Day 4 1/2 Vietnam

The overnight train towards Saigon is a journey all its own. We walk from our hotel to the station and arrive early. What we think is some official showing us our car is a tricky trickster. He demands money from us as he puts us in the wrong sleeper car. Gesturing at his ID card. Eventually we pay the guy about 2 dollars so he will leave. We’re not used to this trickery and we have made peace with the small little scams that are everywhere. Our sleeper car sleeps 6. It’s full when we leave and nobody but dawn and I speak English.

We leave at 10pm sharp and I’m up on and off all night as we stop at different stations. We have no idea where we are. The sun starts to shine at 6 and we see our first views of the country. It’s stunning rice paddies surrounded by dense vegetation sprawling in the foggy morning. I wonder if the fog will burn off.

It’s about 10 hours to HUE but we are stopping off in Dong Hoi to do some cave trekking. I spot temples sliding by in the morning. Little trails and muddy roads connect the small villages. Occasionally I see some pavement I’m guessing that’s the highway.

Our plan is to get off at the time we are supposed to arrive according to the ticket. Worse case scenario we will be close and our journey continues slightly modified. The stations have no signs we can read or even see from our car.

Read the other entries from our Vietnam trip below
Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 4 1/2 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 8 1/2 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 14 – Day 15 – Day 16 – Day 17 – Day 18 – Day 19 – Day 20 – Day 21