And now for the account of the endless wanderings of W squad through the hills, valleys, and cities of Vietnam
(All times approximated for dramatic effect)
1:45 a.m.
Thursday, January 11
Đà Nẵng, Vietnam
I fall asleep after a long night at the Cups Coffee playing music, hanging out on the beach, cleaning mold off my backpack, and packing
4:45 a.m.
Thursday, January 11
Đà Nẵng, Vietnam
Me and my team wake up dark and early in our hotel room. We quickly gather our stuff we packed the night before, elevater down to the lobby, and walk out into the black streets of the city. We walk for what feels like hours (all of 15 minutes) to the meeting point we had set with the rest of the squad. The greetings and hugs keep us occupied – we hardly even notice the bus driver was an hour late.
7:31 a.m.
Thursday, January 11
Đà Nẵng, Vietnam
The 50-seater bus pulls up and parks next to the massive pile of bags and luggage. The city’s moving and the sky’s light by now, so we have enough light to be able to see as we shove that pile into the undercarriage of the vehicle. We take the remaining 7 or 8 bags along with the guitars with us in the seating area.
The first part of the drive is mostly uneventful. Only notable thing is our first bathroom break, when we first we able to see the beauty of Nam outside the city…
1:00 p.m.
Thursday, January 11
Middle of nowhere, Vietnam
Second bathroom break.
Lunch?
No
No lunch
Living off of crackers and dried mango
2:53 p.m.
Thursday, January 11
Middle of nowhere, Vietnam
People are playing mafia in the back, I’m trying to write a college essay. All of a sudden, BANG. The bus shakes, we swerve to the side and screech to a stop.
Blew a tire
Not sure what kind of magic our bus drivers used, but we were back on the road within fifteen minutes on the same tire.
4:15 p.m.
Thursday, January 11
Moc Bài Landport, Cambodian border
The bus rolls to a stop in front of a red and white guard rail next to a tiny little guard house. “This looks nothing like the Mexico border” I hear someone say. “These countries must be friends.”
We file out with our passports and IDs, forming a single file line in front of the Vietnamese officer. I make it to the other side. A couple squad leaders make it to the other side. Then there’s a pause. No one else is allowed through.
We’re ushered back across and given a message over Google translate. As it turns out, foreigners aren’t allowed through that border.
(“They thought I was Vietnamese” I thought to myself. “I must have tanned more than I thought”)
6:00 p.m.
Thursday, January 11
Moc Bài Landport, Vietnam
Our fearless leaders gather us around and deliver the news. We’re going to drive 13 and a half hours south back to the Ho Chi Minh border (we got confirmation from a friend that foreigners can, in fact, go through that border), and then drive 10 more hours up to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Back on the bus
8:15 p.m.
Thursday, January 11
Middle of nowhere, Vietnam
Stop for dinner. I have no Vietnamese currency, thinking we’d have been out of the country by then. It’s ok, I’ll survive on my mango and crackers…
They change the tire
We get back on the road
We drive through the night…
I sleep about 2-3 unrestful hours…
8:30 a.m.
Friday, January 12
Ho Chi Minh Landport, Vietnam
Now this is more like it. There’s like two or three levels of gates, a garden, and a massive building in front of us. Once again we pile out with our passports and IDs, walk inside the building, through a metal detector, and up to a soldier behind a window.
This time it doesn’t take long. He takes a glance at the first passport and immediately points us back the way we came.
Our visas had expired
We were trapped
10:30 a.m.
Friday, January 12
Ho Chi Minh Landport, Vietnam
Our fearless leaders save the day again.
New plan.
“The only way they were going to let us out of the country now is in the air, on a plane. Before we can book a flight though, we have to get our visas extended, which can take five to six days for approval. As for right now, we’re working with travel coordinators back in the states to get a hotel in the city booked for tonight. Everybody back on the bus!!”
We load back up and wait for the drivers to finish their smoke break. The bus is off and the heat is slowly killing us. I’m sitting there in my seat, unfortunately quite literally dripping sweat, barely breathing… yeah we get back off that thing and wait for the drivers.
11:00 a.m.
Friday, January 12
Ho Chi Minh Landport, Vietnam
We roll out
1:00 p.m.
Friday, January 12
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
We park down the street from our hotel, lug all our stuff over, and do our own thing for the rest of the day.
I eat the first real food I had in 40 hours.
At one point we all go down to this immigration office to try to get our visas extended, but something doesn’t work out so we go back.
10:30 p.m.
Friday, January 12
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
I fall asleep on the floor of my hotel room and get the best sleep I’d gotten in days.
8:30 a.m.
Saturday, January 13
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
I wake up to the notification on the group chat, “Team Othy will be flying out tonight at 6:30, leaving the hotel at 1:00. Be ready to go.”
Short notice, but no problem. I spent the morning packing and reading, saying bye to everyone, and then hopping in a Grab to head to the airport.
5:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 13
Ho Chi Minh International Airport, Vietnam
The bag check line hasn’t even opened yet, we haven’t been through security, we haven’t been through the immigration office, and ours flights in an hour and a half.
Uh-oh
5:03 p.m.
Saturday, January 13
Ho Chi Minh International Airport, Vietnam
We get our bags checked as fast as we can, rush through the immigration office, pay the extension fees, run through security, and make it to the terminal with 15 minutes to spare.
6:31 p.m.
Saturday, January 13
Ho Chi Minh International Airport, Vietnam
Our 80-seater flight takes to the air due northwest
8:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 13
Phnom Penh International Airport, Cambodia
Our ministry host’s brother Lucky picks us up in his van
9:35 p.m.
Saturday, January 13
Chhuk District, Cambodia
We roll into a tiny school off this little dirt road in seemingly the middle of nowhere. The night’s black, and the only light is off the front porch of the school building, by which we can see this 14-year-old kid there to greet us.
Psych, he’s 23, he speaks great English, and he’s one of our hosts as well.
He shows us to our room, we drop our stuff, hit the sack, and fall asleep
Note from the author
I spent way too much time and had way too much fun writing that, (and also made it entirely too long) so I never got to my post about Cambodia this week. It’s coming though… I promise.
In Christ,
Jackson
WhatsApp: 678-448-7943
