When we booked our
tickets for Vietnam, traveling north to Hanoi wasn’t part of the plan. Otherwise,
we should have just booked a flight to Hanoi, traveled down to Saigon, and
crossed the border to Cambodia (now that’s an idea!). But after tons of
research, I really, truly, madly
wanted to go to Halong Bay. So what the heck, we built our entire itinerary in
consideration of the 30-hour travel time to Hanoi and another 30 hours going
back to Saigon.
Truth be told, I actually
looked forward to the train ride. It lends credibility and authenticity to
being backpackers – traveling like the locals would, listening to their
conversations, seeing them conduct their daily activities, and watching their
movies even if I didn’t understand a single word. But if there’s the good, there’s also the bad.
There are different
sections of the train: the hard berth, the soft berth, and the sleeper portion,
from the cheapest to the most expensive respectively. We chose the soft berth
for our trip to Hanoi and spent roughly $60 each. Apparently, train isn’t cheap
in Vietnam.
 |
| The soft berth section |
Shortly after we boarded
the train, I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy ride. Adults were talking to
one another with thin, high-pitched voices. Kids were screaming and running
around. When people slept, they put their feet up on the seats even up to your
head. I must have given a fellow passenger THE LOOK until he backed off. The
bathrooms were ill-kept. Each hour, a food cart would roll along the aisle and
the seller would bark loudly for the entire world to hear. It also didn’t help
that they have very little regard for health and sanitation. My neck, back, and
spine ached from all that sitting and dodging all those unidentified flying
liquids and solids. The train takes multiple stops in between and the
passengers would leave all their trash behind – to the horror of the next
passengers (but they didn’t seem to mind). I felt like time stood still. The
soft berth was rarely empty all throughout the trip and my travel buddy and I –
were the constants. That whole experience was death by train. And a painfully
slow-moving one at that.
 |
| The sleeper section |
Coming back from Hanoi,
we knew better. Even if it was more costly (around $90 each), we chose the
sleeper section. It is more private and comfortable and can accommodate 6
people with 3 beds on each side per room. They didn’t change the bed sheets though,
so if new passengers boarded in one of the stopovers, they’d have to use the sheets
of the passengers before them. There are multiple compartments in the sleeper
section but the bathrooms were well-maintained. If you don’t like to hear the
screaming vendor with the rolling cart, you can just close the door and lock
it. It wasn’t exactly the cleanest but it was so much better than the soft
berth. And this time, I got to appreciate the simple pleasures of a slow ride.
So what do you do on a
30-hour train ride?
To fight the boredom of a
long train ride, I bought a book – Into the Wild by Jon Karakauer. I finished
reading the book, updated my travel journal, listened to music, slept, ate (we
brought our own food), and just marveled at the sights we passed by. There was
one portion of the train ride where it seemed like we were teetering on the
edge of a mountain and on the other side, we can see the vast blue ocean. Breathtaking.
We also saw plenty of lush green rice fields, which is not surprising since
Vietnam is one of the largest exporters of rice.
Will I ride the train in
Vietnam again? For long distances, no. But a couple of hours can be tolerable,
I guess. There were a couple of stops that were worth hopping off on, such as
Da Nang or Nha Trang. I would definitely want to come back and explore what
those places can offer.
Next: Day 4: Exploring the Old Quarter Streets and Watching the Water Puppet Show
Next: Day 4: Exploring the Old Quarter Streets and Watching the Water Puppet Show
