As I headed out towards my multi hour, multi day train voyage, armed with my last $2 pack of Amoxicillian, I wondered why I do this? I was tired from the cold, cranky that I hadn't been able to have a last week of tennis and sad to leave Laura and the really nice life she has made for herself in Vietnam.

The family insisted I have lunch with them before I left and Phouc also insisted on taking me and my large packs on his scooter to the train station. As it turned out the train was over one hour late and Phouc, being the incredible gentleman he is, waited the whole time with me. Oddly, I was the only passenger in the waiting room and really started to wonder if I would be going anywhere. I had booked a private train company - one that would have a nice sleeper for the 16 hours it was going to take to get to Hanoi. Eventually the train arrived and everyone else ran for their cars. Phouc and I waved my fancy Livitrans ticket around the tracks and no one was interested in helping us. I was thankful he was there as I knew he at least was asking the right questions in Vietnamese... just when it seemed like I was not going anywhere - some guy points to a car, sitting by itself on another track.....what??? It had the same name as on my ticket yet had no engine......

We waited and an engine rolls in, hooks up my car and makes its way to the track everyone else is on and are hanging out of the windows wondering why the train is not leaving. Even before the hooking is complete, I snag my bag away from Phouc, give one last hug and chuck it on this car - I am going somewhere...today. It was 1:30 pm, Sunday.



Sure enough, seems like I am the only one in my cabin (4 beds) and one of only a couple (the other two work for the company) on this train car. Yippee!!!! A 16 hour journey, in a lovely cabin, by myself - no smokers, no hoarkers, no snorers, no Durian, no farting......yeah!!! My good Karma has paid off and I am now delighted to be on the road again. I spread my self out - put the Ipod and speaker on the bed across - blaring out Shania Twain and Garth Brooks and the Canadian Tenors (the requisite music to cross any country). I open my snacks and start to enjoy the long journey ahead. Nice. Just as it had been a couple of weeks prior, the shoreline of the coast of Vietnam from DaNang to Hue was spectacular.




The train pulled into Hue 3 hours later, and, much to my horror, I saw people waiting.....for my car! Two business type guys got into my cabin and many more filled the other cabins. I reluctantly put away my music and relegated the rest of my stuff to my one bunk. At the next stop, a bunch of other people got on the train - one more business man which made my cabin now full. Thankfully none of them smoked as I know that I would have had my own coughing/hoarking episode.



The train seemed to be full and it was only moments before it became clear that a few of the cabins had just been filled with Aussie A'holes. Usually Aussies make delightful travelling companions, but there is one segment of the Aussie travelling community - the 20 something, dreadlock wearing, party hardy ones, that you do not want to share a night train with - especially when you are doing back to back night trains.....

The rest of the train was filled with rich Vietnamese businessman, who were obviously going to hanoi on business. Nice, respectable, quiet. Within minutes, the Aussies started drunken Karoke and pretty much kept it up through the night - at least until 2am. They screamed out bad songs and kicked a soccer ball they had brought with them. My roomies had conked out much earlier.....remember me saying how Asians can sleep anywhere and everywhere? It is a gift I used to have when I was policing, now - not so much.

We pulled into a pitch black Hanoi at 4 am and were spat out into the night. I did manage to ask one of the Aussie girls, who was struggling to stay upright, why she didn't have any more songs in her reperotoire for the morning? She appeared quite embarrassed and sick as she hit the platform.

The requisite wall of taxi touts hit us as we came off the train and I grabbed the first elderly guy with a helmet as I was not taking any chances with a Hanoi taxi in the dark - better off on the back of a bike where you can at least run for whereever you might want to run......

The streets, to my amazement were still quiet and very dark - I had kind of thought this might be a 24 hour city (had hoped). Eventually, after many wrong turns and many stops for advice, (I didn't care - I had agreed to a fixed price) we arrived at my Hotel. Thankfully there was a light on behind the locked door and I saw two guys playing a game on the computer.

I was let in and one guy went home and the other guy let me stay and play on the computer while he slept on the floor at my feet....remember that sleeping gift???

Daylight arrived around 6:30 - my room was to be available after 9....maybe.....so I took to the early morning streets in search of some familiar landmark from last year. Nope. Even though I spent a week here last year, I could not recognize anything. Eventually I found the lake and sat watching the City come alive. As it turned out, I was on the opposite side of the lake from last year.

Checked iback in around 9, nope, 10, nope, finally got in around 10:30 and by this time I was wiped. Really nice clean Hotel and nice bed. Slept til 3 and then went out exploring, returning at 6 to pack and head back to the train station! One of the Hotel guys agreed to take me on his motorbike so I got one last bike ride in Vietnam.

This time the train was headed north towards Sapa, a heavily touristed destination, so there were mostly tourists on this sleeper. At first it looked like it was only going to be a very shy Vietnamese guy and me, but just at the last moment, a nice German couple bounded in. They had been at this train station only to find the train they wanted was leaving from a different station. Someone was kind enough to transfer their tickets for a really small fee and let them on my train. They were very very flustered and panicked by the time they pushed on, just before the whistle blew.

We visited for a couple of hours and then went to sleep. Again, thankfully no smokers! Because I had slept all afternoon, I woke up after about one hour and was able to watch the beautiful country side illuminated by the full moon. Midway through the night we were hit by a huge thunder and lightening storm so that was a special treat.

We arrived in Lao Cai just as the rain stopped, around 5 am, still dark.
It was obvious that everyone else on the train was headed for Sapa as they grabbed their packs and luggage and headed for the huge buses lines up for Sapa. I dodged the touts and headed across the town square to a well lit restaurant. I was the only one there as the couple who owned it was just opening up. Little soup stands were forming up and down the dark streets but I was too cold to sit outside. I decided to wait for daylight before moving.