Having left the job of booking the train late (we booked 5days early!), we only managed to get the hard sleeper beds, although we were reasonably confident we would be ok given our recent experience sleeping on trains. Arriving early to an empty room we quickly ate a takeaway dinner, conscious that the six bed berth would soon be taken over. We weren’t disappointed with the arrival of 3 loud, slightly drunk Vietnamese men, who managed to bribe the train attendant to allow them to share the 2 remaining beds. So far we had 7 people in a six person cabin. They ordered a few extra beers and then settled in for a very loud conversation, seemingly oblivious to the erosion of any personal space. It was slightly uncomfortable for Emily as the only girl; but a few choice words later they seemed to settle down and drift off into their rhythmical snoring. In some ways you have to appreciate a man who has fallen asleep with his hands down his pants, who uses another mans leg as a pillow. That’s friendship. I had made Emily a little curtain for her middle bunk bed so she could escape away with a good book. Before I tucked in for the night I made after a dash to the toilet, a traditional asian long drop, which would have been ok, except for the slippery walls which meant no way to support your ‘squat’ as the train bounced along. Wet wipes (for your feet when you mistakenly wear jandels to the bathroom and get caught by the ‘puddles’) and hand sanitizer are travelling essentials.

During the restless night it was musical beds, two more people added to the top bunk, which was jammed up against the roof. It must have been like a coffin up there. 9 people in the room made it pretty cozy, the aroma pretty potent as shoes collected on the floor. Various loud phone calls were made at 430 in the morning, and someone decided to play Celine Dion’s classic from Titanic at some horrible early hour. I did like the revolutionary music at 6am which marked our arrival into a train station though.

Transportation in Vietnam is ‘interesting’. On one hand a night bus would have fitted the bill, however these are unreliable as a multitude of companies charge ridiculously low fairs. To make a dollar, quality goes by the way side. People get traded amongst the different companies to fill up the numbers. You can get lucky with a nice sleeping bus, but stories are frequently traded over dinners about dodgy journeys such as driving on the wrong side of the road, drivers talking on the phone, smoking, locals lying in the aisle, cockcroaches, broken toilets and no toilet stops etc. (the stories were starting to sound like one of our turkish drivers who managed to drive, smoke and talk on a phone during a massive rain storm). Morning came and we were glad to roll into Hue only an hour behind schedule. The canned coffee was good – it drowned out the body odour of our companions. We missed the romantic predictable nature of the Trans-siberian and our Russian train attendants.
Given that the train cost 4 times as much as a night bus – maybe we will try other options for the rest of the journey.