Riding the bus (Phan Thiet part 2) and the painful return to HCMC

After Laura lay highly motivated on the beach at Mui Ne and published a post about our journey and some of our experiences, I can now write the sequel.

My absolute highlight was riding the bus. Apart from the fact that I've learned to love driving the bus since I left school, for me it's one of those things that you can do every day and that's natural and I can have a lot of fun and switch off while doing it. I find it funny being driven over thresholds on the bus, rocking up and down, looking out the window, watching people and listening to music. I just love it.

And after realizing that Mui Ne is by far more beautiful than Phan Thiet, we wanted to spend our days off there instead. So we ordered taxis and drove along the country road along the coast, but in the long run this turned out to be an expensive undertaking. Laura had the great idea of taking the bus. I, on the other hand, was a bit annoyed and just wanted to get there, not wait in the sun and would have preferred to invest the money in another taxi. But being what she is, she couldn't be dissuaded. So she chatted up several people and asked where the bus stop was, the bus came, we stretched out our arms, it stopped, we got on.

The bus was full. A woman, to whom we paid the equivalent of 59 cents for a 45-minute bus ride, assigned us seats at the back of the bus. It was just great. I mean, we just rode the bus, but it was so much fun. xD

The door of the bus was open all the time, people were jumping in and out, the woman was taking money from them every now and then, strangers were talking to each other the whole time and Vietnamese music was playing loudly in the background ^^

However, our experiences with the “sleeper buses” to Phan Thiet and back to HCMC were completely different. When we entered, we took off our shoes, walked barefoot to our lying area, were given a small bottle of water, a disinfectant wipe and an old blanket. We cleaned our place, lay down and enjoyed the smell of cheese feet. Every now and then you felt like you were in Berlin. All the vehicles around us were honking at us. But the bus drivers themselves were the worst. They constantly honked in the city and on the highway. And no, the horn wasn't just honked once to draw attention, but at least 2-4 times in a row. I just don't understand how they can think you can miss a bus. The principle on the streets is that the bigger guy wins. So why in any name do you have to honk so much when you're a gigantic double-decker bus??!!?!

The meaning of the sleeper bus and this noise was beyond me. But it was still funny.

I don't have much to say about Phan Thiet anymore. We did a few things, went swimming in the Pacific, when we finally found a nice beach. Other interns were also in Mui Ne, with whom we spent a hike and two evenings at a beach bar and otherwise tried to absorb a lot of the place and the people.

So we came back to this absolutely overcrowded city and had a meal in a vegetarian restaurant. It was around 4:30 p.m. and Laura wanted to run a little longer, so we ran and stopped to brighten up the situation with a cool drink ;) because I didn't really feel like running. I absently placed my backpack on a concrete block in front of a fence. We rummaged around in the backpack and suddenly I noticed that the stone was starting to wobble. I said to Laura, “Great, the stone almost fell on my foot!”.

However, she was distracted because a gecko crawled out from under the concrete block. At the same moment I suspected it, the stone tipped again and it actually fell on my right foot, which was of course in a safety flip-flop (;.

What followed was a stay in the hospital xD I'll spare you the details, but I'll just say that two of my toes don't look good and I've been stuck in bed since Tuesday. But we make the best of it. Laura supplies me with books from school, my brain strains with Sodoku and I can plan a few more tours for the near future. We also have a fantastic roof terrace where you can retreat to when you're bored.

Laura just went to school and got us two iced coffees beforehand, which we drank upstairs. That was a good start to the day. This afternoon she goes to our huge supermarket, where the zippers and openings of your backpacks are closed with cable ties (so you don't steal anything) and tries to buy a pair of clown shoes for my giant toe.

And with that I would like to thank you for reading, wish you a wonderful day and hope that you are all doing well and that your toes and other limbs are intact. :)