Tag Archives: Bus journey

The worst bus drive of them all!!!

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To go back a bit to what hopefully will one of the last bus journeys in Vietnam, from Quy Nhon, the strictly Vietnamese tourist resort, to Hoi An. This should have been perfectly straight forward journey including a 6.a.m. pick-up from the hotel.

Firstly the non-English speaking Hotelier, (are you a hotelier when your rooms are £6.00 a night?) called a taxi as soon as he saw me come downstairs, the taxi- driver’s eyes glistened when he thought he was to take me all the way to Hoi An. The only way to get this sorted was for Hotelier to call the travel agent to check what was what…. We’re talking 5.45a.m. here. So dead on 6.00 a.m. a mini cab arrives and drops me at the side of the road by a bus stop. Why not the bus station????

I was told the bus would be 10 minutes and luckily just able to grab a baguette (or Baget , as I saw on one menu ), the second mini bus which I was bundled on to, proceeded for about an hour to drive around the town, very slowly, hurrah!! Picking up people, parcels and letters. Then we we out on the open road, and I knew this was for real, and we speeded up.

However there is a silver lining to every cloud.The journey was alleviated by Mrs Motor-mouth. A stout middle aged lady in a blancmange pink sweat shirt and a flowery pink sun hat . She caused much hilarity when she turned to me with a toothless leer, and asked “woss your na’e?” And repeated Vicky back. The rest of her harangues was probably about dumb foreigners but she made everyone laugh. She had no on/ off switch nor volume control, thankfully after about 2 hours her batteries ran out.

As we went through towns and villages the driver’s assistant lent out asking people standing on the verge where they were going, occasionally people got on, or handed a shopping bag to him. There was no stop on this ride for food or a pee, no free water or hand-wipes. After a bit people started to get off, but quickly, he didn’t even stop properly. The driver would race past three or four lorries at once,then pull sharply in front of them all to stop to collect or discharge a letter or passenger. On one occasion a guy on a motorbike appeared on our near-side and a shopping basket was exchanged on the move, like the baton in a relay race.

I was thrown off at what was obviously the end of the drive, but even I could work out it wasn’t Hoi An. Umpteen taxi and moto drivers hassled me, but the bus driver gracelessly pointed out the local bus. That slowed things down a bit, but I reached Hoi An in one piece….. So though the journey was not at all what I’d expected I was so relieved to reach my destination I even took a moto (20 kilo suitcase and all) to my luxurious hotel.

Imagine my joy when the room had a bath and a kettle………

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Shut your eyes, lie back, and think of England…..

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Shut your eyes, lie back and think of England (or the equivalent, listen to Radio 4 on Podcasts) I have reached the conclusion that the Vietnamese draw the curtains on the bus not so much because of the sun, though that’ s a consideration, but so they don’t have to see what’s happening on the road. But it’s like driving through the Lake District and showing no interest in the landscape.

Nga Trang has a beautiful beach and all the usual tourist bars and travel agents, with more signs and menus in Russian than English. It’s become a popular sunshine resort, only 7 hours from Vladivostok. Would you want to be there at this time of year? Three direct flights a week.

It was great diving and snorkelling, I went out twice on a dive boat. I was worried that it wouldn’t live up to what I’d seen in Thailand, but it was much better. Many more varieties of coral and fishes. I also had a “countryside trip”, on the back of a motorbike. It must be 45 years since I’ve ridden pillion. Mr Dong was a very careful driver, and we never went over 20kph. Saw lots and it was good to get away from the tourist hot-spots.

Vietnamese coffee is incredibly strong, maybe that explains the driving. If you are lucky enough to have it as the locals do, dripped through a little tin filter into a glass, sweet and thick, you get a glass of iced green tea with it. The coffee’s delicious, it has a slight vanilla, chocolatey aroma too.

From Nga Trang I went to a Quy Nhon. Not a European resort at all, nor even a Russian one!! A long beach with not a soul on it, though after work every one spills out, swims, used the exercise machines on the promenade, volleyball on the beach, football on the pavements (I’ve seen worse football watching The Robins….. Cheltenham’s team) and everything is suddenly very alive. There’s a large fishing fleet, including little coracles that are still used for fishing. No signs in English, no menus in English, so when I went to get something to eat it was point and hope.

After being really mean, ( it’s not worth it) and paying £6.00 for my room in Quy Nhon, I have splashed out (£30.00 a night B&B) and have a room that my house would fit into comfortably. The floor is highly polished teak, not the usual cold marble tiles, huge teak furniture and The Great Bed of Ware would look small beside what I slept in last night. From the balcony I’m sitting on I can see the wee swimming pool. This is Hoi An, a World Heritage site, a town largely made up of 18century merchants’ houses. I had a walk round yesterday and am going to buy a ticket today, so I can see inside everything. Tomorrow off to see My Son,( temples!!!!!) .

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North to Nga Trang

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Well this beats National Express. When the bus pulled into the bus station, my heart sank as I thought “it ‘s a night bus” . Not seats, but fitted out with about 15 bunks, upper and lower, three abreast. First you have to take your shoes off, and are given a bus-company bag to put them in! The seats are more like day beds, and you can lie down or sit, with your feet sticking out in front of you, a little space for your bag, shelf for food and drinks , and even a TV strategically placed so only about 3 passengers can see it. I will try to get a picture, but don’t want to upset my fellow travellers. Down side?? The low seats are at about floor level, so I’ll probably be stuck here for life and I suspect there’s no loo on board, but that’s probably not a bad thing. So time to relax for the next ten hours!!

The bus stops at Bus Company restaurants which have space to seat about 500 people, and serve cheap, basic food.( the loos vary, if lucky they’re western). I realised after the first stop, that you don’t even need to faff around with your shoe-bag, a bin of flip flops is provided as you disembark.

Being in the front lower “seat” I could see the dash board and a little screen on it…… No of course it wasn’t SATNAV…….just the DVD that was on, and the driver was watching it avidly. So probably a good thing we dragged along at about 40kph, though there were the usual sudden bursts of energy and overtaking. These DVDs which ran continuously, aren’t subtitled or dubbed, but just have quite a soft female voice-over, presumably telling the story, however when there are car chases or shoot outs (a regular feature) the volume overcame whatever I could find on my iPod.

For the first two hours we never really got into countryside, always some sort of habitation or industry. Eventually lots of rice paddies, which are intensely green, followed later by miles of orchards of dragon fruit. These are about 4 or 5 feet high and the branches look like huge Easter cactus. Then more rice, not much evidence of variety here. The villages are a lot more prosperous than in Cambodia, with substantial brick built houses, and neat gardens with crops of vegetables and rice.

Very soon we had mountains on our left. I’m no good at describing countryside but it is very beautiful. We didn’t actually see the sea till towards the end of the journey, and arrived well after dark.

Today there has been torrential rain ,with huge slate blue and black clouds. So much for my beach dream. But I managed about 2 minutes in the sea! See what tomorrow brings…….