10.10.2022 - The first night bus experience

... Sapa, I'm going to Sapa for a few days. The small town is located in the north of Vietnam, about five hours from Hanoi. The region is known for its mountains and hiking opportunities. Among other things, you can find the highest mountain in Vietnam and Indochina here. But more about that in the next blog post. I would like to focus on the journey here, because it had a lot to offer again.

I chose the night bus as a means of transportation. It is a commonly used option in Southeast Asia, as it allows you to save on a hostel/hotel night in theory and combine convenience with necessity - if everything goes smoothly, that is...

With a slightly uneasy feeling, as I had heard that the sleeping cabins are more suitable for the average Asian, I was picked up from my hostel on Monday evening at 9 p.m. To my surprise, there was no bus there, but a scooter driver who was supposed to take me to the bus (so he said). I've already lost a few sentences on the subject of scooters, but you still get surprised at times. Imagine that I was carrying a large backpack on my back and a daypack on my stomach. The scooter would have already been full with that alone. But without a driver, it's difficult, so he also joined in.

Before we started, the scooter driver leisurely put on his helmet. When I asked if I should/was allowed to wear the second helmet he had with him, he replied that it was not necessary. Well, his head would have still been fine after a fall. So we started driving, him with a helmet, me without. After five minutes, we stopped again and the scooter driver asked me to get off, as he had to pick up another person. Immediately, the image of three people with backpacks on a small scooter came to my mind - and all this without a HELMET - panic. After a few minutes, the scooter driver returned with two more people - even more panic. To the relief of all parties involved (backpackers), we didn't have to get on the scooter, but rather into a car, which was supposed to take us to the bus. Side note: You see four people on a scooter more often here. So far, so good.

We left at 10 p.m. with the bus and the first two hours were relaxed. Well, as relaxed as it can be for someone with a height of almost 6'3" in a 4'11" long cabin. Just as I had fallen asleep, the state of relaxation was disturbed by a loud bang. At that time, it was 2:30 a.m. and we were standing on a highway with one lane in each direction somewhere between Hanoi and Sapa. I shouldn't forget to mention the half-meter shoulder. In Vietnam, you can't simply call the ADAC (German roadside assistance) and the police and they will take care of things and ensure that you can see or be towed away safely. Breakdown assistance in the form of a warning triangle is also a foreign word here, as are English-speaking bus drivers. There we stood. Every few minutes, a (light-honking) truck zoomed past the bus, shaking everything. No one came up with the idea to stop and maybe help us.

It was already 3:30 a.m. and the situation hadn't changed noticeably. I can say that there have been more relaxed moments in my life. The fact that the bus driver went outside with a roll of duct tape didn't exactly contribute to my peace of mind. At 4:00 a.m., something finally happened and we had a visitor. I don't know who it was. What I do know is that this person had tools with them. From that moment on, drilling, hammering, flexing, and sawing began. The illusion that it was really just a flat tire had already vanished. The noise suggested that a whole new suspension was being installed. Just when I had resigned myself to spending the night on the highway, the noises suddenly stopped, the bus driver got back in as if he had just taken a short bathroom break, and we continued our journey without any further comment, as if nothing had happened. It was probably better this way, I still don't want to know what was (all) broken. We arrived in Sapa with a delay of almost four hours. By the way, I hardly took advantage of the night bus' purpose to sleep there.