Vietnam Is Very Happy New Year: The Bus On Hell's Wheels

With transportation options slim, and our time in Vietnam waning faster and faster, we decided to book a 36 hour bus ride from Nha Trang to Hanoi.  Now, admittedly, we didn't realize it was actually a 36 hour bus ride until we really put some logic to our purchase.  At first we thought, "Oh, an 8 hour bus ride.  That's not bad."  Soon afterwards, we realized the impossibility of traveling nearly the entire length of Vietnam in 8 hours.  Hopeful thinking, I guess.

 

However, soon after that, we learned that our bus would be stopping in both Hue and Hoi An, which were two cities that we had originally planned on visiting, but now with our time waning, we didn't think we would have enough time to visit until we got this bus.

Sleeper buses in Vietnam were certainly a sight to behold.  They would barrel down the road and pass other buses on two lane highways at night while honking as a warning - certainly not the driving safety standards that are required of private bus companies in the United States.  As a result, sleep was minimal.  Every so often I was rocketed out of a light snooze by the heart racing feeling of a sudden swerve or the sound of a bus honking as it whizzed by our own bus. 

 

The sleeper buses would also stop to pick up hichhikers along the road, and charge them (what I would expect to be) quite the discounted price compared to what we were paying.  The new passengers would then just sit or lie down in the middle of the aisle.

 

Things got rough at times, because the bus only stopped once every 5 hours for a bathroom break (there were no bathrooms on the bus).  I drink enough water where I usually need to go pee every 45 minutes or so, so I had to consciously cut back on the amount of water I was drinking.

 

We would also stop to eat.  Each place we stopped at was usually a little hole in the wall on the side of the road.  The one that I remember the best was a rowdy little "shack" that we stopped at in the middle of the night (for a bathroom break, but a lot of people decided to eat).  The place was run by a surly middle-aged woman, and the service was equally as surly.  They just gave all of the foreigners the same thing without even asking what we wanted.  I didn't really care either way, but thought it was kind of funny.  The place was loud and rambunctious with families with crying babies eating next to groups of drunk Vietnamese men. 

 

Of Hue and Hoi An, Hue was the first stop.  We were in Hue for about 6 hours, which gave us some time to see the main attractions. 

 

Hue is the ancient capitol of Vietnam.  Hue's main attraction is its Imperial City, which housed the old kings and his royal cadre.  The Imperial City was huge, and even while skipping some areas, it took an hour or so to walk around the main areas.  Besides this, we just walked around a bit.  We considered renting a motorbike, as the traffic was notably more tame in Hue than the other cities in Vietnam, but I'm afraid I was still scared straight from the insane traffic we saw in Ho Chi Minh.

 

As excited as we were to spend some time in Hoi An (as a sidenote: multiple people had suggested Hoi An as a less well-known can't-miss type place in Vietnam) we were ultimately disappointed.  Our bus arrived in Hoi An an hour or two over schedule so we couldn't spend any time there.  Hoi An is a small town on the coast.  Over the years it has attracted travelers looking to get away from the big, bustling cities of Vietnam.  As a result, Hoi An has become really tourist driven, but it still seemed (from the bus), that it would have been a nice place to visit.  People rent bikes to ride around the town and to the ocean.  I was expecting a town like Lijiang, an ancient Chinese city that I visited while teaching there, but it wasn't quite like that at all.  It looked more modern than what I expected, I think.  Hah, all of this, and we only stepped off the bus there for 10 minutes in Hoi An.

 

Overall, it wasn't too bad for a 36 hour bus ride.  The sleeper buses in Vietnam are relatively comfortable...I've certainly been in more cramped, less comfortable public and private transportation before.  But, it's probably not something I want to do again anytime soon.

 

Next up:  the last entry to our Vietnam adventures...Hanoi!