Never Ending Bus Ride to Nha Trang

Our bus left at 7 pm on time. Due to the distance and time of the bus ride, our only option from Hoi An was a sleeper bus. This is the first time I have ever heard of such a bus and when it pulled up in front of us, you could immediately figure out why they called it this. Instead of seats, there were 3 rows of bunk style beds (one hugging each wall and one in the middle) that went all the way to the back and the rear wall had two levels of five side-by-side beds. When I say beds, it is more like permanently reclined single seats with room for your legs. Guess who was fortunate to get two of the five side-by-sides at the very back, us! We were worried that we were going to be with three other people but It ended up not being that bad as we were on the top level and the five rear spots were not full.

Sleeper bus

As we left, we were given blankets and once we left the city, the lights were turned off. As Chel mentioned last post, it had been raining all day and it continued into the night. Both of us got comfortable, and I fell asleep. At 10:30 our bus stopped, which I thought was just a driver break as the bus drivers around here are really good at taking breaks. I went back to sleep and remember waking up at 12:30 and the bus was turned off. Everyone on the bus looked to be sleeping so I went back to sleep and was woken up around 7 by Chel. When I woke up, I was soaked as a no AC for the night in a hot bus is never good. I looked up and noticed no one on the bus and that we were on the highway stopped with 100s of other vehicles. Chel had been up for a while and let me sleep but I guess everyone else had Chels curiosity as to what was going on.

I decided to get up and try and figure out what was going on as by this time, we should have arrived. Exiting the bus, you could see hundreds of people walking around, some panicked as everyone had not moved since around 10 the night before. There were transport trucks, tourist busses, mini vans, food trucks and any sort of four wheeled vehicle lined up on the highway. Chel and I walked towards the small town which was about a half a kilometre down the highway of parked vehicles. We saw some people from our bus at a cafe along the way and we talked to them. No one knew what was going on but you could see beside the highway that the land was flooded into the town however our road was fine.

Vie from the road that went into the town

Where we stopped

We sat for a while, and then kept walking towards the street that went into town that intersected the highway. As we approached the street, you could see a ton of scooters still moving but all the larger vehicles were not allowed on the street. When we reached the street, there were a lot of people sitting around and also a lot of translations of what the issue was. No one ever really knew what the problem was, and what time our bus would start moving. We were told two hours up to two days and Hearing two days of sitting around is not something that you want to believe, but based on the flooding we could see, we had no way of knowing how bad the road ahead was.

The day was basically a lot if waiting, making new friends, and hearing many versions of what was going on from people. As the day progressed from the morning, the refrigerated trucks all began to smell extremely bad and the Vietnamese truck drivers have no problem going to the bathroom beside their trucks so this added to the smell. We met a couple on our bus, Luka and Tina that we would often talk with. We also would frequently talk to this woman from England. We walked around and checked out the flooding, it was pretty bad in many spots. You could see homes under water, or homes that were partially flooded with people trying to bale them. There were two occasions where everyone was running back to their various vehicles because there was information that we were being allowed to go.....we all sat in our spots for 45 minutes until the bus driver finally turned the bus off again because we were burning fuel without moving.

We did not actually begin moving until 4:30 pm, 18 hours after we stopped. As we drove from where we stopped, we could see why everyone had been at a standstill. The flooding had made it as high as the highway a couple kilometres from our stopping point and for about 5-7 hours of driving, we drove through flooded areas seeing much of the devastation. To give you an idea, the highest point in many of the small towns we drove through was the highway, and as we drove through the water, it reached a height of 3/4 the height of the bus wheels. It was a sad drive and we really felt bad for the many people that lost much of their possessions. Later in the news, we read that many people died in the flooding as well.

What we saw when we began to move, you can see the water line on the home from where the water sat when we were waiting

Our bus driving after it had been stopped

Rooftop of country home

Driving through the night

After the long stressful drive, we made it to Nha Trang at 4:30 am (33.5 hours after we started). It was relieving to get there and we walked to our hotel which luckily had someone at the entrance and willing to accept our reservation. One thing to mention is that the flooding made the news and so did pictures of us on the highway. Unfortunately someone showed them to us and we could not find them after.

the next morning we woke up around 10:00am, we were really tired but didn't want to waste more time. We looked around Nha Trang and quickly realized it was a nice city, but quite touristy. We decided that we would stick to our schedule and leave the next day however we decided to relax that day. We found a brewery/bar on the beach called Louisiane brewhouse and noticed it had a pool. the beach was not the cleanest so we decided to spend the day here at the Pool side sampling and drinking the 4 beers the microbrewery made. It was a great way to relax and it was a beautiful day.

Day of relaxation

As we left the brewery, we walked back around Nha trang and I saw this lady on a bike with full panniers. We talked to her for a bit, her name was Maria and she was travelling from Switzerland and had biked to Vietnam. She had been on the rode since March and she was happy to talk biking. After saying goodby, we explored a little more, then headed back to the hotel. When we decided to go out for dinner, we were walking down to the lobby and Maria caught up to Chel...she was staying at our hotel. that evening we had dinner with Maria and exchanged stories. some of hers were so amazing. That night we walked back to the hotel and said our goodbyes in the lobby. I hope all is well Maria if you are reading this and good luck with the remainder of your journey.

Maria in Nha Trang

the next morning we left for Dalat.