Road to Hell

It's becoming a habit that these updates come whilst we take long car journeys; the sort that leave me wondering if the song on the radio would be a suitable final one! 

Why are we doing it? No choice...this is Vietnam after all, not England, and they do things their way. Trust me when I say I request a slow, safe driver every time, (better late than never is my plan) but it's madness on the roads. What's the fuss you may wonder? It's actually one part of our trip that I would not advise you to experience yourself, unless you're a hardcore traveller with nerves of steel. (You know who you and your two travel buddies are!)

Then come the buses - the devils of the road! It is our firm belief that anyone who takes a ride on one of these is either seriously deranged or completely oblivious of what they're getting into; the roadsides are littered with signs showing graphic evidence of what does happen to them. Why so bad? They do exactly as they like, as most other drivers do, just on a bigger scale. They overtake with mere inches to spare and the drivers go days without sleep (as confirmed by our own driver who often drives 18 hour trips with no sleep or exchange driver!!) 

Add to this the motorbikes, scooters, push bikes, people, cattle and dogs as well as everybodies belief that they're right (even when going the wrong way up the road on our equivalent of a motorway) and you end up with metal carnage. You might think I'm being dramatic, (hey, I've been called that before!) but when your taxi drives straight across a crossroads and takes out a scooter that just happens to be using the same crossroads and i think you have the right to be. 

So I'm sat here now listening to Roman sing Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' and trying to focus my attention on the little iPhone screen note page rather than road ahead, thinking about the best way to tell you about Mui Ne, a little part of heaven in Vietnam and the reason I'm in this car, but for now, all I can think about is the madness of the roads!