Things that go CRASH in the night!

VietNam has a pretty tricked out, state-of-the-art overnight bus transport system to move the tourists up and down and all around this skinny little country. And as with all the other southeast Asian countries, the drivers here are all totally insane.  They honk, they swerve, they not only use but require all the corners of the road.  And whether they're passing on the wrong side or overtaking others from the shoulder, you can rest assured that this maniacal behavior is standard fare in these parts.

But I had a sneaky suspicion that our little rice paddy daddy of a cheaufer was off his rocker when I had to buckle my seatbelt to avoid being tossed from my sleeper.  It was the sound of the windshield being smashed in, combined with the sudden loss of velocity, that startled even the heaviest of the snoring, slumbering guests.  I answered the cries and whelps of "What the **** was that?!" and "What the hell just happened??"  Our driver has finally managed to crash the bus.  It took him long enough; we'd already been into the journey for six hours.  I felt happier that he'd smashed our sleeper bus into the back of a 5-ton cattle mover as opposed to killing some motorbike drivers.  As he turned the interior lights on, the smartest of us got off the bus and onto the side of the motorway in the unlikely but possible event that the charter should explode from the leaking fluids gushing out the side.  Wise it was because the driver, who pretended to speak zero English, chose to leave our rear taillights off despite the hordes of upcoming traffic.  Are we a sitting duck? I do believe so.  As I've mentioned before, VietNam is crazy. And a rear-end collision of our bus while it sits stagnant in the highway in the middle of the night is probable.  I took a wait-and-see approach.

They don't even charge you extra for this service!

Fortunately, the engine is in the rear, and after it fired up, little daddy decided that we're going for it. We're gonna knock out the last 7 hours of this leg with zero visibility.  But not to fear, because he's not gonna let a little thing like not being able to see thru the glass deter his time schedule.  We've got some ground to make up from that annoying little delay.  As he continued on pelting it down the highway, swerving, honking, speeding and rocking, it dawned on me that we'll be lucky to make it down the coast alive.  Man, what have I gotten myself into over here?