The Snorkel Bus

We headed to the bus station early in the morning, know it was probably going to a long day. The bus ride was supposed to be something like 10 hours long, and the condition of the road was completely unknown. We we entered the bus station we saw three nice buses lined up. Our hopes soared, if only for a second. We came around the third bus only to see ours, an ancient one the looked like it was made of wet cardboard. It sat higher than the other buses and had bright blue PVC pipe coming out of the engine compartment and snaking its way to the roof. It was the air intake! Our bus had a snorkel. This type of thing is used on jeeps and offroad trucks so they can cross deep water without sucking it into the engine. Little did we know what we were getting into...

The ride started off fine. We did the usual and left the bus station with only 4 or 5 passengers, but by time we actually made it out of town, the bus was loaded down with all kinds of things and people. The road started off good, but it quickly got steep and windy. Eventually it turned to dirt. It was terribly hot, but the only way to cool off was to open the windows and choke on dust. An hour or two into the adventure we came to our first creek. It wasn't very deep and we crossed it easily. It turns out that every bridge along the road was being rebuilt, so we crossed multiple rivers. One was probably 3 feet deep, and yet the rickety bus just kept chugging along. No matter how full the bus we we always had room. At one point the entire middle isle was full of 50 pound rice bags with people sitting atop them. On the more curvy parts there were 3 or 4 locals hanging their heads out of windows, blowing chunks. What a spectacle. We arrived in Paksan late in the afternoon and found the nearest guesthouse and crashed. What a day.

Garrett