“Don’t do it” my friend almost cried to me. She doesn’t want
me to take the so-called hell bus from Vietnam to Laos.
“It breaks down. It’s not safe. It takes 2 days with no
stopovers. Locals will scam you.” she continued.
I know it all. I’ve read all these horror stories online,
and I’m ready to go. It was a sleeper bus with permanently reclined seats. The
bus started, and the colorful lights inside were lit.
“Oh, it looks like a party bus now,” I thought. But as if on
cue, the aircondition died, and lights shut off, the bus stopped in the
middle of the highway.
An hour passed and we’re still parked, and sweating, or hyperventilating from the lack of air. The locals and the bus driver seemed to be having an argument. I looked at the travelers around me for some form of unknown support. All foreigners were asked to sit at the back – Malay, Japanese, Belgian, Danish, French, and myself, a Filipino. No one understood Vietnamese so we just lied down in our reclined seats and tried to conserve as much energy as we can.
Maria, the Danish girl, smiled mischievously and put out Uno
cards. Kaz, Stefan, and I nodded approvingly and played with her. Apparently,
we all had different rules from our countries, so Margot, who is not part of
the round, mediated the rules.
The engine started again. There were sighs of relief, and
everyone was back to his proper seat in no time. Kaz opened a book. Stefan put
on his earphones. Maria wore her sleeping mask, Margot took out her phone, and
I stared out the window.
Not long after, the bus stopped in an empty lot. The bus broke
down, again.
Everyone got off the bus and sat around a small wooden table,
and chat with each other as if we’re all traveling together. In his broken
English, a local told us that we were waiting for a replacement bus, which will
arrive in an hour or two. Meantime, everyone had beers or noodles - HOT noodles
WITH EGG! – such is a luxury, when I was prepared to eat nothing but biscuits
for two days.
The replacement bus arrived and it took us another hour to
transfer all the goods to the other bus. The next 2 days, we all looked out for
each other, and even stayed and traveled together upon arrival to Laos.
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