Thursday, November 26, 2009

Hanoi -> Sapa, Vietnam - 23 Nov 2009, Monday

Our Hanoi tour agent got us from the Melia hotel lobby at 7:30pm, plonked us into a cab and headed for the train station. We were so early, the Victoria Train staff weren't even there yet, the train was at 9:50pm, but we had to be there an hour ahead to collect the tickets. But! we were there at 7:50pm :P

We were handed over to another guy at the train station who had pointed to a couple of seats, and said 'don't go anywhere', he was supposed to tell us when the Victoria Train was ready. Good thing Pea and I are quite good at doing nothing, so the couple of hours went by quite quickly.

The time came for our overnight train to Sapa, and the train station guy lead us out of the waiting area, across several train tracks and down a long platform in the chilly night. The Victoria Train is actually just different cabins hooked on the existing train line. There were 2 bed cabins and 1 dining cabin.

We took full advantage of the dining cabin 'cos we already know that the trip back will not have a dining cabin. :) It was all very pretty, the menu prices were similar to Green Tangerine & Five. We sat there for as long as we could keep our eyes open.

As the train pulled out of the station, Fata and I were SMS'ing each other. Then Fata calls asking if we were already on the train and if the train had set off. Just then he said he was looking at the train, & for about 5secs, Pea and I saw Fata standing below the train line, north of the Dong Xuan Market, on the phone and waving. So romantic... :P

We shared out 4-room cabin with newlyweds, the bunk was so tiny, but managed to squeeze a large-frame (I think he us Australian from his accent), and a small-to-medium-frame (I'm certain she is Vietnemese cos she had no problems communicating with the local train staff) into one bunk! :P

The night was restless 'cos I couldn't get over the clickety-clack of the rails... oh well... at least the loo was spacious and clean :)

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