Rather than take the overnight bus from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh, we took the day train because the boys wanted to be there for Saturday night. Two of their friends live in HCM and we wanted to meet up with them and go out rather than spend the night on the bus.

The train ride was looooong, most of us slept a lot, the "superior air con" seats were quite comfy and reclined. I was sitting next to Ben, he was sleeping and I was staring out the window, when suddenly the window in front of us shatters with a huge CRASH, Ben jerks awake and thinks the sky is falling. A woman in front of us had a cut on her leg, but apart from that, nothing happened. I think someone threw a rock at the train because I saw it on the floor along with all the glass.

Later on, we were awoken by the food trolley. This trolley was a serious food trolley, with three separate trolleys for the veg, for the meat and for the rice. It was a procession. We asked them for food and how much it would cost, and the guy looks at us and says "no". Weird.

We watched him then serve anyone else who asked for food and this made Ben angry. Maybe they weren't going to serve foreigners? But then Stu and Ty, sitting down at the other end of the carriage were happily munching on rice and meat, Ben got up and went to ask the guy again. He kept saying no and ended up laughing and then completely ignoring us.

It was just weird, because we hadn't done anything to offend him we don't think, and there he was mocking, thinking "let's play with the idiot foreigners".. So we went another 5 hours without eating and arrived in HCM completely famished.

That night, after being denied several taxis (the drivers would scoff and drive off when we asked them to use the meter) and walking around for ages with our backpacks looking for a place to stay, no one was really in the mood for a big night...!