I fucking hate buses. They make me feel unwell, they are unreliable, boring, claustrophobic, smelly and just generally fucking shite. When I come to power, I shall abolish them.
Unfortunately, bus is the only way you can get from Nha Trang to Mui Ne (my next destination) so I had no choice. I also had no choice over what time the bastard thing would depart. It was either 8am or 8pm for a supposed four hour journey - no in between, no civilised late morning departure, just the crack of dawn or the arse end of the day.
The bus was at least on time as it picked me up from my hotel at 8am on Sunday morning. This was as good as it was going to get. We then spent half an hour waiting for one person to get on board at another hotel. We then spent another half an hour at a petrol station - not to get petrol, but to allow the driver to speak to what seemed to be one of his mates.
As we made our way out of Nha Trang, I noticed the landscape was different to other parts of Vietnam I had seen so far. Gone were the lush green paddie fields. This was barren and rocky - more akin to the American mid west than anything I had seen in Asia before. It was still very attractive.
After a couple of hours, we stopped at a roadside restaurant/shop of sorts. I felt queasy as I got off the bus, and then felt even worse as we were greeted by this establishment choosing to belt out at full volume what can only be described as a load of shit Euro pop. I didn't know what was making me feel more ill, the bus or the music...
When we were back on the road, the driver then proceeded to go the wrong way and miss a stop where people were waiting to get on the bus. By the time we got to Mui Ne it was almost 2pm and we had been on the road for six hours - two longer than scheduled. When I have to return to Saigon from here, I'll be getting a taxi. I don't care how much it costs. Fucking buses...
Anyway, I shall stop whining now. Mui Ne has a terrific beach and I am looking forward to this leg of the trip. However I am typing this from a bar which just played a Gary Glitter number. A bit tasteless, wouldn't you say?!
Unfortunately, bus is the only way you can get from Nha Trang to Mui Ne (my next destination) so I had no choice. I also had no choice over what time the bastard thing would depart. It was either 8am or 8pm for a supposed four hour journey - no in between, no civilised late morning departure, just the crack of dawn or the arse end of the day.
The bus was at least on time as it picked me up from my hotel at 8am on Sunday morning. This was as good as it was going to get. We then spent half an hour waiting for one person to get on board at another hotel. We then spent another half an hour at a petrol station - not to get petrol, but to allow the driver to speak to what seemed to be one of his mates.
As we made our way out of Nha Trang, I noticed the landscape was different to other parts of Vietnam I had seen so far. Gone were the lush green paddie fields. This was barren and rocky - more akin to the American mid west than anything I had seen in Asia before. It was still very attractive.
After a couple of hours, we stopped at a roadside restaurant/shop of sorts. I felt queasy as I got off the bus, and then felt even worse as we were greeted by this establishment choosing to belt out at full volume what can only be described as a load of shit Euro pop. I didn't know what was making me feel more ill, the bus or the music...
When we were back on the road, the driver then proceeded to go the wrong way and miss a stop where people were waiting to get on the bus. By the time we got to Mui Ne it was almost 2pm and we had been on the road for six hours - two longer than scheduled. When I have to return to Saigon from here, I'll be getting a taxi. I don't care how much it costs. Fucking buses...
Anyway, I shall stop whining now. Mui Ne has a terrific beach and I am looking forward to this leg of the trip. However I am typing this from a bar which just played a Gary Glitter number. A bit tasteless, wouldn't you say?!
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