Thursday morning.
Had a reasonable sleep, although berths not
as comfortable as the Butterworth Bangkok train. Have to put the sheets on
ourselves which seems odd given that
there are huge numbers of staff on the train. Woke up before 6 and found the buffet car right at the front, past
all the people sleeping on seats both soft and hard. Several people have
brought mattresses and bedded down in all sorts of odd places.
In the buffet, Pho is off so I get some instant noodles with
chicken and an iced coffee. Back in the compartment, 8am and the kids are full
of beans and want to play!
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| Instant Noodles for Breakfast |
The family gets off at Qang Ngai and a young woman with
several big bags of fruit gets on and takes the opposite berth from me. In
Danang we are joined by a woman and two young children going to see her mother
in Hue. I had
expected the train passengers to be largely tourists but the vast majority are
local. A few backpackers and older tourists but not many
Outside it is back to rice fields, but it feels a much more
friendly landscape than the flat plain of southern Thailand
and Cambodia.
More varied crops, real villages and
some hills nearby to give a sense of orientation.
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| Rice Fields and Distant Hills |
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| Vietnamese Countryside |
We arrive in Danang about midday and then leave Danang
backwards! Hope we are not going back to Saigon,
but soon the sea is on the right side, in both senses of the word and we are
definitely heading North. We run along a very scenic coastline where the
mountains come right down to the sea; must have seen it last year but don't
remember it. We arrive in Hue about 3pm.
A yellow-and-red flag generally means "Caution -- I'm half expecting a train to be coming the other way."
ReplyDeleteThe concept of stopping at red traffic lights doesn't seem to have caught on so it doesn't give me much confidence in red flags.
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