Life Experience right???

---

I don't even know where to begin. I will warn you before you read this that it is not for the faint of heart. So last I wrote I was in Vientienne in Laos and was killing time waiting for my bus to Hue. I enjoyed a couple days of relaxation and reading in cute little French coffee shops. I made my way to the bus stop at 5:00 for my bus that was to leave at 6:00pm. Of course being on Pollock time I was very early and the first one there. Slowly others started to arrive and I was relieved when some other young tourists showed up and confirmed that I was in the right place. It is different travelling alone in that you don't have that other person to reassure that you are in the right place or going the right way. So by the time we were all loaded up and on our way it was about 9:00pm. Its Laos I had to remind myself and everything moves at a slower pace.

So I chatted with some of the people on the bus and we braced ourselves for a very long night. The road between Vientienne and the Laos Vietnam border has potential. You can tell that they are trying to fix it up and fill the millions of holes in the road and widen some of the narrow parts however, none of that has been completed yet haha. So we are travelling along in the dark when all of a sudden I hear a girl about four rows ahead of me saying "oh my God, oh my God". The lights come on and she is covered in puke. In her hair, and all down her back. The guy behind her has projectile vommitted down the back and all over her and the guy next to her. Of course being in a closed environment it doesn't take long until the entire bus is filled with the smell of vommit. I look over next to me to the other side of the bus and there is a guy who isn't looking to well. It doesn't take long before he pukes all over himself and the floor in the aisle right beside me. Awesome. So finally after all this going on the bus driver desides to pull the bus over. Both of the puky brothers are local people and seem to not know that when you need to puke you scream and shout and get off the bus or put your head out the window. Anyways a chain reaction has begun at this point and two more people end up puking but they at least got off the bus before doing so. So we are in the middle of nowhere, we have a bus that is covered in puke and very little option as to how to clean it up. An aussie guy looked over at me as I was using blankets to wipe up some of the vommitt and said "character building right". A british girl responded with "This is bollocks, I would absolutely rather have no character than go through this!" That pretty much sums it up.

So I would like to thank my friends who have been known to drink a little to much in the past and have needed my assistance while they have puked their guts out because I seem to have the stomach to be able to handle puke now. So we cleaned the bus the best we could and put the puky brothers up at the front with bags and water. We used about 5 bottles of hand sanitizer and air freshener and after about an hour the bus was starting to smell a little better. We tried to give the girl who got puked on a shower with any extra water but it was kind of impossible to get her completely clean. The two guys who were sick first continued to be sick the entire way to the border. At least they had bags this time and were at the front of the bus instead.

So we continued driving through the night at a turtles pace and reached the most chaotic border crossing of my journey so far. There were line ups everywhere with no logic and you had to go through each step before the next with no one telling you which came first but eventually we crossed into a very cold, rainy Vietnam. We drove down out of the rainy mountains to a town called Vinh. There were 5 of us girls who wanted to head south to a town called Hue and the rest were heading north to Hanoi. We stopped at a restaurant and assumed that we would be then driven to the bus stop where we would transfer buses to head south. Instead they told us to wait at the restaurant and the next bus on the way to Hue would pick us up. So this was all fine until the driver asked for our tickets (which we handed over assuming he was just checking them) and he boarded our old bus and the bus started driving away. So now we have no tickets, and we are waiting a bus...no number, no time just a bus. My travelling in Indonesia definitely came in handy as I have been in this situation before. The four other girls were not so convinced and were very worried we were going to be stuck there. The thing is they are all trying to get as much money from us as possible so they will try and create opportunities for us to need to dish out more money. One of the girls started talking to a guy who assured her that if we all paid 5US$ each that he could get a bus for us. The thing was we had already paid. We decided to just wait and see if any buses came as the older couple who clearly owned the restaurant were probably supposed to pass on some money to whatever bus came through. Sure enough as the young men were trying to scam us into more money a bus was flagged down by the older man and he handed the bus driver money for our already paid tickets and we boarded the bus. The old man gave me a little wink as I thanked him for his honesty and for not screwing up out of more money. We were all very relieved and we laughed at how many people probably hand over more money.

So we carried on and at 9:00pm we arrived in Hue, 28 hrs after I started my journey. We found a hotel and some food and headed to bed. The next morning we set out to explore Hue and book our bus that afternoon to Hoi An. I stayed with Steph and Lizzy, two british girls. We walked over to an area of Hue called the Citadel. It was a former imperial city on the northern bank of the Song Huong. It was heavily bombed by the Americans during the war and due to its central location between the north and the south it was an area of mass destruction during the war. There were graves and memorial sites everywhere. It is a huge area to see so we didn't plan to see it all but as we read in our lonely planet book you can take a tour. The book spoke of a specific tour guide named Tran Van Thinh and how he spoke excellent English and gave great tours. As we walked accross the bridge sure enough there was Tran Van Thinh. We laughed at our odds of actually finding him and decided to go on his tour. He gave us a great tour of the Citadel and told us all about the war and loosing his father. He showed us some American bunkers that are still there and took us to see a temple in which some nuns invited us to join them for breakfast. Breakfast was a weird gelatin thing made of sugar and coconut milk. hmmm....not sure that would hold me for very long. We visited the Forbidden Purple City which was neat and then headed back to catch our bus. It was neat to hear about the area from a local person. I have missed that since being in Indonesia.

So we said goodbye to Tran and headed for our bus. We arrived in Hoi An just three hours later, and on time!!! Hoi An is a cute little city in which the thing to do is have clothes made. I am not much for shopping but it was fun to help Lizzy pick our some skirts and jackets to have made. Today we are going to do some more shopping and head down to the river to see the sights. Tonight we are going on another overnight bus to Nha Trang. We have booked a sleeper bus that you can lie down on. Hopefully it will be more enjoyable than the puky bus. I am very excited to spend several days in Nha Trang as there is lots of scuba diving in the area. Back to the beaches!!!

I am really liking Vietnam so far. The people are so friendly (other than the ones who are trying to scam you for money) and the scenery is amazing. After being in northern thailand and laos where it is very dry this time of year it is amazing how green and lush everything is here. So I will continue to travel with Steph and Lizzy down to Nha Trang and then we will part as I want to spend more time there then they do. I haven't really been on my own much as it is so easy to meet people.

So all is well now that I have made it to Vietnam and I am really looking forward to my next week in Nha Trang and then on to Saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City.

I miss you all and I hope things are going well at home. I heard from Stacey and she has made it home safely also. Talk soon,
Alicia

---

Photos

First real latte!
Had to visit the very French town of Vientienne to enjoy one of my favorites.

Getting on the bus
Wow, I still look happy?

Vietnam
So green and lush! out the bus window

Tour of Citadel
Steph, Lizzy and me.

Visiting the nuns
They shared their breakfast with us. Sugar and coconut milk made into a Jello??

Comments

[Mitch]

Hey sis! Sounds like a great trip, trust me you'll even look back at the puke as a fond memory. i know how long that bus you took is and I can't even imagine being of a bus like that for that amount of time. Have fun in Nha Trang, please take some pictures in Why Not Bar and Red Apple bar for me. Sigh, I miss that place! Also make sure you do a party boat cruise! Love you!

[Mom]

Way to go Babe!
Nothing will slow you down! Anyway I was glad your story was gross and not terrifying. Glad to see you are taking time to smell the flowers too haha!! Keep enjoying your travels and think of me when you are diving. We watched our Phi Phi dive video the other night...just glorious :o) Bye for now...luv you!

[aunty]

Pukey bus rides....
hahaha...I guess it's okay to laugh now??? Oh dear! Well as a wise traveler once said to me: the worst part about traveling is the traveling part. Vietnam looks so beautiful....boy am I looking forward to seeing even more pics when you get back. Gramma and Grampa send their love...they will be thrilled to have another blog to read. Lova lova, Aunty