You can listen in to one side of a dozen cell-phone conversations, then suffer more dreadful noise now that most have sets of cheap speakers installed, while you hang on for grim death as the drivers scream through red lights and weave in and out of traffic.

You can meet a vast range of people from all walks of life, and as surviving the journey is not guaranteed, probably the only thing that your fellow passengers all have in common is a sense of apprehension. The dreaded BMTA fleet is the least-favoured option for Bangkok people and passengers tend to keep to themselves. Perhaps if they shared their experiences a bit more we would hear many fun bus stories such as this one.

The protagonist, a middle-aged bus driver, reacts strongly when a young man sitting behind him taps his shoulder to ask him to keep his voice down while talking on the phone.

"I don't know you. You don't know me. Why do you do this?" the infuriated bus rider says, punctuating the words by jabbing his right hand downward through the air.

When the young man, who rarely talks back during the argument, expresses an unwillingness to continue the conversation, the middle-aged man explodes with what has become a new catch phrase in Hong Kong:

"This is not resolved! This is not resolved! This is not resolved!" He goes on to say: "I face pressure. You face pressure. Why did you provoke me?"

Just when the dispute seems to have ended after the young man apologises and the two shake hands, the young man takes issue with the profanity used by the older man, who then launches into another round of profanities.

This scene now appears in a grainy film, which was apparently shot on the upper level of a double-decker bus in Hong Kong. According to Associated Press, "The Da Vinci Code" and "Mission: Impossible III" may be dominating the box office, but one of the most popular movies online is a six-minute film commonly known as "Bus Uncle". It has been viewed nearly 1.7 million times on the video website Youtube.com - the second most-viewed video on the site in May as of yesterday. Youtube.com is a site that allows users to post videos they wish to share. The site ranks the videos it posts by the number of times they have been watched.

The video has inspired numerous spoofs, including a karaoke version and a rap song using the middle-aged man's refrain, "I face pressure. You face pressure." Internet users have also added Chinese and English subtitles.

Thailand also has several websites where personal videos are screened.

Most of them are shot by teens and the subjects on the video are mostly their close friends. Perhaps "Bus Uncle" could inspire greater creativity amongst young Bangkok film-makers.

achara_d@nationgroup.com