To Vietnam
Published March 14, 2023
The bus was now stopped on the street. I could see it, it was within reach.
I grabbed the straps of my backpack and swallowed the humiliation of running. Every atom of my being was disgusted by the motion.
I got to the bus out of breath and stepped inside the crappy metal can on wheels. My name wasn't on the passenger list, not surprising since I had just booked the ticket before I left the hostel.
There was no argument from the driver or clipboard worker though, which was helpful considering the current state of my lungs. Less than a minute after I put my bag between my legs and got comfortable, the bus sped off. Life's a game of inches and all that…
I transferred to another bus and then another bus and then me and a fellow group of travellers were on our way to the country I had been looking forward to the most on this trip, Vietnam.
I was still thinking about whether to go north from Ho Chi Minh - back to Hanoi and then onwards to Ha Long. The plan for this trip was rough by design, since I threw away my flight to Bangkok and decided to hop up the Malay peninsular from city to city by train, my original outline of the trip had changed, I had been looking for those greatest of iterations.
I was going to see how I felt about Ho Chi Minh. Although it was the first place I visited in Vietnam five years earlier and I really did explore it, for some reason I couldn't remember it as vividly as the other areas of the country.
The girl on the bus took my passport and wrote out all the information. The bus came with a bottle of water and a small, tasty Cambodian croissant. I felt happy, what a way to spend the last day of such an incredible year, on a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon.
This was the last leg of a wild journey, a race against time -
Vientiane > Bangkok by night train > Plane to Phnom Penh > Bus to Siem Reap > Bus to Phnom Penh > Bus to Vietnam ... all within a few days.
I wanted to get my ninth new country of the year done, my stretched goal from seven, and I wanted to get back to Vietnam for my second 'Nam New Year's in five years.
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