Chau Doc to Saigon

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Loaded with baguettes, cheese and local brioche type fare we were prepared for our first long bus journey in Vietnam - I forgot that the food was in my (LB) rucksack as i preceded to squish down my bag with my feet for it to fit under the seat in front- Fliss kindly reminded me, but alas it was too late our lovely fresh baguettes from the local market were now wheat crepes!

We were quite relieved to be leaving the wonderful delights of Chau Doc and felt at complete ease with no other westerners on the bus apart from the man that insisted on sitting next to Fliss on a bin in the aisle of the bus - as soon as he went for a toilet break Fliss wasted no time in moving the bin adjacent to another victims seat - we now had fresh un’BO’ air!

We spent most of the journey giggling as we found it highly amusing that the driver felt the urge to constantly beep the loud deep hooter of the bus. It was so constant that during the journey we decided to count the seconds between beeps - the longest was 21 seconds (and we are not exaggerating) and the shortest was 3 seconds. The locals were rather inquisitive at out humour and starred at us as if we were completely mad- which in fairness we probably were! Little did we know that the beeping is a pre requisite for passing your driving test in Vietnam, they do not use their mirrors they simply beep to warn other vehicles of their presence. After a month in Vietnam we soon did not see the funny side of constant beeping especially at 4am on sleeper buses!

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