We took the train at 23.00 departing from the main trainstation of Hanoi. We would be sharing our hardsleeper cabin (6 beds) with an older Vietnamese couple. (and as we found out even before departing with some cockroaches as well....).
The train departed on schedule but after about the 30 minutes there was some noise and the train used the emergency brake system to come to a full stop. The train had hit someone! It actually took us a short while to figure out what had happened but when looking out of our window the body was right in front of it.... Luckily it was dark already so we couldn't see it too clearly! Quite quickly a pretty large crowd gathered outside of the train. We could see one of the train staff grabbing a bedsheet and covering the body. Within about 20 minutes; even before any police arrived; the train started moving again. We thought it might just pull up a little bit but we actually continued our journey. It was a very strange feeling/situation, on one hand it was quite sad to see someone pass away just in front of your window on the other hand was glad the train went on (in Holland that would have never happened, as I think they give the driver some time off and a psychological examination).
So the journey continued and from that moment on we did start to have contact with the older couple who during the whole ride took very good care of us (like we were there children I guess, making sure we had enough to eat, sharing their food and drinks with us, arranging for us that we would have better beds etc.) It was really too bad we couldn't communicate with them, but by their gestures and smiling we felt very welcome on the train.
A few cabins ahead there was a Vietnamese couple with 2 children, the youngest one was a very cute boy called Lam and older one was 6 years old and a lot less cute. When I saw the youngest one in the hallway I reached out my arms and he directly came running into my arms! Was really a lovely kid, when I pulled him up he directly put his head to rest on my chest. I spend quite a lot of time carrying Lam through the train, many times when I would put him down he would come running towards me again to be lifted up and carried.
At around noon a mother and her 18 year old girl came on the train and the girl did speak some English. She thought Casey and me were reporters as we kept taking so many pictures :D. Althou they only stayed on the train for 1.5 hours it was nice to have her do some translating toward the older couple in our cabin. Unfortunately at around 14.00 Lam and his family also got out of the train...
From then on think we mainly 'communicated' with the older couple and tried to rest a lot. Also enjoy the beautiful scenary that we were passing through. Lots and lots of rice fields and later on during the trip nice views of the sea at one side and a mountain area at the other. Also the view of the 'real' people of Vietnam living in their villages not spoiled by tourism. Glad we didn't miss out on these things by taking the plane instead!
Only thing is that they should do something about those cockroaches....like they never ever removed the rubbish...so the number of roaches did get a lot of worse...even I did kill quite a lot of them when hunting for them with Casey's head-lamp and slipper :D.
We arrived Ho Chi Minh City with a short delay; around 5.15. We helped the older couple to carry their stuff outside to where they were picked up by some relatives. Then we took a taxi towards the backpacker street of HCMC. Most of the hotels were still closed at this time so after quickly checking one of them we decided to get something to eat first. After we finished our breakfast we went back to the same narrow street were we went earlier to check another hostel. We went in to another one and after checking the price and checking the room we decided to take this one for one night (15US$). Think we both didn't really feel like walking around too much as we were both quite tired and Casey started to develop a cold and flu.
Now it is 16.00 and so far we have just been resting, taking a shower, eating our cup-pho (vietnamese rice noodles) on the hotel room. And Casey has been taking her 'tasty' chinese medicine so hopefully she will be fine soon!
Also just dropped off all our dirty clothing, the hotel provides laundry service so tomorrow morning we will have it back all cleaned up again :D.
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3 comments:
Fijn dat jullie weer in beeld zijn!
Wat een avontuur met die trein, zeg. Inderdaad zou je in Nederland niet verder hebben kunnen reizen, denk ik. Dat had wel uren kunnen duren.
Schone kleding zal wel lekker zijn!
Wel vervelend dat er zoveel lakkerkakken in de trein meereisden!
Groetjes uit Nederland van een jarige job!
Happy Birthday to Catrien:-)
Wish you have a wonderful day!!
Thank you!
I had a nice day.
Linda and Myrthe came already in the morning. Later Elly came and Klazina en Kees. Henny en Marja.
I got a lot of presents.
In de evening the weather became bad, but lucky for LInda en Myrthe the rain started just when they arrived home!!
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