Train Ride

Twenty-six years ago we flew to San Francisco for our honeymoon, then just for the fun of it, took the Amtrak train back to Seattle. We haven’t been on a long-distance train ride again until last night, when we took the Victoria Carriage from Hanoi to Lao Cai.

The train left Hanoi at 9pm, and we had reservations for a “two-person berth”.  Turns out there was only one two-person berth on each train car, and all others were 4-person berths, so we were on a different car from Lynn and David.  The 2-person berths and 4-person berths were identical in size (tiny!), and as much as we like Lynn and David, we were happy not to share, as whenever either of us wanted to rummage through our suitcase, we had to pull it from underneath the narrow bed while the other person pulled their feet off the floor to make room.

The bed was reasonably comfortable, and there was air conditioning, but the ride was rocky and noisy, so we used ear plugs.  At 5:00 a.m. we were awake (still suffering jet-lag), and at 5:45 they began knocking on cabin doors to announce our imminent arrival  in Lao Cai and serve coffee.

David and Cathryn each report sleeping reasonably well and are able to take naps in the afternoon when the schedule allows; Bob and Lynn haven’t  sleep well at night and don’t nap well either, so are suffering more from jet-lag still.