Crazy Bus Adventures

So we decided that instead of bus to Danang, train to Nha Trang then bus to Dalat we would brave the overnight bus to Nha Trang and the day bus to Dalat.

The lights on the overnight/sleeper bus got turned off at 7pm, which meant we couldn't even read to pass the time. This I assume was to allow people to sleep but the driver kept his radio going all night. Oh and we stopped for fuel after 30 mins and then again at 1130pm (despite lights out at 7pm remember) where all the lights went on for 30mins. The assistant driver though it was ok to smoke in the toilet (distributing it through the entire bus via the air con) and the driver was all we expected in the swerving on blind corners, honking every 10mins throughout the whole night.

Thinking of naming something. If you have to name something a 'sleeping' bus rather than a plain old simple bus with reclining seats, you are trying to psych-op the potential customers. For there was no sleeping to be had. First of all you were at the mercy of the driver who felt, yes light is bad but loud Vietnamese radio is good. Coupled with rodeo style swerves from the wrong side of the road that nearly bumped me out of my second level bunk more than once (I refused to put a seat belt on, lest I get molested in the middle of the night by the smoking assistant driver) (yes he was that weird). More than once I thought the drivers number was up and we were just unnecessary servants for the after-life. Let's just say the crash scene would have looked really weird with 20 tourists lying flat down on a bus, with seatbelts on (except me). Everytime the driver took an organised right hand turn to avoid oncoming traffic, someone's water or pillow went flying across the bus. Water at 60km/h hurts. Not to mention that at 5 foot 9 inches I reached the maximum lentgh of the reclining bed. I don't know what the 6 foot + Pom did down the back but I never saw him get off the bus the next morning. And my favourite part of the whole trip was waking us all up at 5am and then stopping five minutes later so they didn't arrive too early at the bus station; cause everyone was having such a good time they didn't want it to end!!!

Anyways that was the most uneventful part of the journey. We had breakkie and a one hour wait at Nha Trang and pottered around the beach for a bit before boarding another bus to Dalat.

The ride started out as normal (a stop for fuel after an hour) and insane driver, but as we wound our way up the hill the road started to get a little less wide and the hills a little closer. We then can to a stop behind a queue of cars. Jono went to look at what was happening and remembering Steph's wish "she hadn't looked" experience on the overnight bus I waited a while. Eventually I went to check it out.

There had been a fairly substantial landslide that had covered the road but this looked like it had been there a while as there were tyre trails through it. What had stopped the traffic was that one of the buses had got stuck over one section. Later in the day someone told us it had actually been stuck overnight but we don't know. They did manage to get that bus off the rise but the next bus got stuck too. After about an hour a digger arrived and two hours later the road had been cleared and we were able to get through. Just before we got through torrential rain started and the entire mountainside was gushing with mud waterfalls.

Imagine three or four buses and 20 or so cars and 4wds split either side of said stranded bus. Then imagine all those people from those machines standing around said stuck bus. Doing nothing except watching said bus driver trying to dig up a rock the size of a 4wd tyre. It didn't work. I tried to help him. Although with a bit of help from an American family who only spoke English, REALLY LOUDLY, everyone realised that they knew nothing about stuck buses on hillsides. And that if listened to REALLY carefully the American family would provide them with 6 years worth of Engineering qualifications so that they too could understand that the straight underside edge of the bus was always going to get stuck because the angle of the rocks and the road was short and steep not long and protracted like their explanations. Ahhh, haven't they done enough in this country already. (The best part was the American adult daughter after this was all over when I was walking back to the bus said, "People are so stupid." I wanted to oh how I wanted to reply in the affirmative but I just couldn't bring myself to say it.)

But once the first bus was freed instead of bringing in the digger to clean up the road, they powers that be (No, not the American family) started letting a few cars and 4wds through and then another bus...that got stuck. Whooo. 2 hours later the digger had finally cleared what was left of the shabbiestly built road and the crew of dimwits who got the bus stuck in the first place had propped up the bus enough for it to not leave it's axle on the road and we were outta there.

The amusing parts of this debacle were that once the digger had cleared part of the way the motorcyclists started to form a group trying to pass and actually honking at the digger. Just stupid, as they did actually get through but got stuck on the other side by the bus. Also once the road was clear the honking matches started as the buses tried to fight their way through the narrow section.

The rest of the ride we marvelled at the ingenuity and craftmanship the went into making this road. We suspect it will wash away in sections fairly soon, at least four sections of retaining wall had already fallen apart and the road was flooded in as many sections where the drainage was useless. The last section of the road is actually being built and this explains some of the issues. The road is built by a group of locals ranging from about 14 to 40, none of which appeared to have any idea of engineering. They gave a bunch of people some cement and some of the rocks that had already fallen off the mountainside and said 'build a retaining wall, you know how to do that right?'.

Oh it was so much better than that. There are perhaps 100 sections of waterfalls that cross the main road. Somebody must have been up there when there hadn't been any rain for months because they have constructed a water system so complex the Romans wouldn't know where to start. Some of it doesn't go anywhere, whereas other parts seem to flow straight onto the road to dislodge it while others flow onto the softest red earth you'll ever see causing even more landslides. Richard Pratt's tax returns were less complex than this. But the retaining walls were the best by a mile. We got to see a few being built and some of them were nowhere near a bit of dirt let alone a face of a mountain. And don't think they would fill the space in later, they don't have fancy things called machines, they might wash away. All the rocks they were using for the walls were ON THE ROAD, not by the edge, on it!!! Piled up nice and high. And did it occur to them to maybe run a diverting drain above the retaining walls? Well no, nobody would have a job to rebuild the wall if you did that.

We did eventually arrive in Dalat. French Alps is really really a stretch.

Our hotel is called Dreams. The LP guide says it really is where Dreams are made. Well only if your dream is to be stuck in the complimentary sauna with a Canadian who sounds like Sarah Pallin. Then yeah.