Quick Update (16 March) & SaPa to Huế Train Trip

Eureka! 

For the next couple of nights we're staying a few miles south of Da Nang at a little lodge called 'Under The Coconut Tree'. Our accommodation is a delightful cottage constructed of bamboo and thatched palm. A place such as this was at the top of my bucket list for Vietnam. It's a home stay run by lovely people off the beaten path among private residences.

The blue dot marks our location 

Under the Coconut Tree Homestay

Sa Pa - Lao Cai - Hanoi

We left SaPa in the North West border region of Vietnam in a Mercedes mini-bus stuffed with fellow backpackers. I heavy mist had hung in the town all day and by our 5.30 pm departure time it seemed to be thickening. All the seat belts had been removed from the van so there was not even the option of the false sense of security from a webbing strap over our lap. There were a few murmurs among our fellow travellers concerning the horrible driving conditions on the steep mountain road but we all just hunkered down and hoped for the best. It was a relief to finally emerge from the heavy fog 40 minutes into the one-hour rush to the Lao Cai Railway Station.

  

Hanoi - Huế

Again we joined a large throng boarding the ancient train and found our rather dilapidated sleeping cabin for the overnight trip to Hanoi. The narrow 3’ gauge track makes for a rock-and-roll ride and we dozed our way through the night, arriving in Hanoi at 6.00 am, just as the station was opening for the day. At the ticket window Laura tried to enquire about train and ticket options and was told “I just sell tickets. If you want information you have to go to the information window.” There was no time for that so Laura put her foot down and managed to learn that there was a train heading south in 10 minutes. The only remaining seats were in 3rd class - hard wooden slat seats with no air conditioning. We dashed to the train with our backpack waist straps flying, boarding with minutes to spare. The trip to the ancient capital Huế would take us 14 hours.

A Vietnamese family had scooped our designated seats but we decided that the language barrier made it easier to find other vacant seats rather than haggle over our own. This was a mistake that we would come to regret several times during the trip, for the various people who had been allocated the seats that we usurped had no qualms about calling the conductor to sort out the mix-up. In the end, Penny and I managed to stay put but Josh and Laura got shunted around a couple of times before finally landing in their designated seats.

Our first seat-mates were a young couple. At first he slept with his head on her lap. After a while she got a little bored and producing a small mirror, proceeded to deal with a few black heads around her nose. When stewards moved through the carriage offering fast food, girlfriend ordered something but the delivery arrived while she was away at the toilet and boyfriend was oblivious to the order. When girlfriend got back to her seat and discovered that boyfriend had allowed the stewards to take away her order she began berating him at the top of her lungs in an exceptionally shrill voice, then stormed off to chase down their food. Boyfriend just shrugged, obviously having seen and heard it all before. The ferocity of her tirade quickly calmed to “you silly old duffer” type language before they settled down to their shared meal, with her spoon-feeding him baby-style. Afterwards boyfriend again lay his head on her lap while girlfriend proceeded to meticulously clean his teeth with a tooth pick. Boyfriend endured this with his eyes closed, humming a tune.

Later in our shared journey, girlfriend produced a bag of fresh baguettes and small containers of sweetened condensed milk. After tucking in for a few minutes she offered some to Penny and me. In our rush to change trains in Hanoi we hadn’t had time to stock up with provisions so we accepted the offer. As with all bread in Vietnam (thanks to the French colonial period) this was fresh and delicious. The sweetened condensed milk dunk was an acquired taste, which I preferred to plain bread. Pen passed on the dunking treat.

About 3 hours down the track we pulled into a crowded station where we bid farewell to our new best friends and immediately knew that conditions in our 3rd class carriage were about to change radically. People swarmed aboard loaded with kids, baskets, bundles and bottles. The family of 5 across the aisle from us were obviously seasoned travellers. As soon as they boarded they settled in for the long day ahead. Two people lay on the short and narrow seats designed to accommodate 4 passengers. Mats were laid our on the floor and two women and a young boy stretched out under the seats where they promptly curled up and went to sleep for several hours.

Surely my feet don't smell that bad!

Our new seat mates were a young mum, dad and 3 or 4 year old boy -  a bit of a tyrant who constantly pushed the limits with his young mom. The dad left her to deal with him and wandered off to find a different spot. Once in a while mom would get fed up with the bad behavior, speak sharply to the tyrant, then pull out her cell phone and threaten to call the dad to come deal with the problem. Usually the threat was enough to calm him down. Behind us sat a better behaved 4 year old who periodically ran his toy motorcycle through our hair.

At our feet was a 4 gallon plastic tank of hooch with a piece of plastic tied over the hole in place of the cap. At one point the rock and roll of the train tipped it over and the make-do seal allowed some of the clear liquid to leak on the floor before we discovered the problem. It must have been pretty good hooch, because the spill evaporated in no time once I stood the bottle up.

Around 11.00 am I went exploring and found that the next carriage was a virtually empty diner. Several staff welcomed me warmly and bid me sit down and have a meal. The rest of the family was feeling a little off from a tummy upset the day before, but I was just recovering from several days of bad cold and low appetite so I sat down and asked what was available. The stewards spoke zero English so I raised both hands in the international “what have you got” sign. One steward whipped a freshly delivered plate away from another customer and flourished it in front of me. It contained 2 fried eggs, a fresh baguette, tomato and cucumber. “Perfect!” said I. Piping hot Liptons Tea sweetened with lashings of condensed milk was the perfect drink. We’d already learned that “Vietnamese Coffee” wasn’t quite to our taste.

Looking out across an ever-changing landscape of rice paddies, kitchen and market gardens interspersed with river and bushland scenes, I was transported back 40 years to our original train travel in Asia and realized that not much has changed. The rolling stock is original and the scenery quite timeless. Fields scattered with workers in conical hats, bent double as they tend their crops, and buffalo still pressed to the plough. Perhaps the only difference is that the sound, smell and soot of the old steam engines had given way to diesel electric locomotives.

Spectacular view thru the dirty train window