After having some dinner we left our hotel around 9:45pm last night (the same day we got back from Ha Long Bay) and were on the train checked in by 10:05pm for our 11pm train. Needless to say we did not need to leave the hotel as early as we did. We only bought two beds this time so we knew we would have roommates and spent the next hour or so waiting for them to show up. As people piled on we noticed it was all western travelers and we got our hopes up that it might end up being two hot chics we could talk to. No such luck.. as usual. Around 10:30 or so an old Vietnamese guy got on and about 15 minutes later another middle aged Vietnamese guy took the bunk above him. Neither spoke any English so we figured communicating was going to be tough. We stood out in the hall waiting for the train to leave wondering how much sleep we were going to get. The middle aged guy had disappeared almost as soon as he had arrived and the little old guy had busted out a radio and was blaring it loud enough for the entire train to here.
While we waited for the train to get going we started talking to the people around us. They were all on a tour with Intrepid (the same company we will use in Africa) so we asked them how it was going and if they were enjoying it. Overall it was a pretty positive response so I am hopeful that the Africa tours will be fun. We told them about our trip and they seemed pretty impressed we were on our own in Asia and that we still had Africa to go. Once the train got going the conversation died down a bit and we just stared out of the window as we stood in the hall.
About that time the older Vietnamese guy in our room started talking to us. Well trying to talk to us. We honestly could not understand a word he said so we decided to resort to hand gestures. He told us he was going to Hue and that he was 66 years old. We basically tried to tell him the same thing.. that we were 28 and going to Hue as well. It was going pretty well, but we were running out of things to write on the window so Chris busted out his Vietnam travel book that had maps. The old guy just kept talking and pointing all over the place on the world map. I am not sure we understood much of anything, but he really seemed to want to talk to us. We gathered that he was from a town outside of Hanoi and we told him we were American by pointing at it on the map. About the time the train really got going and left the city he pulled out an old ID. It was an old military ID from the army. He kept pointing at it and eventually we figured out that he had fought in the war. Yup, we were sharing a cabin with a Vietnam veteran.. from Vietnam. I don't want to offend anyone back home, but I have to say I always have respect for any man who has fought in a war.. even if it was on the other side and this guy was no exception. The irony of this fact did not escape us for the whole trip.. it really was crazy to be sitting there talking to this guy.. no hard feeling, just trying our best to communicate and get to know as much as we could about each other. We talked to him a little more and the conversation slowly died. Chris shared his pringles with him, but we eventually ran our of things to say or not to say to him.
Around midnight we settled into our cabin. The younger of our two roommates had gone off for awhile, but was back and laying in the top bunk next to me. The older man was still fiddling around with his stuff and I was reading. I am not sure what Chris was doing other than maybe watching the old guy out of the corner of his eye. Before anyone could get to sleep the old guy tried to open the door to our room and it would not open. Chris tried and had no luck either. Finally the guy next to me got down and tried and it appeared to be jammed. The guy shook it and kicked it and it still would not budge. At this point I am thinking to myself .. "great we are trapped and the conductor wont be by for hours, if ever." This went on for a good 5 to 10 minutes until finally he jarred it free. He seemed pretty pissed and headed down the train to find a conductor. The guy came back with a handy man and two other people. They proceeded to work on the thing for a good 30 minutes or more. I really can't remember how long they were there because I kept fading in and out. It had to be like 1am before it was fixed and I was beat since we had been traveling all day back from Ha Long Bay. With it fixed everyone else finally settled back in. Chris said he fell asleep right away, while I was treated to the snoring of the guy on the other top bunk for a good 45 min. As I laid there stretched out with my head against one wall and my feet against the other I found myself with a whole new perspective about the trip and how quickly the world seems to heal. In just a little over a generation, I was going to sleep on a train next to a guy who had fought against Americans just 35 years ago.. this is what traveling was about. Finally at around 2am I gave in and fell asleep.
I woke up to the middle aged guy getting off the train around 5am or something like that. The sun was up, but I knew it was early. He slipped out without waking anyone up and I went back to sleep. Thirty minutes later the old guy was up and out the door. He came back 10 min later and proceeded to slurp his breakfast and gargle his drink all while fiddling with his radio trying to get good reception. Thankfully he was not successful and turned the radio off after about 10 min and I was able to get back to sleep. We stopped again at 8am and now Chris was up moving around a bit. I had no interest in being up, but they had turned the AC off so it was getting pretty hot in the top bunk. I was awake for about an hour listening to the old guy talk to Chris. I am not sure what it was, but he took a liking to Chris and just wanted to talk to him the whole time even if Chris could not understand anything he said. At this stop we also got a new roommate. A young Vietnamese kid who ended up speaking some english. He told us that the guy said Chris was a good man. I laughed pretty hard at that one since we all know that is not true. He then asked if we were married and we said no. At that point we asked if we could take a picture. He said sure and posed with a huge grin on his face. You should be able to see it online if we ever are able to upload to flickr. After that I fell back asleep and so did the young guy up top with me. I have no idea what Chris and the old guy talked about after that, but the next thing I knew it was around 10:30am and was time to get ready to go.
Around 11am we got to the station in Hue. We said our goodbyes to the old man and with that he pulled out his ballcap and put it on his head. It was a USA Polo Sport hat and I just had to chuckle. Here I was in Vietnam, with an old vet wearing a hat with a red, white, and blue USA embroidered on it. All I could think is how quickly the world seems to change and how amazing that really is.
From the train station we grabbed a cab to the hotel. That's where we are now. Not sure what we will do today since it is boiling hot outside. I figure we will get lunch soon and then just go from there.
