Bus-ted

By the end of nine months, I would have spent about 2-3 months on some form of public transport(mostly buses and songtaews)

As with the rest of the time, I want no less-than-perfect conditions for this duration- correction- in fact, this is THE time I want them to be perfect- that’s the time I spend looking out the window watching places, that I won’t be visiting, go by.

I, like most travelers, have had the misfortune of being on several uncomfortable and hence, extremely long bus-songtaew rides.

So these days, my day-pack weighs more than my backpack- extra layers of clothing, medicines, toilet paper, tooth brush, headlamp, food, water, books, mosquito repellent (buses are to mosquitoes what buffets are to humans), sunscreen etc – always good to be prepared.

I have thought about it so much so that by Cambodia I had started memorizing the numbers of the “best seats”- I even recorded them in my little notebook, in case of short-term amnesia, as a result of the panic that besets me when a ticket is being issued.

Of course, those numbers are reset each time I enter a new country and in some places, like Laos, buses and everything else is as unpredictable as the stock market these days- so I just call upon all the local gods for mercy.

Every time I am on a bus, I wonder if they ever go through a customer and user feedback session. As an experienced user, I can guarantee that in every bus I have been on, there’s always been a lot of room for improvement.

There is always some flaw in the placement of different “features”

Like, what is really bugging me right now, as I write, while sitting(seat #29) in a sleeper bus, pulling an overnight 13 hour journey, is the Window-Separator grazing my face- this is the one at which I make that 'oh no!' face when I enter and keep it till I get off- it’s the worst of them all (#30 and #32 were taken although they are slightly flawed as well).

Personal Reading Light - not useful to have a light on my abdomen, when I am trying to read a book

Air Vents- certainly not fun to have an air vent right on your head so you can freeze in your sleep.

I won’t even bother talking about sacks of rice/chickens/lizards (a friend had that experience) next to your feet and on the seat next to you or air-conditioning (or lack of- I prefer non-AC buses any day but that adds about one more month on buses).

Anyway, after careful reviews, I have a recommendation for the best sleeper buses in Vietnam- they are the ones from Sinh Café!. They even make you remove your footwear once you enter, just like they do when you enter someone’s house.

Yes, true, I am on one right now with the incorrect settings, but trust me, the others are not even worth reviewing- They will miserably fail my first round of usability testing.

After spending time and emotion obsessing to find the perfect place to sit to watch the world go by, I, from personal experience, would rather sit on top of a bus, and get grazed and beheaded by branches than sit in a less-than-perfect seat for 13 hours, but then that’s just me- I guess the air from the vent is really freezing my brain off.
now’s a good time to recline..