How many people can you fit on a bus??

Trip Start Nov 01, 2007
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Trip End Jun 28, 2008


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Flag of Vietnam  ,
Monday, December 10, 2007

Well - thank goodness that I took my travel sick pills! We took our first small local bus from Quy Nhon to Kon Tum (4hours). It was a Mercedes Benz 15 passenger bus, which all sounds rather posh, doesn't it?? We left the bus station feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, but were a little unsure as to why the sliding side door was left open.....soon we discovered that the job of one of the bus guys was to hang out of it and try to drum up more passengers. At the peak, there were 22 people in the 15 peassenger bus. It was a wee bit cozy to say the least!

Kon Tum itself it just as the Lonely Planet describes it - the friendliest city in Vietnam. It is wonderful here - all the locals smile and say hello (without trying to sell you anything immediately afterwards!) Today we walked to the edge of town to a Bahnar ethnic village. They live mostly in stilt houses, even today. We walked a bit through the fields and watched the men harvesting sugar cane, and the kids playing in the river. On the way back to the main road, Malcolm made friends with a couple of Montagnard ladies who were determined to ply him with rice spirit and feed him their lunch. They didn't speak any English and obviously us no Vietnamese, but it was still pretty entertaining and a really nice experience to be invited to someone's home. They had the most unusual dogs we've ever seen - I thought at first they were painted, but it was actually their natural colourings. They were light brown with very thick defined black stripes - they looked just like tigers!

After lunch we went to a local orphanage - the Vinh Son 2, home to about 200 children. We brought along some balloons and Vietnamese spelling/colouring books and colouring pens. It was great fun blowing up the balloons and playing with them in the courtyard. Malcolm was definitely in his element, making up games to play with all the kids. At one point he had a big group of kiddies doing the Highland Fling! I think we could've easily spent many days there.

Had some really excellent food as well in Kon Tum, and are really glad we made the journey here. Next stop, Buon Ma Thuot!

Love,
K & M
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