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Published: August 18th 2009
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Hard Seat Sleeper
oh man...this is going to be a loooong night The Train Ride North to Ninh Binh
Deciding to give the train one last chance, I booked myself in a hard seat for the overnight trip from Hue to Ninh Binh. I perhaps should have looked into what exactly ‘hard seat sleeper’ meant before buying my ticket. Boarding the train, I was a bit appalled to see that the seats were small wooden benches, similar to what you would find in a city park.
I had a suspicion that this was going to be a long night.
Once again, I was the only foreigner in sight, and I had to contend with hundreds of eyes watching my every move as I took my seat. I’d already figured out that most tourists take the bus through Vietnam, but the obvious shock on everyone’s face in my car convinced me that even the few intrepid travelers who brave the train would not book themselves in anything less then a soft sleeper. Determined to make the best of it, I settled myself (un)comfortably in my seat and immediately began counting down the 14 hours until our arrival.
My seatmate was an older woman with her young son. He seemed inordinately
Asleep and drooling on my knee
Talk about up close and personal...I couldn't even back up enough to get a decent picture of her.... fascinated by me and shy smiles progressed to gentle pats to all-out mischief. While his mother stretched out underneath our seat for a nap, I ended up entertaining her son and every other toddler in our car. It’s amazing how the language barrier seems to evaporate when interacting with small children. I growled, tickled, and wrestled them into peals of delighted laughter. The other passengers onboard watched with bemused smiles as I sent the children scurrying back and forth through the aisle shrieking with pretended terror. After about an hour of these shenanigans, I began feeling guilty about riling up the kids before bed and keeping everyone awake, and so settled back in my seat and shut my eyes in an attempt to signal that the fun and games were over. And after a few halfhearted pokes and giggles, the children gave up and settled down into sleep themselves.
It was impossible to get comfortable sitting on this thin wooden bench, and since my seatmate seemed down for the night, I decided to curl myself up across both our seats and attempt to get some rest. It was a close fit, but with a little bit of ingenuity, and
Ninh Binh
The river cruise through Tom Coc allowing my feet to dangle over the edge, I managed to achieve a tolerably comfortable position. Surprisingly, I slept.
But not for long.
I was rudely jerked out of sleep by the humiliating act of being spanked. Hard. On my butt. It appeared as though the old woman had some objection of what I was doing. Groggy, disoriented, and embarrassed, I sat up. My first thought was that she wanted her seat back and so scooted over to make room. Imagine my fury when, after achieving her goal, the woman stretched back out on the floor and went to sleep.
After waiting for her snores to fill the silence, I stretched back out again and attempted to get back to sleep once again. It took me a bit longer this time as I was still smarting from the humiliation of the past few minutes, but eventually pure exhaustion overcame me. I didn’t get the chance to enjoy this blessed sleep for long.
I was spanked a second time, and later a third, before I eventually gave up and resigned myself to a sleepless night of staring out the window. Each time I was abruptly pulled from
Driver #1
Pretty young girl who looked fairly fit... sleep, I would dutifully sit up and move over in the assumption that this time, surely, her actions dictated a desire for her seat back. But this assumption was again and again proved false. Eventually I came to the conclusion that she must have objected to the fact that my feet were dangling off the edge of the seat and invading her personal space. I would have thought that she could have made allowances for the fact that I am not Asian and therefore cannot comfortably fit onto a 4ft wooden bench, but apparently this was not to be.
To add insult to injury, during our last hour on the train, when the woman finally decided to take her seat, she promptly stretched out across my lap and rested her head on my little foldaway table. And proceeded to drool on my knee. I was sorely tempted to give her a smack but managed to restrain myself. Barely.
Stumbling off the train, I wandered though the streets of Ninh Binh in search of accommodations. After the night that that I’d had, I even convinced myself to splurge and book myself into a proper hotel room with air conditioning,
Driver #2
Not as young, but definitely fitter then I expected (note that she is rowing with her feet) a hot shower, and a TV. Sprawling into bed, I sank into much-needed sleep for the next 4 hours.
I decided to hire a motorcycle and driver to take me out to Tam Coc and the surrounding countryside. Surprisingly, my driver ended up being a woman. This was only the second time that I had seen a female motor-taxi driver since coming out East.
Our first stop was to Tom Coc where I hired a rowboat to take me along the river and through the three infamous caverns that put this place on the map. When I first boarded the boat, my driver was a young and pretty girl with a shy smile. After rounding the first bend though, she inexplicitly pulled over to the riverbank to allow an older woman to board and promptly take the oars.
With her feet.
The journey up the river and back was approximately 10km, and this woman - who was at least twice my age - rowed the whole way with her feet and feet alone. The karsts and caverns along the way were beautiful and a good prelude to Halong Bay. The surrounding countryside was also very picturesque
Going under...
Through the caves and out the other side although by the end of the day I was definitely templed out. Between a brutally long and sleepless night, and an equally long but more enjoyable day, I was worn out and looking forward to an actual bed with actual sheets.
Signing out,
Jen
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