As always, my story starts with my bus journey. They never fail to disappoint out here, do they? Once again, our bus was late. This time, we arrived to our pick up point at 5:15pm but our bus didn't arrive until almost 7pm. In between bus rides we had heard about how horrendous this journey was meant to be since it was supposed to be so long (about 13 hrs) and since there was likely to be a very stinky bathroom because of this. And since we were Western that meant that the seats in the back of the bus near the bathrooms were for us. Neil, Eden and I came up with a great plan to ensure safety away from the back of the bus. So while Neil was in charge of getting our bags onto the bottom of the bus, Eden and I were to get on the bus first and just grab the best seats possible to us. We got on, and luckily there was no toilet--so no stink--and we got some prime seats right by the tv screen. We thought we were starting out this trip with the right foot forward. Wrong as always...haha. We heard the worst news first: there were cardboard boxes full of dead fish in the cargo area of the bus and they were leaking stinky fish juices. Ew. Best part: The Western people's luggage was to be loaded in that section, not the Vietnamese luggage. Awesome. While we were digesting that information and thinking of all the horrible ways our bags and clothes would smell after stewing in the 90+ degree heat with the dead fish (which were NOT on ice), the driver came and closed the tv screen, so we realized long trip, no bus, and stinky fish were in store for us. Sweet. I didn't really think things could get worse, but obviously they could. We actually drove out of our way and headed north for a good 30 or 40 minutes in order to unload the fish at some bus station. Our bags were taken off the bus with the fish and then reloaded back onto whatever fish juice was left that wasn't wiped away by the makeshift mop that they used to clean some of it up. We also proceeded to pick up plenty of Vietnamese people who payed way less than we did to get on the bus, and were given priority for all of the seats in the front of the bus and on the bottom bunks. Some guys from the back tried to move to the bottom bunks and they got yelled at by the Vietnamese workers until they moved back to their crappy seats. Apparently they threaten to remove your luggage if you don't move. They don't mess around when it comes to saving the best seats for their own.
So after a long stop, we finally started heading down the coast. The next problem was that try as I might to fall asleep, the bus driver was completely over aggressive with his horn, and he pretty much had it pressed down for the next 3 hours. It was so hard to fall asleep with all the noise he was making--it was like he was trying to make a song or something. On top of that, we pretty much stopped every hour to pick up more passengers even though the bus was full. The bus can legally seat 40 people. By the time we stopped picking up passengers we had 53 in the bus, including the driver! The extra 12 people slept in the aisles between the seats. So now I'm in an overcrowded bus, my bag is likely soaked in fish juice, and to top it all off, only the Vietnamese passengers are given a blanket and free bottle of water. Now things just seem ridiculous. How can that possibly seem ok? Ugh. So annoying. I managed to get a blanket from the guy which was nice, but ended up being wholly unnecessary because at about 2am the air conditioning cut out. Actually, a funny smell started to come from the vents and the bus driver thought he would just turn the AC off while we were all sleeping and we wouldn't even notice. We noticed. It was as if someone had a massive blow horn in the bus--all of the Westerners woke up like clockwork as soon as the AC had been off long enough because the temperature of the bus sky rocketed. We drove for an hour with people from the back of the bus yelling up to the front for the driver to put the AC back on. The Vietnamese people weren't too happy with us, but no one cared since we were all sweating like pigs. The only thing they could do was open the emergency exit latch on the roof of the bus to let some air in. After about an hour of no AC and random pullovers to find a mechanic, the bus started to make some ridiculous alert sound, which was probably telling the driver that we needed to fix something asap. It went on for a good 30 minutes before the driver finally pulled off the road in the middle of nowhere. It was 3am.
There were 2 other buses that had broken down that were there as well, so we were third in line to be fixed. The driver and his helpers turned the bus off and just left us all in there without any explanation. Pretty soon we were all sweating buckets. Finally, my friends and I couldn't stand it anymore so we climbed through the emergency exit on the roof of the bus to go sit outside on top of the bus. It was probably one of the most amazing feelings in the world to put my head out into the air from the bus. It was at least 10 degrees cooler outside than it was in the bus. We sat out there until 5:30am, by which time almost 10 people from the bus were sitting with us enjoying the cool air. We figured it would be a good idea to try to sleep while the bus wasn't moving considering our driver's obsession with the horn, but it was still way too hot in the bus--my back was covered in sweat within 5 minutes of laying down in my seat. Plus, people were going in and out of the bus to start walking around the town since the sun had come up, so every time someone passed my seat, they managed to touch me somehow because they were trying to avoid stepping on the person sleeping the aisle next to my seat. Every time I would start to doze off, someone would brush against me and I'd wake right up because I had no idea who was touching me. I might have slept 20 minutes before I gave up and just waited outside with everyone at a nearby cafe. We didn't get the bus fixed until 8:30am..what a nightmare. We were supposed to reach Nha Trang by 6:30am, but ended up getting in around 12:30 or 1pm. But we did reach there eventually!! And, our bags didn't smell like fish so we were a lot happier. haha.
Nha Trang is a really sweet beach spot in Vietnam. There were plenty of tourists there to vacation, both Vietnamese and foreign. We spent our days lounging on some chairs by a pool and the beach, and went out at night to the bars, all of which had a "Happy Hour" which lasted from 4pm-midnight. Our first night out was the most interesting to say the least. My Canadian friends are a bit rowdier than I am, and after several drinks decided it would be fun to go swimming in the ocean. I opted out and just continued to talk to some English people we had just befriended on the beach. At some point one of the girl's camera and money were stolen from her bag even though someone was supposed to be watching it. This is where the trouble started. They thought maybe this group of about 10 Vietnamese men knew where her camera and money were--and by that I mean they were blatantly accusing these locals of stealing the camera. I kept my distance from the altercation, but at some point one of the Vietnamese guys pushed one of the girls getting involved in the fight. So now her boyfriend was getting all worked up, and it was looking uglier and uglier as I stood by and watched. And then one of the Vietnamese guys got a plank of wood and another got an oar. So now my Canadian friends were surrounded by this group of armed Vietnamese, and instead of walking away, they got even angrier that they were being threatened. Ay yi yi. One of the Vietnamese dudes got fed up enough with the yelling and pulled out a knife. Now it was serious, and I wasn't too thrilled to be watching this because once again, my friends were just more outraged than scared, and they continued to yell at the Vietnamese and accuse them of stealing the camera. Ugh. The English guys I was talking to suggested someone should go over there and pull the Canadians away since the weapons were coming out, and obviously I was the person who had to go. So I had to walk over there and step between the knife and my yelling friends and pull them away. Not cool. We managed to walk away from the situation unscathed, but yikes. I was definitely not excited about getting involved in that fight. I'm just glad no one got hurt. :)
The next day and night were much more relaxed to say the least. We wanted to rest up for our final bus ride down to Saigon which would be happening the next morning. Hopefully it goes better than the one down to Nha Trang!And last, but not least: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINA!! Sorry I didn't get to call--that bus breakdown really screwed my plans! haha. Hope it was amazing!!
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