I can’t believe I did it again: booked myself for overnight travel. I had wanted to take the day train to my next destination, but it didn’t go directly. I would have arrived at the station at 4:45pm, and the last bus to Phong Nha left at 5pm. That was just too close a connection so I capitulated to taking the sleeper bus.

As I talked about it with others, it occurred to me that I had never taken a sleeper bus. Apparently this was a bus that was specially designed for overnight travel with fully reclining cushioned seats, the kind you see in first class on airplanes. That could only provide a more promising opportunity for sleeping than other overnight transportation I had taken.

I arrived at the bus station at 7:30 in the evening as the bus was scheduled to pick up between 8 and 8:30. At 9, I asked the receptionist whether she might call the bus to find out where it was. She assured me that there was no need to worry, but at 9:30, another couple waiting with me approached her with the same question.

At that point she informed us that there had been an accident that delayed our bus, and it would now pick us up around 11. This was actually good news to me as the bus was originally scheduled to arrive at our destination at 4am. This meant it would get in closer to 6 so, if I could sleep on the bus, my sleeping hours would have been pretty close to normal. Of course that wasn’t to be.

The bus arrived around 10:30, and I was hastily ushered on board. Immediately, I recognized a sleeper bus was different. Instead of seats running down either side of a single aisle, there were two aisles, with bunk beds lining either side and a third row of bunks down the middle. The bunks reclined fully and looked about as comfortable as you could be on a bus.

Unfortunately, I was not assigned to one of the single recliners lining the bus but was led to the back where there was only one recliner available, on the top bunk with two other people. I couldn’t help but feel utterly awkward as I climbed into the space of the couple who had been sleeping there, but there was no choice. It was the last available seat on the bus. Since the bus was full, I wasn’t able to store my luggage underneath either, and the attendant insisted I keep it with me in my bunk so that it didn’t block the aisle. With my backpack at the foot of my seat, I lost a third of my already cramped sleeping space.

The leather recliners weren’t bad and for many they served as a comfortable place to sleep, but I have never been able to sleep on things that move. I’ve slept comfortably in a tree, in a cave, on cliffside, but I have never been able to sleep on a plane, train, or bus. I think the problem is that I sleep face down, and this position just can’t be achieved in a reclining chair.

As I attempted to settle in, I realized that my seat was located right next to the bathroom. This realization didn’t come by visual observation but from the stench of air that wafted into my nostrils. I felt like was was trying to take a nap in a port a potty.

At some point during the night, I climbed down from my perch to use the toilet. In front of the door was a pair of flip flops you could wear into the bathroom. This was nice because you were required to remove your shoes while on the bus, and the area surrounding the hole in the floor of the bathroom was neither dry nor clean. As a guy, it’s always a challenge to figure out whether I use this type of toilet while standing or crouched down. I went with the latter as the bus was careening back and forth and I figured a lower center of gravity was for the best in this situation.

I climbed back to my communal bunk and attempted to get some sleep before being abruptly awoken two more times. The first was by the conductor who was talking loudly on his phone in Vietnamese. You can pretty much imagine what this sounded like, and what was he thinking; this was supposed to be a sleeper bus. The second time was by the banging of the bathroom door against my bunk. As it turns out, the bathroom door didn’t latch properly so anytime it wasn’t forcefully closed, it would bang against my sleeping quarters. This was my experience on the night bus.

I arrived at my destination exhausted and was grateful that they let me check in early. I showered, took a nap and vowed to never travel overnight again.