A memorable train ride and Hue,Vietnam 12-22-09

China trains are precise and on time, Vietnam trains… not so much. Our train departed at 7pm and was scheduled to arrive in Hue at 8am. Thirteen hours, no big deal… “we’ve done this before” I thought.

Lusa and I settled into our separate rooms and I met my three bunkmates. The guy next to me on the bottom bunk was Vietnamese and the two guys on the top bunks were Russian. The three of them were lying in bed ready to sleep when I came in. I quietly placed my massive bag on the floor and set off to find Lusa. She was only two ‘cars’ away and was bunked up with a Canadian couple. You know what? I’m starting to think I’m the only American in Vietnam… and only one out of the handful that are in SE Asia. Americans here are rare!

Around 10pm I feel asleep while reading my book (Eat, Pray, Love) and awoke to find Lusa and Henry, a bloke from England, creeping open the sliding door to my room. In the hall I discovered Henry had brought LOTS of beer with him on this train and Lusa and him had become fast friends. Henry was slurring his words a bit and talking about wanting to search the whole train to find another room... then he disappeared. Lusa and I chatted until Henry came back and explained, “I made it to the end of the train and the conductor looked at me and just shook his head ‘no’.” Oh well, at least he tried to find his own private suite. We all hung out for a good 45 minutes and decided to stay at the same hostel in Hue. Henry’s friend Mike, who was sleeping on the train, would be joining us too.

Lusa and Henry headed back to their rooms and I decided to brave the toilet. The bathrooms on this train were pretty bad and were exact replicas of the squatter bathrooms on the trains in China. Picture this… you open the bathroom door that swings into the bathroom, then tip toe around to step on the less-wet spots on the floor, and try to close the door behind you without hitting yourself with it because the space is so tiny. Next convince yourself that you CAN use this porcelain hole that is covered with dirt, urine, and shoe-prints. Try not to let anything of yours touch the ground and also try not to touch the walls or bathroom door because everything inside is wet from who knows what. Also, do this while the train is going 90mph and is vibrating and shaking. Good luck.

Each time I went in there I felt like I needed to be steam sterilized afterwards, but all the train provides is a tiny sink near each bathroom which trickles water (no soap or towels). Luckily I had my soap, towel, and anti-bacterial ready to go for this train ride. At one point in the evening I went to my normal bathroom and it was occupied. I went to another car’s bathroom and opened the door to find a western toilet! Yay! The toilet lid was up so I pulled the seat down and instantaneously regretted it! Shoe marks were on top of the seat and a huge bowel movement was sitting on the back of the toilet. You know, I saw funny signs in the bathrooms in Cambodia showing a person squatting on top of a western toilet with a “No Sign” marked through it. I didn’t think that anyone would be foolish enough to actually do this. Well, that was the last time I went to that toilet.

Since traveling in SE Asia, I’ve had to take malaria pills every day. I usually take one at night and the instructions say to take the pill with a lot of water and not to lie down within two hours of taking it. I have obeyed these rules for a month and a half, but on this particular night I forgot to take my tablet at dinner (because we skipped that meal and had beers at the hostel instead), so when Lusa and Mike woke me up at 12:00am, I took it then.

Not even fifteen minutes later I started to feel nauseous. I downed a lot of water, ate two bananas… all while realizing that I hadn’t eaten or had a lot to drink (besides beer) in 6 hours. I tried my best to convince myself I would be alright. I was breathing steadily and slowly and saying to myself, “you’re going to be fine, breathe…”, but when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go and I had to RUN to the bathroom. I have to say, this was probably one of the most disgusting moments of my entire backpacking trip so far. I chose to go into another bathroom than the one I had used before because this one was closer. Well… bad decisions all around. I was REALLY sick, and the bathroom smelt of… well, you can imagine- worse than a frequently used porta-potty. Needless to say, it didn’t help my circumstances AT ALL.

When I made it back to my room I had some water, ate a banana, and mentally cursed myself for being so foolish. I made a promise to myself be more careful from now on and felt well enough to fall asleep.

At 7:00am, noise from my Vietnamese bunkmate woke me and I discovered that our train was stopped in the middle of nowhere. Normally trains only stop at other train stations and for less than 10 minutes. This was not normal. I walked around and heard talk that we had been stopped for two hours because our engine broke down and we were waiting for a new part. At 12:00pm that part arrived. That’s right, for 7 hours we were stuck in the same spot on the tracks with nothing around us but farm land. Lusa, Henry, Mike, and I headed to the kitchen at some point to order food and the lady inside told us she was out of everything, (in a couple Vietnamese words). I would point to one thing on the menu, and she would say “no”. Then I’d try the next item, she would say “no”. Eventually she said “Unnngh” (yes) and went inside to tell the chef what to do. 30 minutes later we had elementary school styled sectioned plates of steamed rice, steamed cabbage, and mystery meat. Mmmm… just what the doctor ordered. Henry noticed a Vietnamese man eating a hard-boiled egg and figured eggs were probably a safer bet.

When we finally arrived to Hue at 3:00 pm. our pre-arranged hostel pick-up was waiting for us. We all stuffed into the min-van and made our way to Hue Backpackers (the sister hostel of Hanoi Backpackers). The place was really nice, three stories, dorm rooms for 4, and a nice lobby/dining area. Lusa and I put down our belongings and went for a walk around the area. We crossed over a bridge with hundreds of scooters and motorbikes crossing over it. We passed a man selling helium balloon zoo animals and Lusa bought a tiger. For the next hour, every single child, and almost every mother, eyed that tiger and desired it. Some kids followed us for a while doing the “give me” sign with their hands. So many more gave us puppy eyes and asked for it in Vietnamese… we knew what they were saying, they wanted it.

We took a turn down a little alleyway and found ourselves walking down a neighborhood of bedrooms, I’ll explain. Most families in SE Asia own a tiny space which is comprised of one room, two if they are more fortunate. The front room usually has an old TV and mats to lie on the ground... maybe a plastic chair or two. The back room has more mats on the floor to sleep, that’s all. Most “houses” we passed only had one room and the mats were the whole house. Everyone sleeps in the same room and the house is usually only occupied at night for sleeping. During the day the children are at school (if their parents are affluent enough to afford it) and the parents are working.

   

   

We passed dozens of side by side houses and one of ‘home’ owners had a day-care in her little room/house. Fourteen little children ran over to see us when we passed by. They were very cute and all loved Lusa’s balloon.

On the walk back to Hue Backpackers, we passed a “new” electronics store that sold portable c.d. players and GAMEBOYS. The also had knock off ipods and watches, so I bought an old school, “waterproof” Casio watch for $4. I’m pretty excited about it. It has a light, an alarm, a stop watch, the date, and day of the week. Now I’ll know what day it is... I’ve felt pretty lost on time/days the past few months.

Back at the hostel we had happy hour drinks and spoke with Henry and Mike about their plans for Vietnam. Gareth, from England, joined up with our group and we all decided to motorbike down to Hoi An in the morning. We heard it would take about 5 hours, 6 if we stopped, and we all thought it would be quite the adventure. Little did we know then how much of an adventure it would be!

We booked the bikes from our hostel and they arranged for a car to carry our large bags and drop them off at a hotel in Hoi An where we would met up and return the bikes. Our plans were set and our motor biking group of 5 decided to wake up early and see a temple nearby before hitting the road.