The next morning we checked into our next hotel. We only had one night here. And thank God! The place was awful. It had damp on 3 of the walls, you could see the mould patches. You could even smell the damp the second you walked through the door. Thankfully the bed was clean and comfy and the shower was good. It was just one night, we could cope. The husband stripped off (as he always does) to cool off. He went to the bathroom and on his way back out, our room swung open then slammed shut... the cleaner/maid had thought it was a good idea to just let herself in to replenish the toilet roll (there was already some in the bathroom!) His face was a picture as he laughed telling me she must of got an eye full 😂 Unfortunately that wasn't the only time someone tried opening the door. Two more occasions the door handle was messed with, the door had been locked so they didn't manage to get in. And once we had someone knocking on the door so hard I thought they were trying to break in. We were looking forward to checking out.
We checked out early the next morning and headed for the bus station. This time heading to the Capital, Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). It was another sleeper style bus so we knew we would be comfortable and there was allocated seating so we didn't have to battle for a seat. The travel agent had told us the journey was around 7-8 hours. So we settled in. About half way, as with most bus journeys, they stop for you to use the toilet, to get drinks or to eat. We got a beef noodle and I thought I was getting a vegetable fried rice. I wasn't. It was some kind of cold cabbage type soup and a bowl of veggies in another cold liquid, with a large plate of boiled sticky rice. I don't think I will ever get the hang of this!! The noodles were good though.
Back on the bus. By the way, the bus driver was a lunatic. It must be part of the job description. He was rather fond of his horn and his breaks. Sometimes I think he hit them both just to check they were still working, as there was absolutely no other fecking reason too!!
I decided to have a quick check on our map app to see how far away we were. Strangely we looked super close to Ho Chi Minh, like, 30 minutes away. According to the 7-8 hour time frame we still had at least 2 hours left of the bus.... this estimate obviously hadn't accounted for the lunacy of the driver. As we had got closer to the city the heavens had opened. It was now bucketing with rain, hitting the bus windows in sheets. Perfect. As the bus stopped we had no idea where we were. They called for us all to get off, to find our rucksacks pretty much in a puddle at the side of the road with one of the hubby's trainers gone rogue on the pavement where it had literally been ripped of the front of his rucksack. He was fuming.
A lady asked to see our tickets and asked "Where you go?" Before we had chance to answer her a man was grabbing my arm trying to push me forward. Now by this point of the trip my patience for situations like this has become non existent. It's incredible how rude people will be if you let them (maybe that's a problem I've always had) but it took all my will power not to swear at him and tell him I was waiting for my husband and my ticket. He seemed to get the point (probably from my facial expression) and just stood waiting with a face on him. We packed into the tiniest of spaces in the mini bus that was waiting, with me sitting on a pull down seat. We thought we were the last ones on as there we're already too many people on the bus.... don't be daft!!!! Of course they made space for 2 more people and their bags... somehow. One of the poor sods (he was about 6 foot and not a small bloke) was given a plastic stool. I swear it was like something from a children's tea party set but smaller. Needless to say he didn't sit but stooped over for the whole journey.
It was a relief that the rain had stopped when the minibus came to a sharp halt. At least we didn't have to walk in the rain.
We got to our hostel (Elegant Inn) and checked into our room. It was huge! The hubby was reenacting scenes from 'Step Brothers' quoting "So much room for activities." It was clean and comfy! Yeyy!
Now let's see what the Capital has to offer.
