bus rides from hell.

if you ever travel in vietnam, DO NOT BOOK WITH TM BROTHERS!

the easiest way to travel this country is by purchasing an open bus ticket. its cheap and allows you to travel from the bottom to the top, or vice versa, on your own schedule, stopping where you choose. the standard stops (from bottom to top) are ho chi minh, mui ne, da lat, nha trang, hoi an, hue, and hanoi. the idea is that you take the sleeper buses at night and get as much time in each location as you can.

the first time we set out for our bus trip, we were going from saigon to nha trang. we wanted to leave at night on the 28th (of april, sorry im so behind in posting this!) but everything was booked, so we had to settle for the 8am bus the next day. we got up, checked out of our hotel, and went to the travel agency early in the morning. they kept telling us there was traffic but that the bus was on its way. by 930 we were getting really antsy, and shortly after bugging them a bit, we were finally told that the bus had already left. it wasnt that we missed it, it just 'forgot' to get us.

ok.

the agency we booked with felt really bad, and made sure to put us on the next bus at 8pm that night. so we hung around the city for one more day and were back at the agency at 730. unfortunately, two hours later we were still waiting. again, they continued to tell us that the bus was on its way, but after what had happened that morning, we were skeptical.

finally, the bus got there a little after 10. except it wasnt our bus. it was the bus that was going to take us to our bus, which was parked on the side of the highway about 20 minutes out of town. and so all of us switched onto said bus on the side of the highway and finally headed out of saigon.

we were given the back, which consists of 5 beds big enough only for a small asian person and therefor we were squished as could be. the air didnt turn off and we were on the top, which made for a very bumpy ride. but we got to nha trang the next morning and thought we would have a good beach day (see here to find out why we didnt).

but that wasnt our only bad trip.

the next night, we were scheduled to go from nha trang to hoi an on the 730 sleeper. again, at 930 we were still waiting. again, after 10 a bus came to get us. this was a HUGE improvement from our last bus, and we were quite excited to have a better journey than the night before.

but about a half hour after we pulled out, we came to a stop and were told to get off the bus and get our belongings. it was a small, dark road we were on in the middle of no where and it seemed like the makings of a horror film. but up head there was another bus that we were told we would be getting on instead. confused, we put our things in an lined up at the door, only to find that there were already people on that bus. they told us they had been stuck there for 5 hours because something was wrong with the bus.

rather than move those people onto our amazing bus and continue on, they sent our bus back to nha trang and expected us to use the broken down one to make it all the way to hoi an. i still havent figured out that logic.

but they changed a tire and we were back on the road. kinda. moving very slowly because apparently the tire was still bad. we went to a few different tire stores before i passed out, but when i woke up in the morning we were told it was still 8 hours away, and it was only suppose to be about a 10-12 hour trip. i have no idea what happened that night, but this bus, unlike the last, had NO aircon and therefor smelt like sweaty feet, because everyone im sure had sweaty feet amongst other body parts.

there are multiple companies that book these open bus tickets in vietnam. the two main ones are tm brothers and hanh cafe. the moral of this story is use hahn cafe.