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Published: September 15th 2010
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Laying at the back of the bus
This was the view we had from the back of the sleeper bus. Just a giant bouble decker on wheels. We decided that the best way to get from Hue to Hoi An was by bus. We had read in the Lonely Planet that you could get a ticket fairly cheap and that it would only take a few hours. Jo and I thought that it would be alright so we decided to give it a go.
I went to the Sinh Café to book the tickets. Of course the lady at the desk was insistent on trying to get me to book a private car for ‘Just US$65’. I of course had other ideas. In between discussing whether the direct bus or the non-direct bus was better she kept on pushing the virtues of the private car. If we used the car we could stop as many times as we wanted on the way to see the beautiful sights. We could leave any time we wanted and that would be good for the ‘Babies’ (anyone under the age of 12 seems to be referred to as a baby). Anyway after about 10 minutes the lady gave up on me agreeing to a private car. I then decided that the direct bus leaving at 2pm would be the best time
Alex dead to the world.
Alex loved the trip on the bus. He has talked about it for days. All he did was lay back, play his DS and eat oreos. He wants to know when we get on again. for us to leave. Plus it was only going to cost us US$9. A total bargain in anyones books. When I booked the tickets I of course asked if the bus was air-conditioned. The lady looked at me as if I was some sort of fool because it was a ‘Sleeper Bus’ and of course it was air-conditioned. So I asked the question again. She said again that it was a ‘Sleeper Bus’ and then pointed to a picture so I could ‘see for myself’ and that it was a very good bus. The picture to me showed a bus that we would call a ‘Coach’ back home, double decker at that, and of course it would be air-conditioned. I assumed that ‘sleeping’ meant you could push the seat back a little if you wanted to have a sleep on the long journey.
Now this is where everything gets interesting. The next day we meet at the Sinh Café to catch the bus. It rocked up and looked exactly like the one in the photo I was shown. We also assume that we would have plenty of room as there just didn’t seem to be many passengers. However the
Phoebe relaxing on the bus.
Phoebe loved being on the sleeper bus especially when she moved to a 'top bunk' away fromthe rest of us. inside was nothing like I could have imagined. The first thing we noticed was that the aisle in the bus was extremely narrow. The second thing that we noticed was that the seats were actually in a horizontal position. Ours were completely flat. Now it hit us fully as to what ‘Sleeper Bus’ meant. We just laughed. We were also on the bottom level of the bus. That goodness we are all little. There was not much room, either in the seat/bed or as far as head room goes. We just kept laughing. We also got a good idea as to what our faces must have looked like when we first got on as foreigner after foreigner got their first look at their ‘seat’. Basically we were on a giant bunk bed on wheels.
Phoebe and Alex loved it. Alex actually hasn’t stopped talking about it for the last couple of days. Phoebe loved sitting up the top (she moved) and looking around. Strangely it was a very comfortable and very well air-conditioned ride. Thanks to information getting lost in translation we have had another of life’s little adventures. Again a difference in cultures has produced a little travelling pearl. Now you have just got to give that a CF of 10. Damn I love travelling in this part of the world.
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