Part 67: Bus from hell....
Barely an hour had passed before I began losing some feelings in my legs, hopelessly trying to contort them into impossible positions just to get comfortable; it wasn't happening.
The narrow walkways now housed the passengers luggage as well as large packages for the drivers.
Finding out they use these over night sleeper busses to transport goods to make extra money, which wasn't the safest arrangements, but there was literally nowhere else to put it.
I instead hung my small ruck-sack from the bunk ladder to my left giving me a tiny bit of extra room.
An old Russian lady next to me appeared to have the right idea who surely must have taken sleeping tablets. She was just laying there backwards in her seat, not moving, with her mouth wide open and eyes rolled back looking like a dead corpse - especially when the light caught her pale face; it was not a pretty site.
Then an impossibly large Canadian couple behind me at the back who could barely fit into the seats were complaining to a guy who could not speak any english; he looked neither interested or happy. I did feel some sympathy because a young punky American blonde girl who was sitting next to them did her best to persuade me and Jack to trade places, just so she could be rid of them; scoffing at us when we politely refused. Perhaps we would have obliged if she didn't like the sound of her own voice so much and was less intent on bossing people around.
There seemed a lot of disgruntled passengers and bad vibes on board, well apart from the Russian corpse woman who did not move an inch!
With dread now fully beginning to dawn on me, the bus also had the worse suspension ever, as we felt every single pot hole, and believe you me there were plenty; I had to strap myself in to stop me from falling out, and the driver loudly, and repeatably honked his horn every 5 minutes which reverberated through the coach and my brain – how was I ever going to get any sleep? If it was not the constant horn BEEP, BEEEP BE-BEEEEEP!!!! that would wake us up than it would be a bump in the road, throwing us around - and the less said about his driving skills, or lack of them, the better.
The air-con was absolutely freezing too and I was shivering to the bone, but couldn't help noticing everyone around me had blankets, apart from me. So I did my best to get the bus stewards attention, asking him if there was a spare - he unsurprisingly ignored me.
I kept thinking of the train and suddenly wished I listened to the German girls now because this was going to be one seriously long trip.
Instead I reclined my seat fully back, put on my headphones and listened to some music to block out the increasingly echoing snores and the horn, which just kept getting louder and louder. And just to make matters even worse, someone at the back was sick too!! Oh well just another 13 hours to go!!
Despite all this me and Jack, who was sat to my right on the upper bunk found it amusing. This bus was cheap for a reason, and those reasons were plainly obvious to see, and since it was my first sleeper bus experience I did my best to just make the most of it.
Now with there not being a toilet on board, which as I understand is a good thing since it usually over flows and smells like death, I decided not to drink any water as to not want to unnecessarily go to the toilet. Especially since not knowing how frequently the driver was going to stop.
I noticed a girl somehow manage to make her way down the aisle to the driver almost begging him to stop because she was bursting for the loo. She literally kept asking till he pulled over in the pouring rain and pitch black night just so she could go to the loo.
A few other people followed suit but for me, I decided to stay put, especially since somehow managing to manoeuvre my self into a position of relative comfort.
Not long after we were back on road and soon on our way.
There were no proper motor ways at all, just single lane normal roads with twists and turns plus more potholes than the moon, but the main eye-opener was the driving.
Quite often our bus was driving along the wrong side of the road, with oncoming drivers constantly flashing their full beam at us, and the sound of the loud horn is so frequent now it just becomes background noise.
The feeling as we continue around blind bends, overtaking vans or scooters, only to see headlights suddenly appear, is quite hard to explain, especially when every few minutes, the drivers mobile phone goes off, to which he answers!!
I kept telling myself the driver must know what he’s doing because he drives this route for a living right? But theres still a nagging feeling of doubt hanging over me.
I was really quite relieved when we reached our first official stop at an old looking road side service station for food and to stretch my aching numb legs.
The whining American girl joined our table and was still going on about the old Canadian couple sat next to her. Barely drawing enough breath between sentences, and too busy reciting her travel experiences to notice me and Jack looking at each-other rolling our eyes. This girl really did love the sound of her own voice; so much so I couldn't wait to get back on the bus!!
After a few snacks, a visit to the bathroom and another quick stretch, we boarded the bus once more.
The drivers face scrunched up and he shouted something in Vietnamese, and with a sudden flick of his hand yet another person in front of me had been reprimanded for taking one footstep too far in a flip flop!
By now I was exhausted and just wanted to get back into my plastic coffin to sleep, so I took 2 valium tablets that quite literally knocked me out thank goodness. I then slept solidly for 6 good hours only to be woken by the sound of clunking metal and banging. Whilst dead to the world I discovered the bus broke down for nearly 4 hours!! No wonder I slept so well; most of the time we were not even moving, and they were still trying to fix the bus. So basically we were not that much closer to our destination at all!!
After that I was so deflated that I just went through my music on my iPhone till I found a track that reflected my mood, choosing Jimi Hendrix's - 'rainy day dream away'. It was perfect, and on we continued.
Hours slowly crawled by till the sun rise and I was still wide awake, barely taking a break from my headphones to hear a synchronised snoring fest sandwiched in-between the busses honking horn,
And yet the Russian lady still hadn't moved an inch. I was seriously beginning to wonder if she actually really was dead now, till it was time for our breakfast stop and she finally rose from her grave!
I limped off the coach, stepping over the sleeping bodies of the two bus staff. The grumpy driver had finished his shift and been replaced by a smiling friendly chap who was smoking a bamboo bong outside - he took one look at me before handing it over, repeatedly raising his eyebrows as if to say 'man you need this more than me'
I took a deep intake of breath and fully took it all back as he lit the bong.
I'm not sure what was in it exactly but I got a full on head rush bringing an instant smile to my face; the driver laughed his head off, especially after he stole my sunglasses and put them on.
After that, the rest of the journey seemed a total breeze. Turns out we were on the bus for nearly 18 long arduous hours!! My first sleeper bus experience was finally over, and seriously hardcore. I was dehydrated, aching, tired, barely able to move my legs and with the sound of that blasted horn still echoing in my head, but remarkably we arrived safely and in one piece.
Im not sure at this precise moment in time if I would be able to take another minute on the next sleeper bus for we still had over 1200km to go to Saigon. But for now we would rest at our first destination.
Hue city, let's see what you got....