Not so great Railway Journeys

Greetings from a Vietnam Train, quite possibly the worst experience of a train journey I have ever had..... I will come to that in a bit.

Since my last blog, we left Hanoi and went to Ha Long Bay for a week to chill after the manic sights and sounds of the city. It was a welcome relief, finally allowing us to get over our jet lag. At the hotel, we had a full window view of the bay, so we didn't need to spend a great deal of time touring it. Ha Long Bay itself was covered with a 4 hour boat ride and a walk round a cave. It was a pleasant experience once inside the bay and away from the hundreds of junk boats taking other tourists around which made it a little chaotic. Still, it was a great sight to see.

Ha Long Bay

After Ha Long Bay we went to Hue, the old imperial capital city of Vietnam. It was a lot more touristy than we expected, immediately after arriving being harassed by rickshaw drivers, taxi's and drug dealers! Everyone seemed to be on the scam in Hue and it was constant, almost to the point of not even wanting to leave the hotel on some days.

There was one scam we almost fell for, a friendly motorbike driver spotted us and started to chat to me, asking if he could take us for a drink. I politely declined and said maybe another day. Well another day came, and not wanting to seem rude, me and Dave went with him to a local cafe to have a drink. After 5 minutes of chat the subtle punch line came, he wanted money off us so he could buy his wife a bottle of wine. They would then say prayers for us and wish us luck on our travels. He then proceeded to argue about the amount of money we were going to give to him, so we chucked him the money for the drinks, got up and walked off. Needless to say he didn't follow us, but after reading up about this when we got back to the hotel, it is called the 'confidence scam'. There is just no getting away from it in Vietnam!

Anyway, back to the train journey. Woke up at 6am this morning and arrived at the station an hour later ready for the 8am train, only to be told, before we had even left the cab that the train had been cancelled. We ignored the guy as we thought he was a scammer. After 8am and the train didn't arrive, I asked the information desk what was going on, only to receive blank looks and no assistance. No-one spoke any english and no-one was willing to assist, so I eventually managed to get hold of the ticket agent on my phone and handed the phone over to the booking staff. Thank god I managed to get hold of the agent! After 5 minutes of speaking to the staff, it turned out the train had been cancelled and we had to change trains, meaning a 3 hour wait. Great!

Eventually, after spending what felt like a lifetime at the station the train arrived. We had coach 8 on our ticket, and guess what? There was no coach 8. There was coach 7 then there was coach 9. Fucking hell this day is getting shitter by the second.

We get on the train, trundle up and down the carriage looking for our bed, only to find there isn't one. We speak to the conductor who walks us back up the train, then back down the train. Eventually, he kicks some old lady off a bed and we get in the cabin. Finally we can relax........ Well no, the cabin was filthy, hair and muck on the sheets, a turd on the toilet floor and waves of piss across the floor as the train moved. It was like sitting in prison cell that rocks. No time for relaxing in this cabin then, and we have 12 hours to go.

The journey from Hue to Da Nang is quite possible some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen as the train climbs the mountains and hugs the cliffs with the sea below and the jungle all around you. We had the privilege of hanging out of the window to see the views. Breathtaking.

Views between Hue and Da Nang

At the next station, we get a knock at the door, we are in someone else's cabin! This is chaos and even the locals look puzzled. The guide who is with the new people who's cabin we are in claims that we have stolen the cabin. Not taking any shit we refuse to leave the cabin until the conductor arrives who put us in there in the first place. The conductor comes back and again escorts us up an down the train. We eventually get a new cabin and settle in for the remainder of the journey. This is fucking awful, but at lease there were other people in the same boat as us. 

We did however make it to Nha Trang and this is a beach resort, so time to get sun bathing and chilling out for the week. We do have another 8 hour train journey planned for next week, I will let you know if we cancel that or not!

We have arrived!

Well here we are! A 12 hour flight from Heathrow, another 2 hour flight from Bangkok, a scary cab ride from Hanoi Airport and we have finally arrived at the Hotel at about 9pm. The taxi ride from the airport was an experience to say the least, the roads in Hanoi are chaotic and hectic with kids, I mean kids driving about on mopeds and babies hanging off the back.

After arriving at the hotel, I was that exhausted I went a bit delusional, periodically blurting out senseless comments to Dave then going back to sleep! Not sure what all that was about but I have slept all night and hopefully have escaped the worst of the jet lag?

After waking up this morning quite fresh, we ventured out round the streets of Hanoi for the first time. I was apprehensive to say the least as this is my first time in a city like this. The roads are something you have to see to believe. I have had to study the locals crossing the road to get an idea of what to do, otherwise I would be stuck on a little island with the hotel on it! Im getting better at it, although after being run over nearly 3 times in quick succession this dented my confidence a little. There is no point in dwelling though otherwise I may as well stay in the hotel room.

At one point I almost felt like a celebrity walking around the city, with chinese tourists just walking up to me and taking their picture! Not sure what all that was about but I was happy to oblige. Some tourists are even just taking my picture... I must be a freak of nature out here, or just a lanky bastard?

After all the build up to this trip, we are finally here. It feels like no time has passed since setting off from the UK, but at the time this seemed a very long way off, almost unimaginable. I cant wait to get around exploring and sampling the delights of Vietnamese cuisine. Oh yeh, I managed to find a KFC today!!