April 7, 2010 We spent the morning sleeping in and wandering around Dalat before a van came and got us to head to our overnight bus to Hoi An. We should have known something was up when the van called twice saying it was going to be delayed in picking us up, but this is SE Asia and we've learned that getting frustrated over an hour or two just isn't worth it. Well it finally came for us and when we arrived there were passengers and there was a bus, but there were a ton of men under the bus still trying to fix it (this is 2 hrs after the announced leaving time.) So we stood around for a bit, then a bit more, then a bit more until it was dark--we considered leaving, but as we had no idea where we were (we weren't at a bus stop, but some random location outside the city), we just waited. At this point the people from the bus company directed us to someone's house across the street and motioned for us to go sit inside; as we had been standing for a long time and had no way of communicating we just shrugged our shoulders and went. It turned out to be pretty hilarious as everyone was staring at us like we were crazy for taking a bus in Vietnam, but we just smiled and ate the ramen noodles they made for all of us refugees.
At about the 5 hour mark someone came to get us and said we could board the bu
s. Hooray! We loaded up our things and got on and, to our great surprise, found that the sleeping bus actually meant that instead of chairs that reclined there were 3 rows of bunk beds! The 4 of us made our way to the rear and were further surprised to find a sprawling, 5-person bunk bed across the width of the back. We threw our things on the bed and hopped up, excited that we had so much room and were able to lie down on a bus for a change! Well, we started getting restless as we waited for 1 more hour until the bus finally began moving. Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen, the 12 hour bus ride was 6 hours late in leaving! I can't tell which was more irritating, the delay or the concert DVD that was blasting some strange blend of Vietnamese/Salsa music throughout the bus as captives we had no escape. It turned into quite the funny scene as Emily went up to the front of the bus, using sign language to signal that the music was too loud after we decided being in the front row at the concert wasn't too conducive to sleeping. He listened to her, but then this old lady, who we nicknamed bedelnut, (as she was chewing that nut that turns your teeth red like our host mom in the hill tribe) started complaining and the volume went back up again. Thankfully though, some other passengers were trying to get to sleep and the sound turned down again. We made a bathroom stop before sunrise (you know at least a few hours before anyone should wake up) and lo and behold we were right back on stage at the concert! Again a small battle of passengers vs. bedelnut got the volume turned off as we coasted through the rice paddies of Vietnam. Suddenly I awoke gasping for breath. My hand shot up to the a/c vent above my head as I tasted the sweat beads dripping down my face. NO AIR. I took off my hoodie and waited for a minute praying it was a dream or some prank the bus driver was playing. Then Emily rolled over with hair glued to her forehead as though having just run a marathon and knew this was for real. I hopped down from my bunk and ran forward to the driver to plead with him to turn on the a/c. He motioned at it like he understood and I went back to wait for sweet relief. No dice. Emily went up and did the same thing. Again, no improvement. Meanwhile, I sat back watching a scene from a zombie movie unfold before my eyes as passenger after passenger shot up into the air searching for the a/c as though they had just been buried alive and we were watching their hands come up from beneath the ground. Salvation finally appeared in the shape of a roadside restaurant where we sprinted off the bus and waited while the a/c was fixed. A honk of the horn and the revving of the engine let us know there was success and we spent the last part of the ride in the cool, watching poorly dubbed B-movies in Vietnamese. Hey, at least we got to stretch out our legs on the bunk beds!
s. Hooray! We loaded up our things and got on and, to our great surprise, found that the sleeping bus actually meant that instead of chairs that reclined there were 3 rows of bunk beds! The 4 of us made our way to the rear and were further surprised to find a sprawling, 5-person bunk bed across the width of the back. We threw our things on the bed and hopped up, excited that we had so much room and were able to lie down on a bus for a change! Well, we started getting restless as we waited for 1 more hour until the bus finally began moving. Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen, the 12 hour bus ride was 6 hours late in leaving! I can't tell which was more irritating, the delay or the concert DVD that was blasting some strange blend of Vietnamese/Salsa music throughout the bus as captives we had no escape. It turned into quite the funny scene as Emily went up to the front of the bus, using sign language to signal that the music was too loud after we decided being in the front row at the concert wasn't too conducive to sleeping. He listened to her, but then this old lady, who we nicknamed bedelnut, (as she was chewing that nut that turns your teeth red like our host mom in the hill tribe) started complaining and the volume went back up again. Thankfully though, some other passengers were trying to get to sleep and the sound turned down again. We made a bathroom stop before sunrise (you know at least a few hours before anyone should wake up) and lo and behold we were right back on stage at the concert! Again a small battle of passengers vs. bedelnut got the volume turned off as we coasted through the rice paddies of Vietnam. Suddenly I awoke gasping for breath. My hand shot up to the a/c vent above my head as I tasted the sweat beads dripping down my face. NO AIR. I took off my hoodie and waited for a minute praying it was a dream or some prank the bus driver was playing. Then Emily rolled over with hair glued to her forehead as though having just run a marathon and knew this was for real. I hopped down from my bunk and ran forward to the driver to plead with him to turn on the a/c. He motioned at it like he understood and I went back to wait for sweet relief. No dice. Emily went up and did the same thing. Again, no improvement. Meanwhile, I sat back watching a scene from a zombie movie unfold before my eyes as passenger after passenger shot up into the air searching for the a/c as though they had just been buried alive and we were watching their hands come up from beneath the ground. Salvation finally appeared in the shape of a roadside restaurant where we sprinted off the bus and waited while the a/c was fixed. A honk of the horn and the revving of the engine let us know there was success and we spent the last part of the ride in the cool, watching poorly dubbed B-movies in Vietnamese. Hey, at least we got to stretch out our legs on the bunk beds!
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