Taking a sleeper bus in Vietnam with 7 kids

For the first time ever, we are taking a sleeper bus. And then held their phone up to Michael's window and said that they've had bed bugs. I'm not saying there's not bed bugs on here, but I'm far more inclined to think that it's just cockroaches. Well, that is a wrap on our second month in Vietnam. We are all packed up, just about ready to head out on our next adventure. We still have one more month left here at a new place. So we've done Northern Vietnam, then we did Southern Vietnam, now we are heading to Central Vietnam. It's too heavy to lift all the way up. That's a great way to get it on. That's how you get your backpack on. You're a genius. It is genius. Good job, buddy. All right. You're flipping that one. Is that where your butt's at? Yes. I mean, there's no turning back. We're leaving the elevator car. So once we leave, we leave. That's it. Don't click all the buttons. Mom. I'm not. Yes, you are. Your mat is touching all of them. Don't leave home without your yoga mat. It takes 10 hours to get down because it hits all the buttons on your backpack. Everybody's in here? Yeah. I can't see your faces. Jesse and Levi, where are you? I'm behind your back. Move your head, Alex. Up. There you are. Where's Levi? He's behind me. All right. We are out of our apartment. We are moving on to Central Vietnam. We're heading to Da Nang today. So for the first time ever, we are taking a sleeper bus. This is something we've never done. I don't think we have sleeper buses in North America. We have coach buses, but I mean, sports teams have them. But I don't think like public can just get on a sleeper bus and go somewhere. So this is something new for us. Everybody's kind of excited. I think everyone's excited. Is everybody excited? Yeah. I'm knocking over water bottles with my backpack. It is a 20-hour bus ride to get to Da Nang, but we get beds. So we were told we needed to arrive 30 minutes early for the bus. We got here about 40, 45 minutes early because we didn't know where we're going and we can't read anything, any signs. So we found our bus. We're here. It's now, I think, 20 minutes until departure and we just have to wait out here. But there's nobody else waiting. Maybe we'll end up being the only ones on the bus. That'll be nice. Maybe it'll be just all ours. I think the bus is going to stop every maybe four hours-ish. I am 98% sure that I booked a bus with a bathroom. That was very intentional. A lot of their sleeper buses here don't have bathrooms. Other than that, I know very little. So this is going to be a whole new experience for our family. So I'm here saying that we have never been on a sleeper bus before and Michael mentions that we owned a coach bus that had bunks on it. And yes, we did. And we traveled in it and the kids slept on their beds while we traveled in it. But we've never done it on a commercial bus. We've never used it as strictly a mode of transportation before. And yeah, Michael's never slept on the bus because he was always driving. So actually, I don't think I ever did either. I was always taking care of all the kids and everything or driving the second vehicle. So it's still going to be a new experience. Even though, yes, we have spent lots of time traveling on buses. Can I bring mine into the bus? Yep, into the bus. All right, we got sort of set up. We're figuring things out. This is Bethany and Emily's bunk. These are technically called double bunks. It's a little cheaper to put two people on one seat, which is one bed, which is awesome. But they're tight. So this is Michael and Levi's bunk. And then this is me and Jesse's that Levi's on right now. And then go back a little further. And Toby's got that one. And then, oh, where are they? Alex and Rebecca got that one. And we're right beside the bathroom, which really stinks. So hopefully we don't need to use it. We're going to settle in because we've got 20 hours on this baby. All right, here we go. You ready? This is going to be an interesting ride. We have TVs, but we can't figure out how they work. All right, it is six o'clock. It is dark outside. So we've been on the bus for about four hours. Just kind of giving you guys an update of what's been going on. I had made sure that we booked a bus with a bathroom because we have seven kids. Seven kids that we're riding with. And I wasn't sure how frequent the stops would be. And I didn't know if they would have clean bathrooms or bathrooms at all for that matter. And I think we also have to get and eat food during the stops as well. So I just didn't know if that was going to be enough time to accomplish all of that. It actually took some work to find a bus at the bathroom. And then we got on here. And of course, I had to go first and I opened the door. And I mean, I've traveled on Greyhound in North America and the bathrooms are nasty. I know that because all of you men like to still stand up peeing on a moving bus and you can't aim when your whole body is swaying. So anyways, but this was beyond. It was like gross. So I just opened the door just to kind of check. And I was like, oh, nope, nothing. And then I saw another girl go by because you can see legs walking by. I saw her go by and go into the bathroom. And she came out really quick. So I thought maybe she used it. Maybe it wasn't that bad. Maybe I just need to get over the smell. I went in there right after that to check. And the toilet was like not flushed. And that's where the smell was coming from. It was not just not flushed, but it was like full to like this close from the edge of the toilet. Like, I don't know how like with the with like the fast turns they're taking. It wasn't all over the bathroom and it was just brown. Brown water was so nasty. So I was like, wow, I spent a lot of time researching to make sure I got a bus with a bathroom and it's not usable. But I think the girl that tried to go to the bathroom, maybe said something to the drivers. Because the next time that they stopped to pick up packages, two of them came back here. I saw them check the toilet and then I heard the flushing sound, which they flushed it. They cleaned it. It gets about chemicals. So much more confident to use it. However, there is still no water. The tap is like saran wrapped. Soap is empty. Thankfully, we had wipes. That's the best we can do. And there's no toilet paper in there, which is pretty standard for a lot of Vietnam. But I did bring some toilet paper. So we are able to use the toilet, thankfully, now. But initially, I was a little stressed. How are you liking the sleeper bus? What have you done so far? Watched a movie. Watched one movie. And what else? Sit. Sit, wrestled with Levi. No. Everyone jumped back and forth between mom's bed and dad's bed. Just like Levi's doing right now. Just like he is now. Here, I'll move over. There. Better? What have you done so far, Levi, on the sleeper bus? Nothing. You watched a movie too, mister. And you colored. And you ate red mangoes. And pickles. And yogurt. And while we were stopped, you were climbing up on the top bus, weren't you? I was too. I was. Yeah. I was too. Another thing I've noticed. Maybe there's more to it. But it looks like. But I'm sitting here watching out the window. Packages that they want to ship on the bus. They just kind of sit at the side of the road. They must kind of know the schedule. And then when the bus goes by, they just like flag the bus down. They load up their package on the bus and pay cash. Interesting way to do things. When we started out, we were the only ones on the bus. I think there's about one. All of the. There's a few people in the upper bus too. Just slowly fills up as we stop at little stops. Told by other people that. Literally no information. It's. You felt that? There's controls for our beds. Occasionally work. Only when Levi uses the remote. I can't get it to work. It vibrates. When you're sitting up right under your butt. It's the first time Jesse felt it. It's six o'clock. So I'm thinking all the separate places are food. I was a little bit. Just concerned about what we're going to be able to find that's gluten-free. So we did bring. I have some dried mangoes. It'll be rough if we have to live off of that. They stop and we can find like some rice. I think we're at the little truck stop. Good timing. So we're gonna hop off the bus. And see what there is to eat. Time to eat. Let's go get our sandals on and go eat. No not till tomorrow. But let's go. Grab your shoe bags and head to the front. Yes yes. Oh dad has them head to the front. Somebody has them. Well as I suspected. It was a little bit tricky to find gluten-free stuff. But we did manage to find some yogurt drinks. Some regular yogurt. So it's a lot of dairy. And some coconut milk candy. It's not candy. But it's mostly coconut milk. So at least it has some fat content. So that's our supper. Those bubblies back there. We stopped for supper. Um none of the kids are complaining of hungry. So that's good. Um I think they're just tired at this point. Breakfast. We get off here at 9 30. So it might just be like a late breakfast by the time we get off. There was uh two guys on the bus earlier. I think maybe Germans. Their accents sounded German to me. And uh they were on their bunks. They watched us get off at the supper stop. Then get back on. We didn't we didn't talk to them. Um there's not really space in this little aisle to stop and do a lot of conversing. And they're way at the front of the bus. But um before the bus left that stop they actually jumped off. And then they were like peeking in all the windows to find where our bugs were at the back of the bus. And then held their phone up to Michael's window. And it said that they found bed bugs. I'm not saying there's not bed bugs on here. But I'm far more inclined to think that it's just cockroaches. Not that cockroaches are any fun at all. But they're not really biters. Bed bugs on the other hand, they bite. So I'm leaning towards them being cockroaches and hoping that that is the case. That's part of how it goes when you're traveling. We're in Southeast Asia. Their standards are different. It doesn't seem to bother them. The stop that we stopped at for supper. We were gonna use the bathroom. I will say thank goodness the toilet in the bus is no longer plugged. Followed the signs back to the bathroom. And it was like a tap with a full bucket. Like a five gallon pail full of water. And like a dipper in it. And a garbage can. I've seen a lot of pictures of like bathrooms and toilets in like Indonesia that are still not really updated. And there's you know like a hole in the floor. Or like a latrine in the floor. There was no hole in the floor. I don't know what I was supposed to do with that. With a garbage can and a bucket of water. I don't know. But there was two bathroom stalls and that's what they had. They had a big washing station for after. But no soap. No soap dispensers. Like there was never soap there. And uh yeah. So I don't want to say I'm not okay with that. Because it's their culture. And and it's okay. They can live this way. Um it doesn't bother me. Except that I would like to know how to use the bathroom. I mean I might have even done it if I knew what I was. Supposed to do. Like was I supposed to go in the garbage can. And use the bucket to wash myself. Because there was no toilet paper. I don't know. But like a soap. That's a little long for me. That that's just a little far. I didn't bring soap. So I have toilet paper. We have wipes. I actually used the all-purpose cleaner on my hands. And then rinsed my hands off. I'm like I'm handing food out to my kids. And I just. A big part of the reason that I suggested we come to Southeast Asia. Is because I wanted to prove to myself I could do hard things like this. This is a part of the reason we travel. We travel to experience other cultures. To see how other people live. Not to judge them. Not to decide that their ways are wrong. That our ways are better. Um just to experience. Just to see what it's like. And for me to prove to myself I could do that. And here I am. On a sleeper bus. Sleeping with my kids. On a bus that has cockroaches. And attempting to use bathrooms that don't have toilets. I'm gonna get some sleep. Or attempt to get some sleep. I'm gonna try. I'm probably gonna be pretty tired tomorrow. But that's okay. Goodnight. Good morning. Did you sleep good Jessie? Oh yeah. Yeah Jessie slept pretty good actually. I did not. And neither did Michael. But uh that was to be expected. But it is. This is a bed that we're on. However they have these big cushions at one end. Which I think you're supposed to use as a pillow. But they're way too big. They're too fluffy for me to use as a pillow. Um so they're just taking up like five inches of space. And then at the other end they have all of our backpacks and shoes that we had to take off. And that takes up quite a few inches. So like that's how much room I have. I don't even know how Michael managed at all. Although we made sure that he doesn't have so many packs. We put them at my feet because he's a lot longer than me. It is about 7 30. I haven't heard anything from any of the upper bunks yet. So I'm hoping that they're still sleeping. Up until about one in the morning we stopped really frequently to pick up more passengers and more packages. And since one I think we've only stopped about three times. I thought we were arriving at 9 30 but I think I somehow misunderstood. And we're gonna be there sometime afternoon. So we still have about four and a half hours to go at least if there's no more stops. And I'm assuming they're gonna stop somewhere for breakfast at some point. The honking is crazy. I don't know if you can hear it at the camera but the bus just keeps honking. And then random like super crazy slow downs. And then you just sort of slide down your bed and make your way back up. So that didn't help with the sleeping either. At some point in the night it smelt like sewage in the bus so bad. I just assumed it was because I was because we're beside the bathroom. But then they must have smelled it all the way to the front of the bus. Because one of the employees was also coming back spraying air freshener all over the air. And then I heard him open the bathroom and he reflushed the toilet a couple times. And then it took about an hour or so and the smell sort of filtered out. So and then it just came back. He started smelling it recently. Maybe because somebody went to the bathroom again. Actually I just actually now I think about it. I just saw a person come back here. Yes you're right. So we survived our first night on a sleeper bus. Good morning. I'm so excited. Did you sleep good? No. Did you sleep though? A little bit. Yeah. It's like we stopped for breakfast. So we're gonna head out. We didn't get anything. I hope they have clean bathrooms. Did you sleep good? Yeah. Yeah? Even with all the sliding. I used to keep sliding down every time you step on the brake in the back. Do you feel tired or do you feel rested? Did you guys sleep okay? This looked pretty fun. Yeah. That's good. Did you get a little too hot? I did. There was one part where I had to take this off. Open. I opened up the farthest one. Not this one because there's no... That way? I had this one but when I... It was like coming towards my face. Oh yeah. The stop didn't actually end up being a breakfast stop. I think maybe they're skipping breakfast and lunch. So Michael did jump out really quick and ran and got the kids some yogurt drinks. The only thing that they had. And they were apparently very, very sweet. And so I think the combination of dairy, sugar, and movement. And we had three kids telling me they didn't feel well. Coming down to my bunk and laying down and just putting the vent right on their face. But then this little man, all that yogurt drink came back up. So poor guy. And we got about two hours left as long as we don't make any more stops. And then we should be in Da Nang. It's gonna be nice, eh? Yeah. All right, we're here. We're about to get off the bus and hopefully they have a van ready to take us to our Airbnb. All right, let's go baby. We're gonna get in the van and go to our Airbnb. Our home for the next month. Well that concludes our sleeper bus excursion. And I can honestly say we'll probably never do that again. But it was an experience. And we made it. We survived. We're all fine. We're checked into our Airbnb. And now we're going to find some lunch slash supper slash breakfast. Because we didn't eat that either. Slash last night's supper. So everyone's really hungry. We began this journey with excitement and high hopes. But then reality happened. In the end, we spent 23 hours on a bus that stank like a toilet and was full of cockroaches. Which I still think are better than bed bugs. But we survived. And we have a new story to tell. We may have been tired, smelly, and dirty by the time we arrived. But the important part is that we arrived. Together. And ready for another, hopefully less adventurous adventure. Thanks so much for coming along with us. See you next time!