Great train journeys of the world

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I guess I need to be more careful what I wish for. In my last post I was looking forward to getting on the train, and I was honest, right up to the point where I discovered that I had not in fact booked a soft sleeper for the 17 hour trip, nor even a hard sleeper, but I had managed to book a seat that looks a little like an aircraft seat for midgets. It did recline but when the guy in front tried he damned near cut my knees off, so he at least didn't get to recline in comfort. Given that all the other tourists had very sensibly booked the sleepers I was the only non-Vietnamese person in the carriage which was cause for much merriment amongst my fellow travellers. A few of them took it in turns to sit next to me and practice their English, and or or two were pretty good. A young woman who is an English tutor nabbed a blanket for me as they came past and explained how everything worked and we chatted for a while until lights out then I tossed and turned on my little seat waiting for daylight for

the next 8 or 9 hours. At about 6.00am I staggered, bleary eyed, to the wash area at the rear of the carriage, had a bit of scrub up and splashed some water on my face then contemplated another 6 hours of the same as they served up boiled rice and a boiled eggs for breakfast. I've never been so happy to get some place as I was when we rolled into Da Nang and even better there was a nice bloke holding a sign with my name on it. Hoi An is about 30km down the coast from Da Nang so the guesthouse had sent a car to pick me up. The guesthouse, when we got there, was stunning, far and away the best place I've stayed yet. Dropped my gear, had a nice long hot shower, fell onto the first soft bed I've experienced on this trip and went out like a light for a couple of hours. Dragged myself. From back into the land of the living and took a 10 or 12km wander around during An Hoi, an island attached to the mainland via a number of bridges, that helped to stretch the legs out and get my knee working again. Around 6.00pm I wandered down to the old town to get a bit of dinner and have a look around. The old town is a few streets of old Chinese temples and shop houses with tree-lined streets and of course the old Japanese bridge. At night the whole place is lit with Chinese style lanterns, very pretty.

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