The moment you decide to take an overland trip across Southeast Asia you are submitting to their system. A system of no rules, no timetables and no speed limits. Becoming frustrated and angry will only make them turn the TV up louder, skip a bathroom stop or drive faster.
The bus will never leave on time. You may be sitting for hours at time staring at your bus in sweltering heat. You will never get a straight answer from anyone and will never understand why you are delayed.
The bus will break down more often than not, and usually in the middle of nowhere. You won’t always understand what is going on until you see the smoke, or the driver pull out the fire extinguisher—this is when you should start to worry. Most everyone uses this as a quick bathroom break and chance to stretch their legs.
Did I mention the buses break down a lot? Expect long delays and to arrive at your final destination at least two hours later than planned.
There are always more people on the bus than seats. When you start seeing the small stools being pulled out this is when you should be aware that your leg room in the aisles is going to disappear. If there aren’t any stools the last people to get on will stand, sometimes for 4 hours or for the entire trip.
Especially in Cambodia, loud TV, music videos and soap operas will be played at unbelievable volume levels. They don’t care if its the middle of the day or night, the TV will be on at an excruciating volume. I remember playing my own iPod and no matter how loud I turned it up I could still not overpower the Khmer music videos that were on. Also it’s not like the TV is on and no one is watching it. The driver and people that work on the bus are completely enamored with the shows on the TV. Baffling.
At night the buses are cold…REALLY cold. You will probably be given a blanket on over night buses, and although I question the cleanliness, if you don’t come prepared you will freeze. Also, the lights usually aren’t turned off all the way, so if lights bother you bring a mask to cover your eyes.
Instead of slowing down at stop signs or yielding to the cows in the road the bus drivers usually choose to lay on the horn, warning anyone in the way that they are coming and not stopping. When we entered small villages the driver would lay on his horn for almost the entire drive through the city warning kids to get out of the street and all of this is done without taking any weight off of the accelerator. We are going full speed into traffic, towns and cross streets with no intention of slowing down. The horn warnings go on all day and night. I remember one bus trip we were up all night solely because we had a particularly loud bus driver that insisted on using the horn every other minute.
One of our favorite sleeper buses was in Laos. It had bunk beds where you could lay down flat. Sounds great right? If you are a solo traveler and you don’t book two spots they place you with a stranger of the same sex. So, you are sleeping in an area smaller than a twin bed with someone you’ve never met before. Josh and I could barely sleep shoulder to shoulder. Our friend we traveled with for awhile ended up shacking up with a 6’3″ guy, head to toe and let’s just say he didn’t sleep much during the night!
The buses in Vietnam are great, you are able to almost lay flat, stretch out and aren’t sleeping with a stranger. These sleeping buses come equipped with seat belts and I suggest you wear them. The first night on one of these buses I rolled my eyes thinking there’s no way I’m sleeping with a seat belt on. HOLY CRAP. Bus drivers in Vietnam drive with a speed and in a state of absolute lunacy that is beyond anyone’s belief until experienced first hand. Wear your seat belt, you won’t be sorry.
If your bus doesn’t recline at all it will always be a gamble if you are going to get any sleep, but like they say “Practice makes Perfect”. The more you do it, the more you will find yourself sleeping in any position.
In Laos, if you can’t find a bus that is scheduled to go where you want to go, there is always a cabbage truck that will help you get there – just hop on!
What are your tips for surviving overland travel by bus?
haha great post guys…I managed to avoid the buses when I was in Asia last time but I think I’ll have no choice next time and the idea doesn’t thrill me so this was pretty good info 🙂
They really are the best way to get around Asia – we met some great people on each bus and had some good laughs. One guy we met ended up traveling with us for the week after the overnight bus. Good times on buses in Asia – no matter how frustrating we are at the time! 🙂
Thanks for the post. I’m going to SE Asia soon and will be travelling around overland for 3 months. It’s still hard to imagine that the transport there is so unreliable. I hope I can stand the loud music and freezing cold nights!
After so many buses, you will start to find it funny – you never know what bus situations you are walking into, but there will almost always be something! No worries though – eventually you will always get to your destination… 🙂
Somehow you made this sound fun. I don’t know if this was your intent, but now I *want* to take a bus just to see which kind it turns out to be. 🙂
It was honestly part of the adventure!
How did you get the picture of both of you sleeping? Was that staged….
I don’t think we’re going to take a bus once for our 3 months in Southeast Asia. How do your bus experiences in South America compare?
We pretty much only did the Cama bus tickets for the overnights which felt luxurious compared to what it looks like you went through in Asia…
Not staged.. Joshs parents visited us in Thailand and they snuck this one of the trips!
You will have to return soon to experience the wonderful world of bus travel!
We haven’t done any bus travel in South America it’s all flights until we reach Hawaii!
I am about to go to southeast asia. I want to travel overland, the busses are not as nice as they were in Argentina. That was true comfort. I am a large person I wonder if I should try it? I think I will buy both sides of the bed.
Not all are flat beds, we only ran into 1 bus llke that, most were reclining chairs, but they were much smaller than the ones in South America! It’s always an adventure to overland in SEA, but it’s worth it!
How/Where do you get tickets for buses like this??