Bus ride from hell

Yesterday I arrived in Hue after a 14 hour overnight bus ride from hell.  The so called "sleeper" bus was a real-life nightmare.  You pay a little more for the "luxury" of a sleeper but I think sitting in a Toronto street car for 14 hours would have been more comfortable!

The bus consisted of three rows of bunkbeds.  Tiny bunkbeds with the tiny ladders just wider than your foot to provide access to the comfy top bunk! With a small cubby hole for your feet, there was little space for anything else.  I had to strategically lay around and on top of my bags.  The bus provided a small blanket and pillow which you really don't want to use, but it's so damn cold you must.  The AC blasted from the roof and it was cold outside and even colder inside.  I was wearing 3 layers of clothes and still freezing!  Awesome.

For the first few hours Vietnamese karaoke-like music blared over the central speaker and brightly coloured cheesy music videos filled the TV screens.  All the while two people used their transistor radios complete with the fuzzy noise.  Kill me now. : )

The bus swerved in and out of traffic and there were a few sudden stops.  I feared for my life... just a little.  In the wee hours of the morning, I had to use the WC but realized that there were now people asleep on the floor in the ailes of the bus.  Nowhere to get down.  You would have to be Spiderman to get to the WC.  But sleeping wasn't working so I attempted to be Spiderwoman.  Thankfully, the ground level bed between me and the WC was occupied by a 3 year old so I was able to climb over him without stepping on the face of the dude sleeping in the opposite aisle on the floor.  Now, somewhat relieved I was able to get a few hours of sleep... kind of.

I was greeted at the New Time Hotel early in the morning by a very cheery teenager (almost too cheery for this time of day), who turned out to be the owner's 19 year old daughter, Thanh.  She was really sweet and really wanted to practice speaking English so she kept me entertained me while I waited for my room to be made up.  Because my room wasn't going to be ready for a while she asked me if I wanted to come with her to meet up with a guy from France whom she'd met through couchsurfing.org.  He wanted to meet a local and talk with her about life here in Vietnam.  I had nothing else to do and she was a little nervous to go alone so I went a long.

We met Alex at his hotel and went to a new local coffee shop to chat.  At first, it felt like I was doing all of the talking, breaking the ice between Thanh and Alex.  It was quite funny.  After that, Thanh took us to a Vietnamese local restaurant for a Hue specialty, Mushroom Rice, which consists of rice, clam mushrooms and peanuts.  It was really good.  After that we walked around the central part of Hue until we made our way back to our hotel. 

I had a nap for a few hours because I didn't get much sleep the night before and then headed out for dinner and a drink.  Went to Why Not pub and had some local brew (not bad - nothing like a beer with iconic religious imagery on the label!) and watched some of the Olympics!  The snowboarding events have been amazing to watch!  Go Canada Go!

More soon...
xo