Train to Sapa

Trip Start Sep 05, 2008

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Vietnam Sapa, Vietnam
Monday, October 27, 2008

We've been in Hanoi for four days by today. I don't think we've spent that length of time anywhere yet since we left the UK. It's a combination of things; we were always going to want to give it while before getting on another bus after our nightmare trip (did I mention that?), but as well as that we really like it here. It's difficult to put a finger on really. The city's not great to look at. There's a reasonable amount going on here, but not loads. If people had raved about this place before we arrived here, I'd say we'd almost definitely been disappointed. But it's a relaxed, friendly place. We've got good company in the form of the "Oz-mericans" Kyle and Stephanie, and we've got a friendly hotel with our best room yet, and at a good price.

We booked the next five days of our trip today. We're getting the train to Sa Pa, a mountainous area near the Chinese border in North West Vietnam tonight. We spend two days and one night there before returning on another overnight train the following night. Then, about two hours after our return on Wednesday morning we travel to Halong Bay to spend a night on a boat, then a night in a hotel. Following all this we'll return to Hanoi. We're doing all of this with Kyle and Stephanie. The four of us seem to get on really well, and it should be good fun. They're similar ages to us, they got married last year and have been travelling for about 11 months ever since. They return to Sydney in December, and back to reality and working for a living

We boarded the train at about 7.30pm.

Train Station

It wasn't due to leave until 8.15, so we nipped out to find some beers for the journey. Three stores later, and a little haggling, and we'd found a price that we deemed acceptable. So back to the train. And what a train.

The trains in India were functional, the train in Thailand was good. But this was the real deal. We were in a cabin of four beds, Kyle, Stephanie, Catherine and I. Wooden panelling on the walls, superclean, new, an unworn train with nice touches like brass lamps. We probably wouldn't have been that impressed, but it was much better than anything we'd seen up to now. Just being in a cabin rather than an open carriage was the biggest difference. The four of us were all friends, and once the door on the cabin was closed you don't even have to think about the possibility of your luggage going missing; all berths are reserved, so nobody else will enter your cabin.

We sat and played cards on the table in the cabin for a few hours with the door open. A German guy who'd been on our minibus to the train station asked us if we were going to the restaurant/bar carriage. We decided we would.

This turned out to be the site of one of the most surreal scenes we'd ever witnessed. The bar was nothing fancy; six or so cramped tables served by hard wooden benches, a small wooden bar in the corner. None of the luxurious wooden panelling that we enjoyed in our cabin. On the bar was a TV, and this was being used as part of a karaoke system. When we arrived the only people sitting in the bar were train staff. They were looking pretty bored, and one of them sat at a table by himself singing the lyrics of the Vietnamese song displayed on the TV into a wireless mic. He didn't look like he was really enjoying himself, and although it clearly wasn't the case, it looked as though he was doing this because he had to, like his job description stated that if no one was using the karaoke system, he had to.

We took a table and Kyle flexed his vocal skills over the next few hours, singing a range of songs from "Mr Santa" to "It's a Kind of Magic". The train's guard did a formidable job of ensuring a fair distribution of songs between English pop for the tourists and Vietnamese pop for the train staff. It was a really good laugh in all, though the train staff occasionally looked bemused that the tourists maybe weren't taking things seriously enough.

Bed was 1am. Early start tomorrow.