.  Here comes the showcase of Capitalism with the signature stores of the world's most famous brands:  Apple, Saks 5th Avenue, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's, etc.

Bergdorf Goodman Store

The Plaza Hotel

The Apple Store

Tiffany's

Namesake Building of a Much Despised President

On 5th Avenue the bus goes on a crawl.  It's congested with traffic and pedestrians, both local workers and a lot of tourists.  The latter are either sight-seeing or shopping.  This is also where the iconic Rockefeller Center is located.  The Christmas tree is gone.  So is ice-skating.  You'll have to wait until the end of the year.  Across the street is another famous landmark - St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Another popular intersection coming up is 42nd Street where the New York Public Library is located on the southeast corner.  Many famous writers from New York have spent time here.  42nd Street is another busy artery where Grand Central Station, Bryant Park and the Times Square subway station are.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Riding the M5 bus is like taking a bus tour through NYC's most popular destinations.  It's proof that riding a city bus does not have to be boring.  Gaze around you.  Watch the people - riders and pedestrians.  Gawk at the landmarks.  Best of all, it's safe and cheap:  only $2.75 for a one-way ride.  

Final Thoughts on Antarctica and Hurtigruten

 For most this would have been a dream vacation.  How many people can say they've been to Antarctica?  Indeed the Antarctica part and the cruise were outstanding.   

Stepping on terra firma on the Antarctica continent is a unique experience.  It's my seventh continent that I've stepped foot on.  I never thought of it until a friend mentioned it on Facebook.  That means I've been to all seven continents on Mother Earth.  I never set that goal or thought that one day I will accomplished that. It just happened.

Some people I met said that I went to Antarctica to see the penguins.  Yes, they are cute but I've seen penguins in South African, albeit small African penguins.  You don't go this far just to see penguins or whales.  So why do I want to go to Antarctica?  It's to say I've been there and experience first-hand the journey there and the wilderness of the place.  Sailing through the Beagle Channel and Tierra del Fuego, viewing the glaciers and fjords is a different experience.  It reminds me of Norway and Alaska.  Getting seasick in the Drake Passage is like a rite of passage.  I can't imagine what it was like in the early days of sailing around Cape Horn in smaller unmotorized ships and being battered by the rough seas.  Unsure if you will survive, let alone worry about vomitting your last meals.  

Often times friends would ask me what is the most beautiful place I've been to.  It's a subjective question.  Antarctica is NOT the most beautiful place.  But, it is unique.  It is raw.  It is isolated.  Very few people have been there.  No one lives there, although there are those who work there for long stretches for research.  There are no indigenous people there.  The land would not be able to support them.  Almost nothing grows there.  No country owns the "white continent."  It is at least 2 days away from modern civilization, by modern ship.  Some clever tourist companies are starting to fly tourists there.  I say it's too bad because it will start a deluge of visitors to an unspoiled continent.  They might as well open a Starbucks there.

Hurtigruten has a long maritime history.  It has been carrying people and cargo along the Norwegian coast for over a 100 years.  Today it offers upscale expedition cruises, similar to National Geographic/Linblad.  The latter was an independent company until it merged with National Geographic a few years ago.  Both have Scandinavian heritage, maybe stretching back to the Vikings.  I have taken very few cruises.  The only experience I had was 20 years ago with Royal Caribbean.  Cruises for the masses.  Three to five thousand guests per ship!  That's more people than some small towns in the Midwest in America.  Casinos, water slides, rock-climbing walls, 24-hour buffets, cabaret-style nightclubs, etc. No thank you.  That's not for me.  I like a relaxing cruise where I can read a book or news article while peeking out at the open ocean.  An occasional shore excursion to experience the local sights.  Nice relaxing meals.

MS Lofoten

My first cruise with Hurtigruten was in 2016 on the MS LOFOTEN.  It was an old ship built in 1964.  It lacks all the modern amenities but I had a wonderful cruise experience.  It is not an expedition ship but it stopped at many ports along the coast of Norway.  Visiting these small towns gave me an indelible impression of Norway.  It also extrapolated to my early days in North Dakota where many of the residents are of Norwegian descent.  Uff Da!  It means something like "Oh Gosh" or "Damm!", along that line.  That's what I learned from 4 years in North Dakota.  Norwegians are the friendliest, kindest and most helpful people.  That's how a wide-eyed, green Asian from tropical Singapore was able to survive in the frozen tundra of North Dakota.  

MS Roald Amundsen at Deception Bay

By comparison, the MS ROALD AMUNDSEN is a modern ship built in 2019.  It was specially built to sail in cold waters - the Arctic and the Antarctica.  For this COVID period, they halved the number of passengers instead of the full 500-passenger capacity load.  Spacing is one of the tools to fight against the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  I think because of that they were able to offer a single-supplement waiver.  They don't want to pack the ship.  That saved me a considerable chunk of money.  

I wrote a long post about the MS Roald Amundsen itself earlier.  After being on the ship for almost 3 weeks there are a few things I wish they did.  One was the communication system.  Although they held many lectures through streaming instead of in-person they never recorded them.  That means you have to watch at the hour that they specified.  If you were busy doing something else you'd miss it.  This question was constantly asked by the passengers.  Some were irritated that they miss whatever event they want to watch.  The constant reply from the crew was that they don't have any recording equipment on board.  Something so common in the modern era is missing on one of the most advanced and modern ships?  Hurtigruten could have installed an "On Demand" system or something similar to what modern commercial airplanes have - an IFE or In-flight Entertainment.  You watch whatever you want at whenever it is convenient for you.  Or listen to whatever music or program whenever you want.

To extend this further, Hurtigruten could have created a VPN or Virtual Private Network.  This means that anyone on board can be connected to this VPN and access any program or movies available.  Practically, it means you could be sitting in the Explorer Lounge and be watching a movie or program on your laptop or iPad.  Or you could be listening to music through the Hurtigruten app.  Passengers could also send messages to each other through this instead of having to download an additional app, as Hurtigruten had required.  

However nice the ship is and the trip to Antarctica was, it was overshadowed by the COVID-19 virus.  During the 3 days before the cruise I personally took 3 PCR and 1 Antigen (rapid) COVID tests before I first stepped on the ship.  Other passengers went through similar hurdles.  On board we have to wear our KN95 masks the second we stepped out of our cabins.  We have to wash our hands before every meal and our body temperature taken before we stepped into the dining room.  We social-distanced in the lounge and dining rooms.  The ship was constantly cleaned by the cleaning crew.

Four days after we started sailing we had our first on-board PCR test.  Eight passengers and one crew member tested positive.  This, in spite of all the tests and precautions.  It was devastating to the captain and the crew.  The passengers who tested positive had to be quarantined in the Medical Center.  Imagine spending so much money on the cruise and having to be locked up in a little room and your outside world is seen only through the small window in that room?  Especially if you paid a lot of money for one of the higher-priced suites.  With this positive tests our Falkland Islands leg of the trip was cancelled.

A few days later we had a rapid Antigen tests.  Again, more passengers tested positive.  How many; it was not disclosed.  But it was enough for the captain to consult with headquarters in Norway and ordered to sail back immediately.  That was a smart move because if the virus had gone viral on board we might have been stuck in Antarctica.  Neither Argentina nor Chile would want a ship infested with the COVID virus to be on their territory.  We would have been stuck in "no-man's land."  This is what happened in the early days of the pandemic.  That would have been a disaster for everyone on board.

Luckily, we were across the Drake Passage in two days and in Chilean territory.

As a final insult, there was another PCR test the day before we disembarked.  More passengers tested positive.  They have to disembark and check into a local hotel in Punta Arenas to be quarantined for seven days.  They have to pay their own expenses by claiming from their insurance companies.  If they are traveling with a partner or spouse they will probably be left to travel home on their own.

I feel so lucky to test negative on all the COVID-19 tests, PCR and Antigen.  Nonetheless, I feel a constant threat in the back of my mind.  What if.....

Will I travel on another cruise again?  Not until we figure out how to deal with this COVID virus, whether by vaccination or medication.  Will I travel with Hurtigruten again.  Absolutely yes.  They are an excellent expedition cruise company with top-notch crew and service.  It has been 3 years since the COVID-19 virus first surfaced in Wuhan, China.  It has caused untold misery to everyone.  Is there a message there?

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