Sunday. Views from the bus and the troublemakers.

Each time we rounded a bend another magnificent scene appeared.  The day didn't start too well with Sam and I almost being sent to the principal's office. 

It all started with Sam's willful disobedience and rule flouting when we arrived in Jasper.  After having been on the road for around 11 hours we sat forlornly in the bus, watching the fading light on the magnificent mountains, while our not-so-very organised guide raced back and forth from the bus to sort "things".  He insisted that we all remain on the bus until he organised our key, breakfast details and tomorrow's departure time. Finally Sam, camera at the ready, could take no more and she and another woman hopped off to take photos. Oh, I forgot to mention that while the bus is not moving,mths airflow cuts out, so after not too long I also got off to breathe some clean cool air.  Mike, the bus driver, and I had a chat and I pointed out two buses had pulled in after us and those passengers had been granted freedom, luggage, room keys and presumably all other information they required and were merrily making their way to their rooms. Meanwhile our bus load was trapped, breathing stale air and luggage yet to be done.  I said it was unlikely we would abscond if permitted to alight, given our luggage was on the bus. Mike agreed and most of the other passengers got off.

When Chris returned, he spoke only to the passengers still on the bus, and said "if you want to share this information with those who got off the bus, you can", meaning he wouldn't be talking to us.  A little bit silly as we were all standing outside the bus anyway.

That night, Jeff the tour guide from the posh bus, made the mistake of asking us how things were going. He copped an ear full of our views about Chris and conceded several other passengers had complained about being treated like children. Jeff said he would offer advice to Chris the next day.  

So .... At breakfast the next day, Chris came to our table and took us to task for not obeying instructions and staying on the bus.  We attempted to politely explain the issue with fading light for photos and the non-air situation in the stopped bus. Chris said the trip was not all about us, and he needed us to obey his instructions/commands. We suggested that if things were organised better, he would know the details for breakfast and coordinated departure times before arrival - y'know like maybe have a mobile that worked in Canada to speak to hotels and other bus's guides.  He said we needed to respect him and if we failed to comply, there would be consequences.  I (perhaps unhelpfully) enquired "what are you going to do, expell us?"  He replied "it could come to that, yes". Sam thought he was half joking when he said this, but he was looking at me at the time, and I can tell you he wasn't joking. After a bit of back and forth we ended on the cheery notes of Chris "I need to you follow my commands" and me "I need you to be organised and do your job". 

Twenty minutes later as we were boarding the bus, he pulled us aside and said we had thought about what we said and would let people off the bus, fix the air-con and try to be more open to passenger needs.  Clearly Jeff had a word after breakfast as well.  We graciously (yes really) accepted his apology and I even tried to smile at him at times during the day.  We stopped a million times for photo ops during the day. Clearly this was Sam's fault as he was trying to cater to her needs :)