Weekly bus trip

Have you guys ever tried to take the bus from Beirut to Tripoli or vice-versa. There is only one decent one which is quite safe to take it. The others are litterally coffins on wheels like the 24-seat and 12-seat hyundai (sorry no publicity) with very good music all the way to tripoli (singers like Ali al-Dik and Ali Dayyoub). I know every kind of music is entwined in its society and reflects it and I know also that art in general and music in particular is subjective bla bla bla but please, allow me to say that this music sucks. It's a really bad music (by the way like most of the new arabic music nowadays). Bref, this is not the topic. I will talk about this later. Let's go back to the Beirut-Tripoli highway (highway?!). I talked about the only decent bus company, well even in this bus, I don't always feel lucky. Since it's a relatively long way from Tripoli to Beirut (1h 30min), I try to seek my own comfort. If nobody sits next to me, i will be very lucky. Unfortunaltely, that does not happen much. Usually, I don't get the opportunity to sit next to a girl, simply because the driver reserves seats for them in the front, as if I'm gonna eat them or something. So, as a result, only men come and sit next to me. There's one thing i'm trying to figure it out. Why do they (even if they are thin) take 1,5 seats? And u can't tell them that they are intruding your personal space because they must be already fell asleep. And sometimes, while they are sleeping, they lean towards me and put their head on my shoulder. And I'm not going to talk about the BO. So each time I have to accomodate with my 0,5 seat with my inseparable blue bag (by the way it's getting dirty, remind me to wash it and to empty it because I still have stuff in it that must be started the process of desintegration or fossilization, it depends on the type of material). I think that, without my mp3 player (Which helps me to evade from the atrocity), I would never be able to make it all the way to Beirut (or Tripoli).
Foreigners, before u come to Lebanon, ask me and I'll give you some advices for a better stay in Lebanon