Train to Sapa

  At 9 PM, we were taken by taxi to the train station with a hotel employee who  assisted us in getting our prepaid tickets. I had gone to the extra expense of purchasing a four person sleeper compartment for just Karen and I, I'm glad I did. The station was dark and poorly lighted, and well worn . A porter carried our bags out onto the platform and directly to our " room ", it was great. 

  The train was 1960 vintage but clean and well maintained. They had folded up the upper beds and made the 2 lower ones up for us, 2 clean pillows each plus a clean duvet for a blanket. We slide our door closed to the hallway for privacy and settled in, it was cozy and nice. 

   The train station is in downtown Hanoi with tracks running at street level, not elevated or in tunnels. As we crept out of Hanoi, we crossed busy city streets  where flagmen had stopped traffic, it was odd. 

  I kept waiting for the train to pick up speed, it never did. I doubt we hit 50 MPH the whole 10 hour trip. As we crossed roads in the country, a local signalman was holding a tin lantern to halt cars. We stopped every 45 minutes and let a few people off, they had packages and bundles under their arms from their shopping trip to the city. The train would jerk and creek to a start and rumble on to the next stop. 

   A women knocked on our door offering soda,chips, beer etc, I bought 2 cold beers for $3, She didn't speak a word of English but we managed to complete the transaction. We were going to use the clear plastic cups in our compartment but upon closer inspection , they were well used, we drank out of the cans.

Although the beds were comfy, the constant clanging and swaying prevented me from getting more than a few cat naps. Karen slept soundly all night. We arrived at the northern tip of Vietnam the next morning. We looked across the river at China.