South towards Saigon

Our 32 hour bus trip south brought us the sun and some lovely views:

Our first bus brought us back to Hoi An - we waited in a hotel lobby until a man on a motorbike had a group of us follow him through the streets to a different location. There we were picked up by our sleeper, around 10 minutes later. After being on a bus all afternoon, we we were starving. Even after 2 weeks of it, oh how I longed for some noodles or rice.

We found our sleeping spots, (a much less strenuous event than it had been previously) and got settled in. I woke up when the bus came to a stop something around 5 hours later. I sat up and turned to Kevin. "Uuung? Food here?" After a few minutes of existing in a confused zombie state, we stumbled into the Asian night.
We were at a large rest stop. We ordered a plate of fried rice, worried we wouldn't have time to each finish a meal before the bus rolled away. We scarfed it so quickly, I began to realize how hungry I was  -- and how much longer I'd be on a bus. I ordered myself some noodles. As I waited, I noticed the diminishing number of bus passengers at the tables. I started to get a bit nervous, but I was hungry and I'd payed... so I'd wait.

...Then came the bus honk, just as the young lady ran my noodles (soup, as it turned out) over to me.

The Restaurant Man came over to me and rested his hand on my shoulder, seating me back in my chair.
"It is ok. Eat. Eat. I know bus. He wait. Eat."
I awkwardly began to chop stick the noodles into oblivion and told Kevin to run to the bus and I'd be right behind. After my first large swallow I set it down, said thank you and stood to go. Again, I was pressed down.
"No, no. It's ok. Finish. Eat. Relax. It's ok!"
I sat back down politely and chugged the broth.
That's when I noticed it. Maybe not? Yep. Definitely. That bus is definitely moving. Rolling out of the station, as it were. Wouldn't that be an interesting and authentic adventure? To work at the family owned rest stop cafeteria in Goodness-Knows-Where-Asia? I thought it over only briefly as I pushed past the man, "Thank you!!" and saw how amused he was watching me frantically chase after the bus. He was having himself a good laugh. And who could blame him, I must have looked quite silly. I jumped into the open door and onto the slowly moving bus. Back to "bed" it is.....

 When we arrived at the next stop, (Nha Trang, sometime around 11am?) we were told to get off and hop on the next sleeper bus. We were groggy, sore and confused. Something dawned on my traveling companion. His face dropped: "The guy on that bus took our ticket -- I didn't know we needed it for a third bus." Oh. Hm... that should be fine. They must know what they're doing. They'll usher us where our ticket told them we were headed.

Oh, look! There's the Third Bus Man. He seems a bit unfriendly, but that's neither here nor there! Let's get going.
"Hello! We are going to Saigon, but the man on our last bus took the receipt."
"No! Only two people from that bus go to Saigon! I already have them, here and here! Impossible." "................"
"NO! Get away - I am very busy!"

Panic. The bus is gearing up to go.
"We are supposed to be on this bus..."
"IMPOSSIBLE! No receipt, no bus. Go away!!"
Cue Kevin finding his receipt. Safe.

In the beds at the back sat 4 young Australian birds, and a young British guy and gal. The Bus Man boarded and began to yell at... not us! The Aussies in the back.
"You didn't confirm tickets yesterday! You needed to confirm! Off the bus!"
"....we didn't know. Please -- we have a flight to catch!"
"No! Off the bus NOW."
"...We can't! Is it full?" It wasn't. "You can only stay if you give 100,000 Dong. Each."
"Oh. Ok." They did. (100,000 dong = $5).

As it turned out, the last leg of the journey only included these four gals and the british two-some. They all ended up having a back-of-the-bus-party and becoming great friends.  Kevin and I stayed in the front alone, listening in on their fun until we realized there was no other option. Then we didn't want to listen anymore. I got out the earplugs, but it was impossible to ignore the loud chatter.
I got to hear all about the "super rad Russian couple, they were, like, so old but so like, beautiful, you know? Anyway, on the island they gave us acid coconuts and we all like, tripped balls together! Cheers to that!"
And
"Aw gawd, Aussie boys give us such a bad rep. Everyone we meet is like: 'Ugh, why do Australian boys just get drunk and stupid all the time?' And they are so annoying. Anyway, last night I got so drunk I ..." Etc.

As we rolled down the Saigon streets the accent section of the bus made a date with each other for dinner as I mentally made a date with a shower. We went directly to the first unoccupied budget guest house.

As it turned out, this guest house was occupied by hookers&Johns (spoken to the desk boy: "Now listen up, I won't pay with her if I don't like the looks of her!"), many ants, and an intimidating flighty bat.

 We enjoyed one night of street walking to see all the street walkers, offerings of scandalous products we politely declined, and hotel bat dodging adventures. Then the bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Hoi An.... and back to Hue...

January 23-29, 2011.
Ah, the middle point of the adventure.

We made it to Hoi An around January 23rd.....the days there were all fabulously charming and relaxing.

The four days we spent drinking lattes and strolling the picturesque streets all run together. I suppose one remembers angry sleeping men on buses with more detail. Nevertheless, we were ready for an adorable little haven like Hoi An, and some much needed delicious (non-instant!!) coffee couldn't have (finally) come at a better time.

You get "trapped" with all of the other tourists... and yes, even I succumbed to the pressure of the 1,385 custom tailor shops (that number is one I've just made up). That latte perked me up and made me feel like buying a little something perty just for me. (I accidentally got a slightly lower price for a dress of much less quality, but I'll blame the language barrier..) We discussed the possibility of skipping Laos and seeing the rest of southern Vietnam so we didn't have to make the same bus trip back where we came from, Hue. On a trip this long (and sometimes arduous) you never look forward to feeling like you're moving backwards as opposed to continuing on your path.

We decided we'd relaxed at riverside restaurants with 30 cent beers enough nights, and we were looking forward to all of the adventures we were sure to find in Laos.

So we hopped back on the loud yellow honking bus to Hue.

And when we finally arrived in Hue.. (6 hours later?) it was still raining. Much more heavily. And it was dark. And they'd decided not to take us to town, but to the confusingly located bus station where the Hotel pushers were waiting for us with free minibus rides to their "best price!" location.

After stepping in 3 separate ankle deep puddles, we hopped in a mysterious minibus with the most aggressive hotel salesman/woman. Thankfully, we ended up near where we wanted to be and the hotel room (though up 5 extremely long flights of stairs) was decent enough (American Idol marathon channel? So be it..)

After a chilly night under two blankets, (the room didn't get above a balmy 30 degrees..) we ventured into the rain to find the citadel.
It was a wet citadel experience:


Pretty neat. We walked through the emperor's forbidden purple palace (for a fee and no pictures allowed) where they showed a funny dvd of CGI re-enactments of events that took place there such as: an elephant killing a de-clawed tiger.

brr.

A Citadel Bat

We wandered this historic area, which was much larger than you'd think -- enclosed by two moats. Pretty cool.


We explored our fascinating surroundings... until we realized once your reach your threshold of cold and wet-ness, fascinating surroundings stop being fascinating. So we began the long, wet, cold trudge back to our American Idol marathon room.


We attempted to book our bus to Laos (which we heard would be the most difficult transit of all), and learned it only left every 3 days and was sold out for that day. We also learned we no longer had enough American dollars to buy our visas. Then we learned (after withdrawing 10 million dong and walking through the pouring rain for hours to 11 different banks around the city) "no one in the entire country" will ever exchange dong for dollars. So we felt a bit lost and trapped. Should we stay in rainy Hue for another 2 days with no guarantee of being able to purchase our Laos visa with dong? And even if we could, would we ever be able to exchange our millions of dong to riel or dollars in the part of Laos we were headed -- where we read there are ATMS or banks?

We decided to throw up our hands and give up on Laos. Quite the bummer. "Staying flexible" isn't always easy. The only other option was to travel south, to exit Vietnam into Cambodia before transit shut down for their New Year (TET).

The trains were all already sold out what with all the new year travelers. So we had to buy the next sleeper bus out. The first leg of the journey?
The same bus. Again. Third time. Right back to Hoi An. (We knew we shouldn't have left those perfectly steamed lattes).
Back in Hoi An, we'd wait 10 minutes & hop on the sleeper bus down to Nha Trang. We had to de-bus again and continue on the third bus all the way to Saigon.

In Hue, they predicted we'd arrive in 23 hours.
Stay tuned for details on the next 32 hours of my life - on to one night in Saigon...