Beez Neez now Chy Whella

To Ha Noi

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Wed 17 Jan 2018 23:57

To Ha Noi – Our Final Train Journey in Viet Nam

Our digs transferred us to Dong Hoi Train Station and we busied ourselves reading and planning our three days in Ha Noi.

Time sped by and we were soon standing on the platform. Baggage handlers began appearing in readiness for the inbound train.

There was a flurry of activity behind us as the sleepy shops began to open.

Happy boy as our very posh train approached.

We pulled out on the dot of 09:27 and this train was posh enough to tell us time, date, temperature (in and out), speed and next stop. Our carriage chap ran a tight ship and mopped and tidied frequently. The child in front of us – as he leapt from seat to seat was a little wearing.....We would have him for the first four hours. I settled to sorting photographs on my laptop and even wrote a blog. We sat through mother and child eating two huge bags of sunflower seeds which meant an hour of ‘crack’, ‘chew’ ‘spit’, unless he was leaning over us when we were showered with pieces of half seed cases. One particular leap had the child leaning over whilst eating something he was squeezing from a plastic sausage-looking-thing that smelt like dog food. Thank heavens when he sneezed he put his hand to his mouth and ‘stuff’ only shot out each side. I did say Oooo at this point and from then on his mother exercised enough control so it didn’t happen again. Needless to say we were thrilled when the mother put her coat on, but, alas, we had to wait for yet another stop before seeing the back of them. Then we had a smelly little man who was a proper gem. He didn’t recline his seat and slept most of the three hours we had him for. Deep joy and thundee-bolt. The last part of the journey we had all the guards at the back of the carriage and once more a loud zoo, but only for half an hour or so.

Scenery as soon as we had left the city changed from buildings to rice paddies by the mile, as far as the eye could see. Half past eleven saw lunch. I didn’t but Bear thoroughly enjoyed chicken and rice, cabbage, melon and water.

We enjoyed watching the field workers as we sped by, often at 70 kilometres an hour.

We passed hundreds of plastic cloches, filled with baby rice plants, protected against the weather.

Five per cent at the beginning and five at the end of our journey was made up of towns, a couple of big factories and a pagoda.

Rice paddies made up about seventy per cent of our scenery.

About ten per cent was growing ‘other stuff’.

Surprisingly, about five per cent was made up of incredible tall, sheer, limestone tower karsts.

Five per cent giving to rivers and lakes, some very attractive.

We both enjoyed supper, very similar to lunch but the mains were hot, the cucumber and the melon cold and all very fresh. Our ticket states ‘foreigner’ not tourist but there is a very efficient way to book on line or at a station. Twelve pounds fifty, soft recliner, cooked lunch and supper (very delicious too), what more could we possibly want.

Five hundred and seven kilometres, bringing our total from Sai Gon (Ho Chi Minh City) to Ha Noi to one thousand, four hundred and eighty-four kilometres. Combined journeys - a total of thirty nine hours that can be flown in two hours and five minutes but no way as entertaining. Now to run the taxi driver gauntlet......a well-known scam here are metres running at double speed, drivers taking you to the wrong hotel saying yours is full, friends in the hotels are partners in cahoots and capable of being aggressive when taken to task. Right then. We knew it was only a fifteen minute walk and that our hotel had wanted four hundred dong. I set out with one hundred, no meter and no nonsense. We began at two hundred and fifty thousand and I walked off. “OK, OK”. If I get in and find the meter start I will get straight out. “OK. OK”. Bear handed over the money (about three pounds twenty for a seven minute drive, fair we thought). All was well and we pulled up outside our digs in the Old Quarter.