Train: replacement bus, the dreaded loo, intermittent air con, food trolley, fellow passengers
Day 8. Saturday 25 May 2024
I may have expressed some misguided enthusiasm for this train journey. All enthusiasm has melted into a pool of sweat. It’s been almost 21 hours, and another two-and-three-quarter hours or so remaining. One train has been two trains and a rail replacement bus. Even the bus got diverted due to a roadblock. Our bus held up traffic on a “motorway” to do a U-turn and go up and over some mountains. This was at about 3am. I was glad the moon was still quite full and bright. Lovely, high mountain silhouettes. I repeat: an unexpected rail replacement bus between 2 and 4 am and a roadblock meaning a diversion up/over/round mountains.
I almost booked the Sài Gòn to Hà Nội train in one, meaning two overnights. Hahahahahahahaha, I’m so glad I didn’t. So glad. The current heat situation is because we stopped at Đà Nẵng longer than expected. Most of this railway is single gauge and we were waiting for a delayed train. We are now going in the opposite direction. According to the Vietnamese man next to me, the journey to Huế has a different locomotive and we’ll be going uphill. The air conditioning was off for about fifty minutes and the windows were all closed. The man next to me said there was plenty of time to get off the train to buy food or drink but I’ve not been in my allocated seat for the post-bus section of the journey and I’ve felt on edge. I think I’ve got away with it by being a foreigner. I do have a seat in this carriage but it’s at the other end of the carriage with no air conditioning (carriage 2, seat 64 still; this train has the older carriages so my seat number exists).
A fair few tourists got on/off at Đà Nẵng. It appears to be a large beach resort.
The last train was a lot better, in part because no one was actually booked in the excess carriage and no one ever sat next to me. Until 02:00, from 15:00 when it set off, I was comparatively comfy, which I hadn’t appreciated at the time.
The rail replacement coach was a revelation (I’ll be on a coach from Huế to Hà Nội leaving at 05:15, sigh, in two days). There are individual sleeping cocoons. I hadn’t realised there would be no storage space around your cocoon though. Otherwise, I could have put more excess stuff in my rucksack in the hold. I am also too long to really fit, but I did then think a longer bus journey would have been more comfy than the train. I didn’t need the loo on the coach but I’m not sure if/where the loo was. It also feels slightly precarious going fast round bends. The boy in the cocoon across the aisle from me suddenly sat up from lying down and spoke to his mum/relative in front and I knew he said words to the effect he was going to be sick. I saw the colour drain from his face and recognised all the signs of an imminent vomit. I wretch quite badly when I smell vomit. Luckily for all, though he was sick, he had been given a plastic bag in time and, though I could hear, I never saw or smelled anything. He was sick again just after we stopped. Anyone who generally suffers from motion sickness would probably spend a fair part of a bus journey in Vietnam with their head in a plastic bag. The roads are bendy and there is a lot of overtaking, swerving and changes in speed.
The reason for the rail replacement coach was that a rail tunnel had collapsed, which Google suggests happened in April 2024. The detour was 43km, maybe more with the roadblock diversion.
The meal I ate last night from the dinner trolley has so far had no ill effects. I got brave and also bought two hot, thin baguettes this morning from one of the breakfast trolleys, for 60k vnd. I think they had a bit of pork in them. Pleasant enough. The expensive croissant I had from yesterday, charcoal and matcha, was flattened and I definitely missed it at its best. The matcha element was a kind of creamy paste inside the black croissant, not too sweet but also probably not great for having been with me in a largely hot environment for almost 24 hours.
A small child is watching me write. He’s fascinated. The man next to me is chatting to him, obviously in Vietnamese, and it’s obvious they’re talking about me.
I had thought about staying in Đà Nẵng but it’s too hot for me to stay at a beach where lying around would have been inevitable (though the sea, I’m sure, would have been lovely for swimming in). It also has a lot of chain hotels which put me off. Oh well, it also means three fewer hours to travel on part 2 of this journey on Monday.
We are now quite high up a valley that opens from lush green to pale sand and gorgeous sea. There are green islands and a peninsula across the water with a row of city high rise buildings. The beaches look pleasant but I’m less keen that so much city can be seen. I can’t remember if my hotel in Huế is the one with a pool. I am hot, sweaty and dirty, though I’m not suggesting I clean myself off in a swimming pool. A quick look at my booking confirmation suggests I didn’t go for the hotel with a pool. Oh.
We’re still climbing up, along a high, narrow track. There are some basic shelters out of which railway staff emerge with a flag, one in each outpost. It could be a bit too exciting on this track in a thunderstorm. Wow, we are still getting higher.
The boy is back. He’s been on/off very hyperactive and noisy. I’m hot and tired and not massively engaging. He’s fiddling with my book, grrr. I feel bad but I’m not in the mood for employing my superpower!
This carriage, unlike the one on the first train, has been full. And a lot more noisy, with a few kids, but also – headphones, people, headphones; use them. Some people are just far too loud to be allowed out in public.
So last night, I bought a hot, as in temperature, meal from the dinner trolley for 40k vnd. It was rice (hot), a long green veg (hot), chicken (not hot) and a sort of bratwurst (not hot). I ate a bit of the chicken but most of it was skin and bone so I didn’t feel bad leaving almost all of it. I enjoyed the sausage, surprisingly given my recent pork issues – but sausage is sausage and pork is pork and I like sausage. The vegetable dish was delicious and the rice was good. I convinced myself I’d be ill for having eaten meat that wasn’t cooked through. I haven’t been yet. The fancy flattened black croissant with its creamy matcha filling left in my bag for 24 hours is more likely to cause a problem. But still, so far, thank goodness, I’m fine. This train is not the place to be ill. When I ordered my dinner, the three Dutch people kept watching me eat, I’m sure to ascertain whether ordering dinner was a good idea, but they had a snack bag and anyway got off the train somewhere pre-rail-replacement-coach.
The loo, at least so far, has only been full of wee and water (from the bum cleaning hose spray gun by the side of Vietnamese loos).
The train is stationary quite high above the sea. Fortunately, the air conditioning is on. It feels like such a long time ago that we left Sài Gòn. Ha, it was a long time ago. Looking on Google Maps, we haven’t made what looks like an hour’s progress. Ah, a train is passing, I suppose we are all late since the one at Đà Nẵng was late.
The boy is now punching and kicking a chair. He’s definitely got cabin fever. I have too, but mine is manifesting itself in a more socially acceptable way.
I am so, so glad to only be doing this journey one way. So glad. I am also, at least so far, glad I’m doing it. For the experience. I will be more appreciative of the experience element once there are a few comfortable, cool bedrooms between me and this seat. The scenery has been fascinating, particularly as the train moves so slowly.
I’ve seen water buffalo resting and also working, tens and tens of rice paddies, people working on them, lots of birds, mountains and a lot trees. People get up early, I imagine up with dawn. It was getting light by 05:00. Nice to see the changing colours/light. I can now understand why the conical hats, non la, are worn; they keep the sun off your head and neck and also barely rest on your head. They are also, I am told, good for rain and allowing it to quickly flow off and away from the head. All train photos I took are crap and a very poor reflection of how good it looked.
Phew, we’re on the move.
This is from the typed-up version of 144 pages of handwritten diary which I wrote over the 17 days I was in Vietnam (May/June 2024). I corrected it as I typed and added a few comments in square brackets. My intention was to use the diary as notes and transform it into a witty yet informative and concise travel diary-guide. Arguably, I should have stuck with that plan, but my handwritten word-vomit seems to capture my mood and authentic thoughts, so I’ve kept it pretty much as it was initially written.