July 22nd, 2017
July 22-it’s always an adventure
Up at 6am not bcz I had to be, but bcz that’s just when I woke up today. Whenever we have a travel day whether it’s early Departure or not, I always sleep a little restless as I guess I worry about missing. Breakfast was tasty as always. It is a very reliable buffet breakfast here. I am going to miss the sweetened condensed milk in my coffee when i leave Vietnam. My waistline probably won’t though 😂😂
We got packed up and got caught up on some communication to back home and were Down at the desk to settle up. I have to say the service at this hotel is like no other. Far and away the best service we have ever had in all our years of travel. Every single staff member is so sweet. They initiate with us all the time, not to sell us something but just to check it with us. I planned to leave a tip for the girl who must run the restaurant. She is literally the sweetest and I want her to come back home with us. After thinking about this for a bit I decided it might be creepy to tell her I want to sneak her into my bag and bring her home with me. So I will just give her some money, hopefully make her day and move along myself. The minimum wage her in Vietnam ranges from $140-$175 a month. I sure hope she makes more than that!!!!! The hotel manager knows us by name, and is very grateful for our positive review on Trip advisor. Apparently his wages are based partly on trip advisor reviews… he deserves all the kudos we have him.
The taxi that he hotel arranged came to pick us up right as promised at 1 and took us to bus depot. We waited for a 15 or so minutes then a bus came along and the scramble began. There is clearly some pecking order that exists here based on your nationality. Despite the fact that the man said he would go in the order of the list (we were slightly more than halfway down) Clearly Vietnamese people were exempt from this rule. So after they were all on, the pushy people were allowed on next and after that, they deferred to the list. I knew I was getting on the bus, but my preference was not have a bottom berth and/or be near the back of the bus. So as it turns out I am on a top berth in the second row. See how that goes?? 🙄
So I am petrified of this ride home, despite the fact that Mr. Kong at the Freesia told me it would be ok and more importantly that I would be ok. So I choose to focus on the green trees of the hills rather than the oncoming traffic and steep drop off into canyons on the right. When the trees are so close that I could touch them if there was no glass in the window, I do think why the heck are we on this side of the road? We are supposed to be driving on the right side. I suppose it is critical to pass whatever we may come across….I have survived about 55 minutes of this (which I know from coming the other way is the bulk of the scariest part) when we pull over for what I believe to be the obligatory driver pee break. But this pee break is taking way too long, 20 minutes and not only are we not back on the road, but we are backing up into a side street. And then after 10 more minutes, there is a long announcement in Vietnamese followed by a short announcement in English. “The bus is broken, they are bringing us another one”. I KNEW THE ENGINE SOUNDED FUNNY! It thought it was my paranoia…..but clearly not. My non mechanical assessment: i think the transmission was acting up and as long as we were coming down off the mountains, we were Mostly ok with good brakes. But we are more on flat now, therefore not ok. The only redeeming thing about this out stop is I get off the bus and it’s warm. Legitimately warm. Like warm that I have not felt one time on this whole trip. So this gives me hope for better weather…..
So anyway, Just over 90 minutes later (plenty of time for bathrooming and acquiring a snack) another bus comes. Then the crazy scramble begins. Many are now jostling for better seats. I had to get busy with my bag twice to keep back a pushy Chinese lady and an even pushier Asian man (with a face Mask), telling them “NO-there is a line!” Only to get on and have someone put shoes in what I believe to be troy’s seat. I’m like “whose shoes? This is my husband’s seat” and this French lady says “no I need that for my husband!” And then these two nice British dudes chime up on my behalf and say “we were told we had to sit in same seats” ? She was like “oh🙄” and moves the bag of shoes. I look around and see that most people are doing just that as am I. It’s what makes SENSE right. Didn’t occur to me to do otherwise. So then I hear them chatting a few minutes later and they are like “what is WRONG with people?” Why can’t people just follow the rules? I’m a bloke who just follows the rules.” Amen – kindred spirits! So I turn back to them and say “thank you for being a rule follower!” 👍
4:04 pm and we are on our way.
4:20 pm. Driver pulls over and announces it is break time! Uhhhhhhhhh we just had a two hour break. He says 5 minutes. I’ve never seen a roadside break be only 5 minutes.
4:34 back on the road…….
5:54pm-absolutely no idea where we are or how much longer but there is blue sky out there. I’ve not seen blue sky in 19 days…..I bet it’s warm too. Can’t tell from in here. But I’ll know soon enough.
6:48pm. It’s dusk. Cruising along nicely and then some ridiculous multicoloured party lights pop on in the bus. 4 sets the full length of the bus. Bright and obnoxious. What’s happening! Are we there?? Not by my calculations.
6:50-7:21pm rest stop. Be proud of me. Tried some food from a non English speaking Girl. One thing I recognized (sandwich) and one I didn’t. A square thing looked like rice. Got far enough to believe the rice thing had pork inside and the sandwich had chicken. Oddly enough, she fried both for me before putting In bags and telling me “25” (aka 25,000 dong ($1.25 usd) . So the rice thing may or may not have had pork. There was some pink blob in the middle but it had something else the consistency of mashed potatoes (maybe it WAS mashed potatoes) and the sandwich was egg. And I guess eggs come from chicken….so that was totally false.
Fought with a crazy bathroom lady about paying for the bathroom. She did for want me to walk by without paying. She was slapping her clear plastic by and saying “pay pay money money”. And I was saying “I don’t need your paper!” She was insisting. So I Told her “on way out”. Pretty sure I crossed over a pipe inside the washroom and ended up using the man’s toilet. But didn’t realize it until after. My written Vietnamese just isn’t that hood yet. They divide them on the outside by two doors but once instead you have to read the doors ?? So I’m coming out, there she is still yelling at me…I pull out 2,000 dong and give to her. She is still yelling at me and I’m saying “I UNDERSTAND!” Maybe yelling back a little. I walk away and see her still hollering at me. So I go back and she is flapping the bills around and pointing at them. Oh I see I didn’t give her pristine bills. Too bad I say. It’s all I have. Nothing more annoying than having to pay to pee
9:34pm arrived at hotel. It’s really amazing. We got that “suite upgrade” sweeeeeet!! Another really friendly hotel staff reception. Similar to a Freesia. Sooooooo different then the a Dragon Airport hotel where we stayed the first night and I was panicked about Vietnam!!
