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In Vietnam.
We were in the North, but away from the coast, and had been driving on some seriously badly maintained roads all day. The divots and potholes were so fucking big that they could have actually been braille for God. After about 3 hours of this, you tend to get pretty sick, or at least feel like someone has been spanking your ass with a steel paddle for the better part of a week. The unforgiving nature of my wooden seat had ensured that my arse resembled a ripe purple plum by the end of the day... but that's another story.
Back to the main bit: we had rounded yet another bump-filled peak, when our driver, whose grasp of the English language extended mainly to greetings, the names of various fast food chains and some excellent movie quotations ("Ruke, I am your father!" he screeched over the noise of the engine, his eyes returning to the road only once a large truck had nearly killed us all) - decided that we should take a break. He pulled over to the side of the road, into the dirt 'carpark' of what, unsurprisingly, turned out to be a gathering of people (seemlingly his relatives) attempting to sell us terrible 'souveniers' they had crafted from a mixture of natural materials and garbage from the roadside. How I longed for a machete. Clear the way!
Anyway, after refusing thweir advances with several poliite but firm "Please fuck off"s, I ambled into the bushes to relieve myself. I came across a horrible, horrible sight. Our driver had seemed to be immune to the bumpy ride, but it appeared that he was actually just a very, very good actor.
He squatted not two feet away from me, his pants around his ankles, and let fly with the most revolting avalanche of shit that I could ever have imagined. You could literally identify different food groups. Having turned around and fled towards the safety of the car (and my new friends who were still convinced that I needed a model of a tank made out of coke cans), I sat, unrelieved, in the carpark, wondering what else could go wrong.
After a long while, our driver returned, and announced that he was ready to continue. I was given the dubious honour of riding in the front seat with him, and it was only when he pulled out that I noticed a peculiar smell. It was a mixture of shit and piss and raw sewage that could only have been brewed in the kitchen of satan himself. Still feeling a bit ill, I looked around, and in horror, realised that our driver had obviously targeted himself with some "freindly fire", with about 1/4 of his lunch and breakfast now residing on the back of his legs.
The stench was indescribable. I have never felt more abandoned by god than those hellish 30 minutes. Our driver consistently refused my requests to pull over, saying that the highway we were now on (thankfully less bumpy) was a no-stopping zine, that the shoulder was too small, that we jad to make up for the time we had lost earlier... this continued until it seemed the driver smelled it, and decided to pull over.
Thankfully, when we got back into the car, our trusty driver had seemingly washed the solid chunks from his pants and shoes, but the smell remained. Finally, after another 2 hour drive, we arrived back at our hotel. I went straight upstairs, locked myself in my room, turned out the light and cried myself to sleep.
I think I can safely say that most soldiers from 'Nam have less mental scarring that what I endured. Every time I go to sleep, the smell of that brown waterfall of excrement sears my nasal hairs and plays with my gag reflex.
The horror, the horror...
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