As our VIP bus drew up, we knew this would be no easy ride...we flashed back to our numerous discussions in both English, french and sign language as to just how long this border crossing would take..wasnt looking promising. As we climbed aboard we soon realised this bus was not made fro falang, and as the only non-vietnamese we were sent to the back, later a blessing in disguise as we could stretch out among the rice sacks and fashion foot stalls out o various pieces of luggage. we had been forewarned by various other tourists that the vietnamese manner was somewhat ruder than we'de been accustomed to, so we promptly set about ingratiating ourselves among our neighbours on whom we practiced our budding vietnamease. we got a few smiles. By lunch time, which we enjoyed at a local vietnamese canteen, we ahd discovered that friendliness was there you just had to work a little harder at it - which we decided was only fair and more was more rewarding anyway - we set about persuading it with vigour. one of the drawbacks of our :"VIP' bus was the lakc of touilet - instead evry couple fo hopurs the whole bus would descend to the road side and positiop themsleves accordingly - seemed surprisingly sensical and, though we are reluctant to say, humbling.unfortunately D didnt quite get the whole thing down and dropped her pants in a rather more central location than she'd initially realised. whoops. as well as these frequent pit stops, we regularly picked up people en route, many of whom were transporting various items across the border. one man took this too ar as he climbed aboard holding a wriggling sack of, we still to this day do not know what. this particular piece of cargo was to entertain us for the majority of the 14 hour journey, half way through the driver had had enough of the squeeking, and confiscating the bag which was demoted to the hold. on every available opportunity the 'cargo' would hop out and set off on an escape mission...see video.
the cargo again became center o attention as we crossed the border, was the object of much skillful bribery on the part of the driver..pleased to report that after a little concelament in a handbag it was smuggled across via a woman's motobike and resumed its journey with us. As we came into vietnam the weather seemed to chianeg almost instantly and we found ourselevs amongst towering mountains and in the midst of a thunderstorm. one of the conductors, now 13 hours in, took this moment to ahng with the falang - he was particularly enthralled with Ds ipod tough was nonplussed and Bob Marley was not appreciated/ reconised. tut tut. We again witness to the vietnamese hospitality as while unloading our bags ij the rain, the driver insisted on insuring our numerous bags were taken care of and we were thoroughly thief proofed. arriving in Hue we found a local eatery where we were very welcomed and used the good old sign language to varying effect - managed to order a very delicious but rather massive seafood (plus beef?!) platter ater some sightseeing tours on motobikes with locals, and appreciating the chinese influenced architectural sights we caught a nifty little nightbus complete with seperate beds and blankets up to Hanoi. pleased to report got the hang of this sleeping on buses..
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment