1-3-11: Overnight Bus Ride, Hanoi to Hue

A very full mini-van picked us up and took us two blocks to the
private bus company station, a street corner. We were directed to the
appropriate bus. Hue? Blue one. We stowed our bags under the bus and
put our shoes in the blue plastic bag provided. At first I thought the
driver was handing out barf bags again, but thankfully not this time!

We were allowed and expected to pick our own bunks, so thankfully the
bus wasn't too full yet. The bus had three rows of bunks: side,
middle, side and two levels: bottom and top. All together I think
there was room for forty people on the bus. We noticed a few of the
bunks were a bit longer than others and those of course were taken,
but we found two bunks next to each other on the bottom level towards
the back, away from the dreaded horn. Each bunk had a small bottle of
water, a thin pillow and a thinner blanket. I was very glad that I had
pulled my socks and travel sheet out of my bag; the bus was freezing.
We got settled into our bunks, seeing how well we fit (not very), and
who else was on the bus (so far, just a few westerners).

Soon the bus pulled away from the curb and down the road, immediately
turning on loud pop music and corresponding, but out of sync, music
videos. We have heard horror stories from other travelers of overnight
buses that never turned music or lights off, but not on our bus,
right? Thankfully, no. The bus picked up more travelers, Vietnamese
this time, stopped for dinner at a rest stop and once we all piled
back on the bus we were put to bed - no lights, no music, no talking
please! Fine with us. We had eaten our sticky rice dinners and watched
a United States of Tara on the pad, bed time. (okay so I read
Poisonwood Bible for a while with my red headlamp - thanks ben!)

Then we tried to sleep, tried being the operative word. I was
impressed with the parent and chile duos that managed to sleep
peacefully in a single bunk - there were three pairs that I could see.
As for me, it was a lot of tossing and turning. Each position only
comfortable for so long. Every time I rearranged I thought, oh yes,
finally! This is a great position...if only...and then one thing would
be wrong with the position. Feet cramping, leg asleep, hip jamming
into bunk, shoulder smashed. I imagine that eventually I fell asleep,
but it's hard to believe. The bus seemed not to have shocks and
rattled us like skeletons over every bump and on these stellar roads -
there were many bumps. Oh, then there was the honking and swerving,
you wouldn't want to hit another car or motorbike with the size of our
bus. This doesn't mean slow down, just honk and swerve. Did I mention
it was also raining?

When I peaked out from under my black hood, which I had been using as
a night curtain against all the passing lights, and it was light, I
was more than ready to sit up and call it a night. We finally pulled
into Hue at about 9am. We made it and all things considered, it was
better than the bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vientiane.

The last hiccup was that our bags were hustled out from under the bus
and into a nearby hotel, the Google Hotel no less. The touts were
thick and persistent and we had to actually go into the hotel to
retrieve our bags, but all they do is talk and follow you around. If
you ignore them and walk away, they are harmless. Now we just needed
to find ourselves on our map and decide what we wanted to do with our
day! It was far more cloudy and rainy than we had expected, maybe
going to the national park that has millions of leeches on rainy days
is not a good plan...