10/18/08 Phil: The Train to/from Lao Cai

We've been away from Hanoi for four days, exploring the mountainous region of northwest Vietnam. Our journey began, and ended, on the overnight train to/from Lao Cai, which is on the border with China.

Unlike most of the Westerners making the journey, we took the public "soft sleeper" along with many of the Vietnamese and Chinese passengers. Other options were very hard wooden chairs (about $5), the usual padded chairs and more finely appointed sleepers in private cars favored by the tour companies that book the trip for most of the Westerners. Gail booked the trip for us, with the help of one of her students. Our soft sleeper cost $18 per person one way. For this we received a covered foam rubber mattress on a berth with a sheet, blanket and pillow, all of uncertain cleanliness, in an air conditioned cabin . We brought sleeping bag liners to sleep in as a way of guaranteeing a bit more cleanliness. The sleeper wasn't fancy but was quite adequate as you can see.


There are four berths per cabin. On the trip north we shared the cabin with tourists from China who were returning to their home in Kunming. They spoke no English but were quite friendly. The cabin next to ours housed some younger Chinese tourists and two American backpackers. The Chinese, who spoke some English, brought a twelve pack of beer with them which led to a loud party next door with the Americans for most of the night. The party culminated at 4 a.m. with the singing of "If You're Happy and You Know It" while clapping their hands and stomping their feet with great exuberance. Needless to say the Americans in our cabin were not clapping.

Our train trip back to Hanoi was uneventful. We shared the cabin with a 52 year old Vietnamese man and his 16 year old son. The son spoke a little English. As we were leaving the train this morning, I noticed that he was reading one of the Harry Potter books, a Vietnamese edition. Harry Potter seems to be of universal interest.

Lao Cai is 211 miles from Hanoi. The train travels along the banks of the Red River. It was an eight hour trip so we averaged about 26 miles per hour. Definitely the slow train to Lao Cai!