Hanoi to Dang Dong

We were told to be at the Hanoi Train Station an hour before departure, but this was overstating things a little as there were only a couple of carriages doing the trip to the border. The taxi dropped us off outside a rather grand ‘International Waiting Room’ and we sat on oversized rosewood chairs in a peeling old room. Five minutes later we were promptly told to get out and to sit in the rather more common waiting room, which we promptly did.

Half an hour before departure we were shown to our rather disappointing sleeper carriage with tatty mattresses and dusty, flat pillows and filthy windows, but sat down and made ourselves comfortable. The other carriages filled up, and soon there was a knocking at the door. We ignored it as long as possible, but eventually a Vietnamese tour guide told us we were in the wrong compartment. Ours was needed for his tour group to China. I grudgingly packed my stuff and stomped down to the next carriage. This one seemed dustier than the other one and the air conditioning wasn’t working. Did I mention that it was really hot in Hanoi?

The train pulled out on time at 6:30pm and we were off. Slowly. Overloaded mopeds overtook us and we chugged sluggishly past windows of apartments about a metre from the train track. As we moved out of town we picked up speed and even the air con seemed a little more effective. The poster in the train advertised that we would reach Dong Dang and the border at 3:50am, so it was a bit of a surprise when we were knocked awake at 10pm and told we were nearly there! Harry and Maisie were rudely awoken and we scrambled out into the much cooler air of the Vietnam/China border.