Forget Skydiving...Take a Bus in Vietnam

Trip Start Jul 11, 2008

Trip End Aug 13, 2008

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Flag of Vietnam Hanoi, Vietnam
Thursday, July 17, 2008

Ok,
Going to try this again. Last time I wrote this post it did not save. Since the computer I was using did not have Word, I had to type directly into travel blog and that's always a bit risky. So here I am now at an internet café in Hoi An on a street of tailor shops.

After taking a bus back from Halong Bay we had a couple of hour in Hanoi and then took a 12 hour bus ride to Hue in Central Vietnam. Traveling is all about learning and we learned that we took the wrong bus company. I wouldn't list all the negatives, but there is a laundry list. I'd not complain if it were the norm and if everyone had the same experience, but apparently it's a bit of an aberration. We've since changed bus companies and it's going swimmingly thus far.

If you like living on the edge I suggest you consider road transportation in Vietnam. I'm loath to point out the negatives in a place I travel to but.....driving in Vietnam is HORRIBLE!!!! Dangerous Dangerous. Trucks and Buses share the road with cycles and bicycles. I'm talking about the highways here. Drivers spend as much time in the opposing lane as they do in their own. The majority of the major roads are slightly larger than the road that passes in front of my house in a quite residential area. Words almost fail me. Buses and trucks bear down on cyclists and scooters with horns blaring. Drivers calculate passing distances down to the centimeter. Usually they are right...we have however seen considerable evidence of miscalculation with what could have only been catastrophic consequences. So what's the awestruck and frightened traveler to do about it? You could do as one Israeli girl on our Hanoi to Hue bus trip did and that is begin screaming at the bus driver in English at 4 in the morning...."Stop!!! Why are you driving like this? You are going to get us all killed....Stop the bus I want to get off!!" The bus driver responded by saying, "no speak English." Or you can do like we did, and apparently most others do, and that is to say "fuck it," roll over, and go to sleep.
As an aside: when the Israeli girl was screaming at the driver we were hoping (vainly I'm sure) that the Vietnamese could tell the difference between an American and an Israeli accent.

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