Right after our Mekong Delta tour, we took a train to Hanoi at night on the same day - 31 hours straight! We bought the seater tickets instead of the berths ones to stick to our budget, and also prevent sharing a cabin with strangers since there are 4 beds to a cabin. But i must say, 31 hours non-stop train ride was a nightmare. Nevertheless, it was an experience for the both of us, especially when we were the ONLY 2 foreigners in that particular seaters cabin. At the end of the day, we suffered from hunger as we only survived on self brought dry rations; butt and back ache after sitting on a "supposedly cushioned seat".

Meals were actually provided to the commuters in lunch boxes but we didn't dare to give it a try after seeing the condition of their toilets. We didn't dare to imagine having to visit their toilets and seating on the toilet bowl for umpteen since we didn't know how to have our "big bussiness" done standing up. haha. The food was prepared elsewhere in the train which was hidden from our view, hence we didn't know if our stomach could tolerate unclean food like the local. Why was that such a concern? Reason was their toilets were very dirty, plus the way the locals used it made it even worse. Pee was covered all over the toilet bowl seater and floor and they didn't flushed after use. The water level within the toilet bowl was higher than our typical ones, so the liquid content inside it only accumulated when users didn't flush. Moreover, the moving train was shaky, causing the content inside to sway violently from side to side, threatening to spill out. I'm not trying to gross you out because it was exactly as mentioned. Many times i tried avoiding usage unless i was really urgent; squatting but NO SITTING!

Not forgetting to mention about little "Ratatouille(s)" (name was given by mr g) running around our cabin. haha. Fortunately, there wasn't any "xian qiang(s)" around. If not, i couldn't imagine how paranoid i would be for the entire journey. Phew~



The interior of Ho Chi Minh's Train Station.


At the entance.

This was our train.

Quite a shock for us when we came to have a look of their "best" train. It didn't met up with our expectation or the pictures online. The thought of having to spend 30 hours on the train made us feel even more sian. The extra 1 hour delay was due to the breaking down of the train about 20mins after the start of the journey.

PS: An unintentional shot by mr g with a liitle boy digging his nose! LOL.

Us.

Mr g secretly took a sleeping picture of me while i was asleep! haha. He's so cheeky~

This was how the locals made themselves comfortable on the train.

Below were all sceneries between Hue and Danang taken on the train. Enjoy! They were very scenic! =)

The coastline.