From Da Lat to Nha Trang

What a day! We got on the bus yesterday at 2pm leaving Da Lat and expecting to arrive in Nha Trang 4 hours later.....yeah, that didn't happen! Well part of it did. We got on the bus, winding down the dangerously narrow road with drops so far down you couldn't see to the bottom. The scenery was so beautiful that I couldn't stop looking but the ride was so rough that my stomach was turning everytime i opened my eyes. Some people in the bus actually threw up! Anyway, as we were going along we went through an area that was all clay-like (red earth) and appeared to have recently been a mudslide. It was scary because it looked like the road could slip away from underneath us at any moment. I mentioned to Phil how lucky we were that it wasn't raining. No more than 10 minutes later it started to rain! And the fog was so thick you could barely see. Yikes! Thankfully we were out of the muddy area and back to trees and cliffs and waterfalls......i would have prefered rainbows, butterflies and unicorns but whatever.....it was beautiful! So again I open my big mouth telling Phil that we were lucky to be doing this trip in daylight. Neither of us could imagine driving this road at night! 2 hours into the trip and we hear a big chuchunk! And the bus came to a stop. We were due for a half time break but stoping next to a cliff with barely enough room for traffic to get by and no civilization in sight wasn't the ideal spot. I thought we had popped I tire. No problem, just put on a spare right? Nope! We had hit a few very large "pot holes" and the whole part that holds the back wheels together was broken so that the wheel was no longer centered in the wheel well. The bus was crippled and we were stranded -_- . They shut the bus off and mostly everyone got out for some fresh air. It didn't take a genious to figure out that we would be waiting a while because a new bus would have to come from the city and we were no where near a city! Here's the fun part of my story, when Phil and his family left Vietnam the boat/barge they were on broke down and they were stranded on a beach for 20 days or so with nothing much to eat other than sweet potatoes.....guess what Phil had picked up to munch on for our bus ride......sweet potatoes! So as we were stranded in our own adventure Phil was telling our new friends from Australia (you quickly make friends in these situations) of his past adventure and sudenly being stuck on a mountain for 2 hours waiting for help that you knew would eventually come, wasn't so bad. Good thing i had become a pro at squatting! (sorry, i know my stories always end up in the toilet) So, we're on the side of the road knowing it will be a while and the urge hits......easy for the men, not so much for the women! But don't you worry, we got creative. Emily, Cam and I wandered down the road and found a clump of tall grass to hide behind then we used my coat, Cam's umbrella and our hats of shame (cone hats to hide our embarrassed faces) to shelter from the view of passing vehicles and other passengers searching for a territory to claim. It was still daylight at that time but little did we know that if we had held it for another hour we would have been able to hide in the shelter of darkness. It was still raining on and off but I prefered to get wet than to sit on the stuffy bus. It had become infested with little cockroach-like bugs that were feasting on the buffet of crumbs left behind by the passengers. Lucky break for the insects......this was Mals first time for a melt down. He was tired of standing in the wet outside but too scared of being eaten by bugs in the bus. Poor little guy....it was a long day. At 6:10 an empty bus finally arrived (yeah!!!!)......and drove right passed us (wt*%#^>)......oh right, it had to turn around. 10 minutes later it was back, facing the right direction and we were rescued!

We had booked a hotel using the internet ahead of time since we knew it may be difficult to get a room with it being New Years and all, knowing we may have to cancel it if it didn't meet our standards and price range (Cam is with us and we wanted two rooms this time) but we were so tired we were ready to accept just about anything.......just about! We dicided that after the day we had we deserved something more than the dirty cobwebbed room we entered....then exited as quickly as we could. We spent the next couple of hours cabbing from one hotel to the next exhausted, trying to find a room that didn't smell like someone had just died in it or that wasn't already completely booked. Turns out there is some kind of conference or something in Nha Trang this weekend for Russians so the hotels are all booked. Well, the decent ones anyway. We settled for one eventually and considering the others we had seen, it's a palace! At least the sheets look clean and the smell isn't sooooo bad.

Hope everyone back home, or on vacation, or recuperating in a hospital ;) are all safe and happy. We miss you!

C.