The Trip of their Lives
A requested story about three girls kidnapped while on a gap year in South-East Asia
A requested story about three girls kidnapped while on a gap year in South-East Asia
[Disclaimer: Obviously, this is a fantasy story. Anyone thinking of actually kidnapping or hurting anyone, should see a therapist. This story is written for adults. If you're not into these kinds of stories, don't read them.]
Chapter One
Vietnam, the City of Dalat, 16th of August 2017, 5:00 AM
The orange sleeper bus came to a halt. The seventeen young travelers inside of it were roughly awoken by the bus conductor, who appeared quite eager to empty his bus as quickly as possible. After all, the sooner the bus was empty, the sooner he'd be home with his family.
'Dalat! Dalat! All for Dalat leave bus!' he said in his best English, which wasn't that good. A sleep-drunk European girl with dark blonde hair that just reached her shoulder and very bright blue eyes asked him something. He had absolutely no idea what - after all, he only knew a couple words in English - so he just repeated his earlier sentence. That seemed to be a satisfactory answer, as the girl didn't ask any further question but instead searched for her sandals, slipped them on and started heaving her heavy backpack on her back. It looked preposterous, such a large bag on such a little girl, but the conductor was quite used to backpacking girls from Europe.
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Five minutes later, Julia was standing in a large bus terminal. It was cool, especially for Vietnamese standards, but nothing Julia couldn't withstand with just a hoodie and jeans on. Dalat was known for its temperate climate. Julia had read that in the Lonely Planet she was carrying in her backpack and had prepared for it.
The 23-year old German girl was exhausted. She hadn't been able to catch sleep on the sleeper bus. Partly because of the warmth, partly because of snoring neighbours, and partly because of the reckless driving of the chauffeur.
Julia had left Germany at Munich Airport only four days ago. She had started her trip to Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City - or what the French used to call Saigon. The city was buzzing with life, but she had yearned for something quieter, and therefore she had decided to move on to Dalat, an eight hour bus drive North of the capital.
It took Julia quite some time to find a taxi - and it took the taxi driver quite some time to find her hostel - but fifty minutes later she finally entered her dorm. The hostel looked nice, the dorm beds looked comfortable enough and after a quick shower Julia took her place in one of the bottom bunks. The top bunks were both taken by other girls. Julia was careful not to wake them up, taking her place under the covers and quickly falling asleep.
Vietnam, Dalat City Hostel, 16th of August 2017, 9:30 AM
'Heaven!' Zoë laughed, putting her plate containing banana pancakes, a watermelon juice shake and a bowl of fresh fruits, yogurt and cereal on the table. The Chinese girl, who had spent most of her teenage years in the UK on a prestigious boarding school, took a seat next to her roommate in the breakfast area. Zoë's Chinese name was Zhou, but she had chosen to take on a more English-sounding name to spare the people she met the trouble of learning to pronounce her name correctly.
Her roommate whistled appreciatively seeing Zoë's breakfast. She had opted for just the bowl of cereal and fruits herself.
'That looks awesome, Zoë!', the girl said. 'I don't think I could ever eat that much breakfast, though.' She gathered her loose brown hair and put it in a ponytail. Her accent was distinctly Nordic, and the girl was indeed from Denmark. Her name was Lina, and she and Zoë had spent the last three days sightseeing in the area around Dalat. Both were on a gap year, and both were taking it slow - they had several more months of backpacking to look forward to.
They waved when they noticed their brandnew roommate entering the breakfast hall. The girl walked towards them, and introduced herself as Julia. The girls had noticed that one of the bottom bunk beds had been filled this morning, and they had already assumed the girl had arrived with a night bus.
After Julia had ordered breakfast as well, the girls started to plan the rest of their day. Julia eagerly agreed to join the two other girls on a scooter trip around the hills surrounding Dalat, with a bonus visit to a coffee plantation. Her more experiences roommates quickly arranged for two scooters to be rented. After changing into shorts and a t-shirt and gathering her most important belongings - such as her passport, wallet, phone, sunscreen and a bottle of water - and putting them in her smaller backpack, she joined her two roommates outside the hostel for her first introduction to the Vietnamese countryside..
To be continued
