I'm sitting in the aisle seat right behind the bus driver. I can see clearly out the front two windows and the ones on my side. There are hills covered in jungle and with the occasional glimpses of river to my right. We've passed most of the rice paddies that are outside Hanoi and now are climbing elevation. It doesn't remind me of anything I've ever seen before.
The Vietnamese are proud of their new express way from Hanoi to Sa Pa. They are quick to tell you that it's new and makes traveling much faster and comfortable. I believe the only way up here previously was the overnight train which gets such mixed reviews from trip advisor it's almost comical. I'll take their word for it, the bus is nice.
The express way is one lane both ways. For those of you from Washington the road is like highway 17 between Moses Lake and Tri-cities except without the rumbling stripes. Our bus driver is assertive, he does not hesitate to pass trucks, vans or even other buses that are slow. On one hand from a physics perspective I understand that - you don't want to kill your momentum while traveling up. But on the other hand, I'm like the momentum you are saving by passing these cars also makes oncoming cars/trucks/buses much more dangerous. Most of the time we are fine though- I've only held my breath once. Vietnamese drivers are masters of the shoulder lane.
Every now and then an opera like Vietnamese ringtone of the driver goes off. He always answers and talks briefly in Vietnamese to the caller before the reception in the hills cuts it off. It's happened maybe half a dozen times so far. The most recent conversation I could understand because it went something like this "hello?.... Hello?....... Hello???? Click." I wonder who has been trying to contact him, what they have to say, and if it's the same person. These are questions I will never find the answers too.
But it's been an easy bus ride, I'm bored at the moment because my backpack got packed under the bus along with my Bluetooth keyboard that connects to my iPad, so I write this on my phone instead. I grab my iPad and open up a Vietnam guide book and read through the religion part. It's fascinating - I will probably write more about it later. I think my father at the very least would appreciate my musings on religion in Vietnam.
Getting tired of that I open another book I downloaded called "into the heart of Borneo" only to find I accidentally downloaded the study guide version. My travel partner laughs at me for this and comments about how he's content reading his 700+ page Nixon book and taking pictures. "Nerd!" I think to myself but secretly I am amazed that that's all it takes for him to be content as time passes. He offers me the first book of Harry Potter, which I might start reading soon seeing we still 3+ hours on this bus. His only condition is I have to finish reading it before he finishes his Nixon book. That, I think I can do.
But in the mean time it's just me, the bus driver, the cars on the road, and the hills. I think about Sapa and what it must be like- the tour guide says you can experience all 4 seasons in one day there. It's where the Vietnamese go to see snow for the first time - especially the Vietnamese in the south who have definitely have never seen snow. I doubt we will snow, but I'm very open to being surprised! It's just been so hot here it's hard to imagine it exists at all.
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