Soon, after breakfast, I decided that we would take the bus to Pleiku, which is north about 4 hours. I wanted to go to an ethnic village and take the bus in the evening, but rain made me change my plan. We checked out and took a taxi about 3 Km to the bus station. The bus stations are always interesting . You will find the most aggressive hawkers there and you feel a little attacked. Today was no different. Thanh generally handles it very well, staying calm and cool but I could sense that there was another element of controversy in play today. I could also feel the hostility of one man in particular towards me, with his gestures and more than normal raided voice. At the ticket booth, he continued to yell at Thanh and the ticket lady. I didn't ask Thanh any questions at this point and I have never seen him upset or visibly flustered but today he become more verbal towards this man.. Finally, everything quieted down and coexistence seemed to prevail, but not happily by Thanh. After he bought the tickets, he directed me to the 16 passenger mini bus/van that we were going to go in. Now, there was an big discussion about where we were to sit. At first, I was directed to the seat behind the driver, which had no leg room. Well, that is normal in most of these vans, but Thanh insisted that we have better seats. I was surprised. I then got to ride "shotgun" with Thanh in the middle, which was great. Inside, it was then that Thanh told me that the big argrument was over my size. The bus helper insisted that I buy TWO seats!! After Thanh finally relented and paid two for me, but then he was promised a good seat, which they didn't give us right away..
Once we got out of town, the bus driver highballed it as much as possible. Now, I just hoped that I would arrive safe. In Vietnam, you always see throngs of school kids walking along the road, going home. Today was no exception. It is a wonder more aren't killed but I am sure some are. We came so close to hitting so many dogs. This road is only two lanes, one each direction, climbing some as it goes over some mountain passes. Lots of coffee plantations and pepper trees(?) along the way. Vietnam is famous for its Trung Nguyen coffee. As we came up over one curve, the traffic was at a complete stop. I could see the reason: a semi-trailer had flipped into the ditch and now a huge crane was trying to maneuver it upright. This must have happened a few days earlier. The crane driver tried for 30 minutes to rescue this trailer but to no avail. In the meantime, traffic was backing up in both directions. Only motorbikes were getting through. Once we started again to Pleiku, it was metal to pedal, as they wanted to stop for a 20 minute lunch break too-another money maker for all bus drives/companies.
After lunch, it was only about 30 minutes to our final destination.
Thanh and I had decided on a hotel last night and he called ahead to make sure of the price and reservation, so we looked for that immediately. I made sure to inspect the room more throughly this time. I thought the room was ok, and quite spacious. The price as a little more than what I had been paying but Thanh told him he was a tour guide, so they discounted the price.(it is true, he is a tour guide, but in this ace, he is just a very good friend helping me). Then they gave us a "contract" to sign. Never had to do this before. Later, the owner came and told Thanh that I had to pay the original price. No big deal, but upsetting to Thanh.
Now the police here in Pleiku are another story. Welcome to Vietnam!! (No, I didn't have a police problem)
Hope to stay up later tonight. Good night!!
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