Destination Sleep: This Bus Ride In Hong Kong Is Designed For People To Sleep

The bus runs on Hong Kong’s 'longest route' — 83 kilometres on a highway along the South China Sea coast. The ride includes a few stops at scenic places.

A passenger sleeps on a bus that offers a five-hour tour to the sleep-deprived people of Hong Kong | Photo: Getty

New Delhi: A travel company in Hong Kong runs a bus service that is designed to let customers sleep as long as they want. Launched last year, the bus service is gaining popularity with people lapping up the idea of being able to sleep undisturbed during a five-hour journey, albeit for a price.

The ‘Bus Sleeping Tour’ is organised by Ulu Travel.

According to an NBC News report, the bus runs on Hong Kong’s “longest route” — 83 kilometres on a highway along the South China Sea coast. The ride includes a few stops at scenic places, and the bus passengers are accompanied by a guide who speaks Cantonese. 

“Everyone in Hong Kong has done it at least once,” the report quoted a passenger, Charles Chung, as saying. “...I probably sleep better on the bus than at home.”

The tickets for the ride cost between $13 and $51 for one person, depending on the upper or lower deck seat, an AP report said. The passengers are given sleep aids — a goodie bag containing an eye-mask and ear plugs for better sleep.

Those local adventures are possible in part because the border closure and compulsory quarantine — up to 21 days, among the longest periods in the world — have kept Hong Kong virtually Covid-free. The city of 7 million people has recorded fewer than 13,000 cases and 213 deaths. 

'Really worth it'

Kenneth Kong, the marketing and business development manager of Ulu Travel, shared with AP what inspired them to start this tour. He said he saw a friend’s social media post complaining how stressed out he was to be able to sleep at night and how he could sleep well while travelling on a bus. “His post inspired us to create this tour that lets passengers just sleep on the bus,” Kong was quoted as saying.

“We had to try just once. We can watch people’s reactions to see if it’s really worth it, and it was,” He told NBC News. 

Quoting a telephone survey conducted last year by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the NBC report said nearly 70 per cent ofpeople in Hong Kong have trouble sleeping. According to Professor Wing Yun-kwok, director of the university’s Sleep Assessment Unit, the population of Hong Kong is among the world’s most sleep-deprived people. 

He said people in Hong Kong mostly sleep after 12 am or 1 am, but wake up very early.