17th-18th May 2012

After spending the day in Hue, it was time for the epic ness that is the bus journey from Hue to Hanoi…16 hours… Alannah and I weren’t looking forward to this. We had mixed feelings about these bus trips but we would have to grin and bear it.

Arriving at the bus, we could see the bus was old and well worn. Boarding it, we picked out 2 seats next to each other and I clambered on first to the window seat. Wait, this seat can’t even come up. The back is broken and I cannot get into the seated position. Also, the footwell was too small for my feet. As Alannah said she was going to sleep straight away, we swapped seats. Ah, this seat can remain in the upright position. It wasn’t until half an hour into the journey when I went to put down the seat a little for my reading that the seat can’t even go down at all. Feck.

After a few stops for rest breaks and toilet breaks, I was feeling tired for sleep but with the seat broken to remain in the upright position, I had to hunker down but I was very aware for my feet smacking into the 2 girls in front of me! Oops!

As the dark of the night crept in, everyone became deathly quiet. Everyone was asleep except me. Alannah looked so peaceful asleep. How dare she. She should show support and stay awake with me. I thought about waking her but I’m sure I would have got a bloody nose if I did..

Then amazingly, I managed to fall asleep for half an hour when I felt a bang on the back of my chair. Going to give a disapproving look at the person behind me, I was faced with 3 people mopping their seats around them. Confused for a split second, I saw one person become sick all over himself. He was travel sick! The stench hit and slowly made their way down the bus. Oh dear.

People were pretty anxious to get off and we were relieved to finally arrive at a rest stop half an hour later. As the bus attendants slowly cleaned the empty bus….hang on, where was Alannah? Even after all the commotion, the bus stopping and even the stench, she was still asleep. I glared at her and left her on the bus with the bus attendants working round her.

When it was time to go, the rest of the journey passed without incident, however, I was to remain awake. I still don’t know how I managed to survive the journey and I must have fallen in some deep trance but morning soon arrived with the burst of dawn light lighting my not so impressed face.

Hanoi greeted us with its morning rush hour traffic and I struck lucky where the hostel we were staying at, thanks to my amazing map reading skills. If I didn’t, we would have taken a taxi that would have charged us an arm and a leg to get to a place that was just round the corner from the bus stop. I’m clever aren’t I?

Dropping our bags in the lobby, Alannah and I were so pleased to get here at last and we were in for a treat as we would have no idea how much we would enjoy ourselves….

Have you been to Hanoi?