It began with a bus, or rather a bus station. We all arrive at different times and play a game of "spot the white people" to find one another. Turns out the bus station was not where we needed to be. We needed to be outside the tall building next door where apparently "the bus driver will find you" . . . there are literally (no joke) 50 people standing on this corner area but that's what the bus company hotline said when we called for the 3rd time and finally got someone who spoke English. Some Grab drivers, taxi drivers, other people waiting for their bus to find them, and one random guy who tried really hard to help us figure out what was going on even though he didn't really speak English.
A bus pulls up and drives to the side of the building (not the corner we're on) and we think this is us. A nice Vietnamese couple was standing near us and was also going to Ninh Binh, they helped us confirm that this was indeed our bus . . . We later figured out that it was not their bus . . . they got left on the side of some road on the outskirts of Hanoi. But I digress . . . this bus (9 passenger van) was the bomb. Bench seat in the back and 4 large cushy seats that were facing one another. Little table between the front two cushy seats. It was very spacious and quite a nice ride to Ninh Binh. After a quick joy ride around the block, we return to our pick up spot (very confused) and pick up another person. We ride around the building and pick up 3 more people . . . we weren't the only ones confused about how the whole bus thing works (thank goodness!). Then finally we were on our way.
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ShannonMath Teacher living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam Archives
February 2022
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