The sleeper bus from hell.....
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2007
1
21
33
Trip End
Nov 21, 2007
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Monday, November 12, 2007
We wait at Sinh Cafe until 5.30pm and the lady behind the counter says pickup can be any time between 5.30pm and 6.00pm. At 6.10pm, a non-sleeper bus arrives and we are told to get on. Basically, the flooding is so bad in Hue that the sleeper bus cannot physically get into the city. We then stay on this bus for the best part of 90mins as we make more stops to pick people up and their luggage. At one point, we collect abour 15 people and their luggage - the luggage had all been stored under the bus and got drenched as the driver drove through flooded areas
morning at last - 11 hours down, 1 hour to go
. We did see a bus drive through the flooded streets, despite the water reaching the top of the wheel arch!After 90mins, we got off at some location in the middle of nowhere and queued to get on a sleeper bus. The tourist sleeper was full so we (and 2 other westerners) were crammed on to the local sleeper bus. A sleeper bus means one where the seats are removed and recliners are installed. In the local bus, 3 rows of recliners fitted......Thus began 10 hours of unease. Every hour the bus stopped in a different town and picked up locals. There were no more beds, so people slept in the aisles. Every time it stopped, the lights all came on.....we were right next to the toilet.....it was HORRIBLE. Despite this, John managed to sleep in a "bed" which is about 30cms shorter than him and Natalie didn't sleep at all.
At abour 7.30am, we arrived in Hanoi. The 4 westerners were thrown out on the sidewalk. Someone fron Sinh Cafe eventually turned up and agreed to pay the taxi fare to get us to the city.......thus the nightmare was at an end.
