The night train to Hue

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Back in Hanoi again, we had enough time to freshen up and grab some supplies of munchies and drinks, plus some party clothes, before heading to the railway station to catch the overnight train to Hue. One of our group just happened to be gay, it was Saturday night and coincidentally the night of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gra. We all decided to get in the swing of things and hold a Mardi Gra on the train. Our mission in Hanoi was to find something appropriate to wear for the evening.

The trip to Hue was our first stint on the “Reunification Express”. I was not sure what I expected, but our tour notes said “we use 4-berth, air conditioned, soft sleeper compartments”. Once on the train we found that “soft” meant a 50mm foam mattress thrown on top of a hard, flat bunk. “air conditioned” meant a draft coming from a vent in the roof that varied between hot and hotter. It was obvious that the only way you would get any sleep would be with the assistance of the 1996 Bordeaux.

We took a wander through the train, in our Mardi Gra outfits. The locals all got a good laugh and poked a lot of fun at us - they took it all in the fun it was meant to be. On the walk through the train we came across the “6-berth non-air conditioned, hard sleepers”. Aside from the six people in the bunks, many of the compartments also had a few extra passengers on the floor as well. This made me realise what relative luxury I was travelling in. Things like this make you remember how good you really have things in life.

Our Mardi Gra continued in the carriage next to ours, there was another tour group there who decided to join the festivities. We got chatting to lots of different folks, Germans, Swiss, Kiwis, Americans, etc. One interesting couple we spent sometime in conversation with were from Paris, on their way to Saigon to meet with their daughter. The daughter had just spent a few months in Australia as part of a round the world trip. We naturally exchanged contact details and discussed the art of wine making for sometime, as the chap from Paris was a fellow wine making hobbyist.

Sometime just after midnight Lorenza and I decided we had downed enough of the “Bordeaux” to block out the noise and movement of the train. I curled up in, what I know considered to be an incredibly comfortable “soft” bed and went off to sleep with the clickety-clack of the train as my lullaby. Spare a thought now for the fact that alcohol makes me snore, so my fellow companions in this compartment got a bonus on top of the usual train noises, they also got to experience the joys of my “Bordeaux” induced thunderstorm impression. I am not sure about the others, but I know I slept like a baby!

A few observations about our tour companions

After spending a few days in each others company we were able to make a few observations about our travel companions:

Yuki struck us as very brave, when you consider that her English was a bit limited she took a big plunge setting forth on a tour with a bunch of Aussies (and a Canadian ring in). In our short time together we managed to ruin her limited English completely by teaching her Australian instead. Her ability to pick up our accent was incredible. We decided to adopt Yuki simply because she was such a nice person to be around.

Tet made us do a double take every time he opened his mouth, because it was so weird hearing his Cambridge accent in contrast to his Japanese appearance. He is very, very out going also which again goes against our preconceived ideas about the Japanese. Luckily we all got him out of the habit of wearing his shirt tucked in all the time like he was off to work at the bank service counter - he learnt to loosen up after a few days.

Sandra and Barbara may have been the most senior members of the group, but we soon found out that there are not too many countries in the world either one of them has not visited. If you want to get yourself a bargain, then enlisting Barbara’s help was a sure bet, she is by far the best haggler we have ever met. Also, is there anywhere they have not traveled? They also surprised me with a lot of their observations of people and places - they seemed to view life from a slightly different perspective, possibly assisted by the fact that they were at that stage in their working or retired lives where almost full time travel was an option.

Patrice we soon found has a wonderful dry wit, he could almost be an Aussie in disguise. We also discovered that instead of packing clothing for the trip, Patrice’s bags contained nothing but tropical disease medications. I think his Doctor thought he was off to the Congo. Also, at some stage our tour leader realised that if you loosely translated Patrice’s surname from French to English you ended up with him being dubbed “Mr Yes But” - very fitting!

Tony is a dangerous man when he is in possession of a bottle of gin.

Scott and Merril were on their honeymoon. That girl really loved to shop - the huge parcel they sent back home halfway through the trip would have filled my luggage twice over.

Ha our tour leader made life very easy for us. Despite having done this trip many times over she still had a lot of passion for sharing the history and culture of her country. She also had a wicked sense of humour that made some of the tedious bits of travel seem like a lot of fun.

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Photos

Mardi Gra
celebrations on the train to Hue

Mardi Gra
celebrations on the train to Hue