We took a daytime ‘sleeper’ bus from Phong Nha to Hue, a journey of about 4 hours. We found this the most direct way to transfer, but not the most comfy.
We took the daytime ‘sleeper bus’ from Phong Nha to Hue. We’d heard of sleeper trains, but not of buses (especially not ones that run through the day), so we weren’t quite sure what to expect.
From Phong Nha to Hue the sleeper (read: backpacker) buses leave at 4am (no thanks), 7am (the one we got) and somewhere in the late evening which would mean a late arrival into Hue.
We considered the alternatives which were a) taxi back to Dong Hoi then the train which only runs a few times a day, or b) public bus leaving Phong Nha at 3.30pm. We wanted to get going as early as possible that day so the 7am sleeper bus it was.
Getting tickets and setting off
The homestay we were staying at called up the night before we wanted to leave and booked us two ‘sleeper’ seats which we then paid for (220,000d/8.27 EUR each) as part of our bill. That caused a bit of confusion the next day when we tried to board the bus without a ticket. We ended up telling the slightly curt bus lady to call our homestay to confirm.
The bus leaves from the main street in Phong Nha but realistically we didn’t actually set off until about 7.20am as it took a while to load bags and for everyone to get boarded. Boarding involves taking off your shoes and putting them in a carrier bag handed to you by the driver. Then we still did a little tour of Phong Nha to pick up a few people from homestays.
On the sleeper bus
I found the bus pretty cramped – it’s like a set of bunk beds that aren’t quite long enough to lie down fully in, and that aren’t quite flat enough to actually lie down in. They do provide you with a blanket, but there was nothing fancy like free water, wifi or plug sockets. There’s a squat toilet at the back of the bus.
The journey itself took about 4 hours and I didn’t find it a smooth one – lots of beeping, swerving, bus driver having a smoke (out of the window but you could still smell it) and picking up/dropping off his mates along the way. It was alright for a short journey but I wouldn’t want to actually try and sleep on a longer, overnight trip on one of these things.
Arriving in Hue
The sleeper bus drops you in Hue at the DMZ bar where lots of touts are waiting to find you a hotel room or get you into a taxi. We’d booked a room (from the bus) at the lovely Nam Mua Boutique Hotel so when we got off the bus all we had to do was don our ponchos and trek through the driving rain across the bridge to our hotel. Having seen the sight of us two drowned rats squelching down the road, they promptly thrust umbrellas into our hands and we tried not to drip all over their nice new rooms.
An introduction to Hue cuisine
We ate lunch at Hanh Restaurant where for 120,000d (4.51 EUR) you can get a set menu of all of Hue’s famous dishes to try. We had to be shown a few times by the staff how to eat each one, and we enjoyed all of them, especially the little sausages on lemongrass sticks (Nem Lui).
