Yangshuo to Macau - Mar 24, 2005 - Macau, Macau SAR, China

Overnight sleeper bus journeys: Important lesson number 1

DON'T EVER DO IT

And that concludes todays lesson kids.

Boarded the bus at 7.30pm and prepared for a 12 hour overnight journey to Macao. Quite looking forward to it as we booked the expensive lower bunk beds which are larger and closer to the floor.

Not to be though as some Chinese persons had kindly taken a shine and occupied them already. There was a bus stewardess in charge of such matters so we pointed this out to her. She just turned her back and ignored the problem.

So the next 12 hours were spent on the top bunks. Mine (Steve) was in the very middle at the very front. The only thing between me and the road was a very large windscreen. Luckily though we had lapbelts. Lapbelts that came undone if you twitched that is!

The beds were approximately 5 foot long, which may be generous and your shoulders were contained by tiny little bars. Sleeping was quite a feat, you needed to be able to simultaneously sleep whilst maintaining a firm grip on the side bars, ignore the karaoke blaring on the video, drown out the overused horn and block out the world record snoring.

During the journey, I realised that I recognised our driver. It was none other than Colin McCrae, the world champion rally driver. He was taking his bus rally driving test. Sleeping next to me was Sandra Bullock, and next to Carla, Keanu Reeves. The driver never went below 50 mph - was there bomb on the bus????

The final insult??? We were supposed to be dropped at the border to Macau. To quote the sales blurb - "You get off the bus and walk over the border". In fact it was a 15 minute taxi ride. Glad we didn't try to walk it after just 23 minutes combined sleep time between us.

Anyway, we obviously made it safely, but never, ever again!