The Plan
To this day, this has been the most fun and yet the most anxiety-inducing things I have done, so I feel obliged to share it in here with hopes that someone here will get inspired to part-take on something similar.
It all started on an unusually hot and painfully humid afternoon in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. My girlfriend and I were sitting and having a coffee (she was having a coffee, I was on my third beer by then) in a cafe at the roadside next to the central market. The panorama of people there was incredible. A black Maybach pulled up next to the cafe where we were sitting, knocking over a soup stall. The lady who owned the stall instantly started shouting and throwing plastic bowls at the well-dressed gentleman driving the car. Meanwhile a group of obnoxious, neon tank top cladding guys march trough singing football chants. And with all of this, no one seems to notice it. Everyone goes on about their day to day trading. Except me, I am sitting there with a grin from ear to ear and a beer mustache, observing it all.
We were trying to decide where we should meet one of our friends, who was coming to see us for the last leg of his time here in South East Asia. After careful consideration, we had decided to meet in the city of Da Nang (Central Vietnam) since the most practical option for everyone.
A man transporting a pig in an unlikely way.
From there we would take a series of buses up to Ha Noi while stopping and spending a few days at a time in some of the cities along the way. Or at least that was the plan. Since we were bootstrapping the whole shebang, a flight was not an option because we had blown all our money on foot massages and pad-thai's. We decided to meet him in two days time, which was quite silly from our part because that means we had to spend the next two days in buses trying to conquer the 1500km journey by land with no time to stop.
Our first bus took us from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The first half of the journey was the nicest part of the drive because the driver is driving somewhat safe and not using the horn excessively. The border crossing from Cambodia and Vietnam went smoothly. With the exception of all the immigration officers thinking that my passport is fake because apparently, Latvia is not a real country.
We got to Ho Chi Minh nice and early with the whole day to spend. We got some food and coffee (read beer), played card games and soaked up some sun in a park. Soon enough we had to head back to the bus station for the remaining 900km to Da Nang where our journey would begin.
Thanks for giving this a read and I hope that you liked it. I will type up the next part tomorrow.
Nice and comfortable sleeper bus. Unless you're over 1.80 m. If you are taller than that you are going to a have bad time.I did.