Night(mare) bus to Vietnam

A long bus journey was the only option to Vietnam from Southern Laos. I bought a ticket from an agent for once, which was probably silly and it turned out to be so. The bus station was some 5km out of town which is why I made this rare choice to line some agent's pockets with extra cash for no real reason but I guessed it may be less than a taxi out to the station and back in order to guarantee a ticket. It meant for some reason I had to leave 90 minutes earlier, so he could take me the wrong way to some collection point outside a tailor repair shop, where I had to wait another 30 minutes for a sangthaew to the station which I could have just got myself anyway. This was his way of providing a 'taxi' to the station as he put it. Anyway at least I had a seat on the bus, some slept on the floor or on the boxes and crates of various consignments loaded on by the drivers and passengers, fruit, clothes, those conical hats you see in the fields and who knows what else. Only half of the bus had seats, the back half was full of merchandise! Reminds me a little of the journey from Tbilisi (Georgia) to Zaqtala (Azerbaijan) many years back when there were many times more boxes of satsumas on the bus than people, we even had to give up our seat for some boxes of bananas at one point!!!

Anyway it was a hellish journey, crappy old bus, rattling along all the way on rough roads, and a gale blowing in my face through the night as the guy in front of me insisted on keeping his window open, I slept as best as possible with my coat over my head. We stopped around 2am, at a night cafe, 1 km short of the border, for five hours until it opened. In the morning I had the annoying shyster bus drivers, trying to charge $3 to register my passport details, and refusing to drive me to the border unless I paid, so I walked there anyway just to spite them and of course didn't have to pay anything as I went through. It was hours before we moved on though, some dodgy moments about the merchandise I think, sniffer dogs on board and things being taken off, don't know what, the bus drove back to Laos for 15 minutes then returned and on we went, very odd.

Arrived in Danang around 20 hours later and jumped on the back of a xe-om (motorbike taxi) and sped away to Hoi-An, some 30km away. Hoi An is an old town situated on the Do river, In the 16th-18th centuries it was an important trading port that connected Asia to the rest of the world, today it is a "living architectural museum", but one also full of tailors and cobblers, desperate to make you something to wear.

A pretty place, nice buildings, riverside cafes, a busy market, lots of handicrafts, historical architecture with a mix of Chinese, Japanese, French and Portuguese influences and the cobbled streets and riverside setting make it a tourist hot-spot in Vietnam. Only the much touted museums were a bit of a disappointment, though I enjoyed the music performance that was included in the "all in one" ticket (which in fact lets you see only one in four of the sites, not "all" as it suggests). A bit touristy, you even get coachloads of retirees and families coming here, but it's an easy and pleasant place to hang around.

I hired a bicycle and cycled around the town's sites, the village across the river, where there are plenty of offers to go out on a boat with local fishermen if you like, and out to the rice fields and local villages around Hoi An. All quite nice if you survive the crazy drivers. Second day I took a tour, "what was I doing ???" not my way at all, but here it was the only simple way to get out to My Son, the ruins of the 4th century Champa Kingdom and at, I think $5, it was the cheapest way anyway and ultimately not such a chore as after an initial introduction at the site, there were no flags or umbrellas in the air to follow, but were allowed to wander our own way, and meet back at the bus later. Only one of the sites at My Son has any remaining structure of interest, sadly much of it was destroyed by US bombs!!!! Part of the journey back was by boat, stopping off at a handicraft village to see woodcarvers, potters and sculptures at work creating the souvenirs that fill many of Hoi An's shops.