Travel by local bus

I took an independent trip into Bandar this morning. it is always easy to get somewhere but finding the way back is always a worry. As with all my travels I found the trip remarkably easy. There is a good public bus service in Bandar. You pay a dollar and they will take you almost anywhere. A small (seats about 20) purple bus comes along which you can stop anywhere. There is a girl sat on one of the seats who will take your money and give you a ticket, then writes the fare in a book. The bus takes about 20 minutes to get to the city centre, first of all going past the night market and fish market, out onto the main road and then calls in at all the shopping malls on the way to the city. It stops and starts according to how many passengers and how many times the driver stops, opens the door and spits, we then set off again! We pass the big mosque on the outskirt of Bandar and so we enter the city, past the early morning market and up to the water front then turn off into the bus station.
The bus station is dark and gloomy, full of buses, very busy, bus stops being very close together. I thought I had better ask the driver what bus to catch back to the Centre Point Hotel. His English was poor, but together with him and the little conductress we worked out what it was I required and I could catch the 01 or 20. The purple buses have a number on each side of the bus about 30cm or more tall which are clear to see. After about an hour and a half and very hot I easily found my way back to the bus station found a 20 bus and got on. I just hoped that I got back to where I wanted to be. There was no driver or conductress on the bus at this point, but the engine was running and other passengers were getting on. Three young girls got on and proceeded to eat their lunch, one of which turned out to be the conductress. As soon as the driver turned up the other two girls got off and we were then on our way back. Same story really, spitting and passengers determined how many times we stopped and I found myself back and stopped right outside my hotel. Easy!