Tales From the Rails
(Editor's note...this is going to be an ongoing series where I pass along some amusing stories from our travels by train on the trip. So far we've taken train rides in Vietnam, India, France, and Italy. Hopefully you'll all be able to see the humor in them...even if we did almost get stranded in a small Vietnamese town on the Chinese border.)
Chapter I: The Border
You know how it is. You're on the back of a moped speeding through the streets of a small Vietnamese town on the Chinese border, going from one ATM to another because none of them will accept your bank card. Your wife is five kilometers away at the train station, trying to figure out a way to get on the last train out of town. You have about 25,000 dong in your pocket (about $1.65) and two tickets for the 8:30 train. Unfortunately it is now ten after nine and the last train back to Hanoi leaves in five minutes. I mean really, we've all had days like this, right?
As crazy as it sounds, we actually did find ourselves in this predicament just about two months ago. Cece and I decided to visit the town of Sapa in the mountains of Northwest Vietnam to do some hiking. After spending two wonderful days trekking in the shadows of Mt. Fansipan, Vietnam's highest peak, we were heading back to Hanoi on the overnight train. As we had taken the overnight train up there from Hanoi with no problems we thought we were in for an easy time. Yeah, well we were wrong.
The evening started out smoothly as our bus from Sapa to the town of Lau Cai (home to the train station) arrived in plenty of time. We got to the area around the bus station just before 8:00 and our tickets said we didn't leave until 9:20. So we sat at a little cafe with other travellers and talked about our trekking adventures and about the details surrounding a death of a foreigner that had taken place while were in Sapa. We all watched as three Scandanavian girls argued with the shuttle bus driver after they found out their tickets were booked for the following night's train instead of that night. "Wow...glad that's not happening to us" I said to Cece as I rechecked that our tickets had the right date on them. Sure enough, right there on the front of the ticket it said Sunday, April 23, 21:20.
After walking around a little we decided to head up to the train station. We got inside in time to watch the last stragglers for the 8:30 train go through security and head to the train. A few minutes later the 8:30 pulled out of the station (short by two passengers as we were soon to find out) and made its way to Hanoi. A couple of minutes later the rail station staff opened up the doors and started letting people get onto the 9:15 train. Now, I had noticed when we first walked up to the train station that there was not a 9:20 train. Instead there was an 8:30 and a 9:15. I just assumed (I know, I know) that the train's time had changed or the people at the ticket office in Hanoi had just written the number slightly wrong. So, as we made our way through the line, we had no idea that anything was wrong.
To be continued...
Chapter I: The Border
You know how it is. You're on the back of a moped speeding through the streets of a small Vietnamese town on the Chinese border, going from one ATM to another because none of them will accept your bank card. Your wife is five kilometers away at the train station, trying to figure out a way to get on the last train out of town. You have about 25,000 dong in your pocket (about $1.65) and two tickets for the 8:30 train. Unfortunately it is now ten after nine and the last train back to Hanoi leaves in five minutes. I mean really, we've all had days like this, right?
As crazy as it sounds, we actually did find ourselves in this predicament just about two months ago. Cece and I decided to visit the town of Sapa in the mountains of Northwest Vietnam to do some hiking. After spending two wonderful days trekking in the shadows of Mt. Fansipan, Vietnam's highest peak, we were heading back to Hanoi on the overnight train. As we had taken the overnight train up there from Hanoi with no problems we thought we were in for an easy time. Yeah, well we were wrong.
The evening started out smoothly as our bus from Sapa to the town of Lau Cai (home to the train station) arrived in plenty of time. We got to the area around the bus station just before 8:00 and our tickets said we didn't leave until 9:20. So we sat at a little cafe with other travellers and talked about our trekking adventures and about the details surrounding a death of a foreigner that had taken place while were in Sapa. We all watched as three Scandanavian girls argued with the shuttle bus driver after they found out their tickets were booked for the following night's train instead of that night. "Wow...glad that's not happening to us" I said to Cece as I rechecked that our tickets had the right date on them. Sure enough, right there on the front of the ticket it said Sunday, April 23, 21:20.
After walking around a little we decided to head up to the train station. We got inside in time to watch the last stragglers for the 8:30 train go through security and head to the train. A few minutes later the 8:30 pulled out of the station (short by two passengers as we were soon to find out) and made its way to Hanoi. A couple of minutes later the rail station staff opened up the doors and started letting people get onto the 9:15 train. Now, I had noticed when we first walked up to the train station that there was not a 9:20 train. Instead there was an 8:30 and a 9:15. I just assumed (I know, I know) that the train's time had changed or the people at the ticket office in Hanoi had just written the number slightly wrong. So, as we made our way through the line, we had no idea that anything was wrong.
To be continued...
posted by Matt | 1:34 PM
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