Previous posts on this blog might have given you the impression that taking a night bus in Vietnam is a most wonderful way to travel around the country. You might have been led to believe that they were comfortable vehicles with plenty of room, and reliable, leaving on time and arriving at their destination with no hitches.
After recent developments, however, we would like to issue an apology for this misleading information. Why? Well, read on as we tell you about our journey from Hoi An to Nha Trang...
Firstly, when getting on to the bus, it's evident that there aren't really quite enough spaces for everyone to bed down for the long ride ahead, comfortably. Sam and I scrabble right to the back of the bus to take two of the last three beds that are wedged all together above the engine. We've got a place to sleep, but we can't sit upright at all, it's literally like laying in a coffin. When laying down, the ceiling is approximately 30cms away from our faces. Nice. Sam, as you know, suffers from claustrophobia...The third bed in our threesome is also occupied, by a loud Spanish lady. Only 18 days into our marriage and already we're sharing our bed.
Secondly, about two hours into our fourteen hour monster of a journey, I notice that my seat is getting suddenly much hotter. There's hot air blowing in from the side of the bus. Trying to ignore this, I drift off into a sweaty sleep, only to be woken up with exclamations of 'There's smoke coming out of the engine!'. That's right, immediately below me, the engine is billowing with smoke and has massively overheated.
The bus has pulled over in the middle of nowhere, and this is where we remain for the next four hours. The Vietnamese bus guys aren't really telling us anything - we're just sitting at a road side, feeling a bit helpless. There's a truck stop where huge vehicles pull over to get hosed down and have their tires changed and luckily, a few stalls selling beer. After a while, one of our party manages to contact her travel agent in Hanoi, who speaks to one of the bus guys and translates the update into English. There's another bus coming, sometime between 11pm and 12am (it was 9.20pm at this point).
We've got a long wait ahead. To put it in context, I will describe the scene. It's humid and getting hotter by the minute - heat from the road seems to be warming things up despite it being the middle of the night. There's nowhere to sit. All we can do is stand at the side of the road on which buses and trucks are zooming along at an alarming speed with horns blaring. At our backs, dense foliage, screaming with insects. Our attempts at taking head rest cushions from the broken bus to use as seats, are quickly scuppered by the angry and somewhat menacing bus staff, who themselves proceed to make quite a comfortable area in which to sit. They take off their tops (revealing some gang looking tattoos), roll out a mat, and use a meat cleaver to slice up an apple while sipping on whisky. Needless to say, this is all a bit unnerving. At least we can buy beer.
After four hours, just sitting at a roadside, feeling a bit sorry for ourselves and tired, the long-awaited replacement bus miraculously appears. We make sure we are near the front of the queue to board so we can get good seats. About 12.30am we are back on our planned route to Nha Trang, trying to ignore unconfirmed rumours that some people have been left asleep on the broken bus at the roadside.
To be fair, the second bus was much more comfortable and we did get a good night's sleep. Here's looking forward to our bus trip tomorrow night from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City!
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