Saturday, February 04, 2006

Day Train to Nha Trang

After meeting my sister in Sai Gon for a hit of tennis and a feed at her house, we all took the day train from Sai Gon to Nha Trang. It was great to go by train during the day because we could see the countryside view which is beautiful. However, the train is a bit too much for me because it’s too crowded. Because evrybody's trying to get home for Tet, they allow far too many people on the train. There were people sitting on the floor, sitting on plastic stools in the hallways or lying on the floor where the carriages join which is dangerous, noisy and not clean.

We played cards and read books to kill our time till the lunch arrived. The standard issue of rice, vegetables and fish was bad and cold so we ordered more food from the staff going from compartment to compartment, selling grilled fish and grilled pork and some other stuff. That was nothing special either but we had to eat! We drank quite a lot of beer - Tiger and 333 - which was really good but not really cold. The beer seller choose our car was his favorite car, stopping there many times and of course we bought beer nearly every time he stopped by.

Anyway, we arrived in Nha Trang safely at 6.45pm, the weather was cool and nice. But this is unusual for this city which should be warm at all time. I’m so glad to be here, my hometown where I can meet all my good friends, to be at home with family and enjoy my favorite seafood.

11 comments:

FooDcrazEE said...

long journey by train.....cant stand them...flight is expensive though.

drifter1dc said...

Godknows, I visited Vietnam last year and travelled by train to Nha Trang and to DaNang. I truely lved the train trip. I agree the food is bad but still better than the mystery meat sandwich on the plane. I also buy from the cart and you meet so many people on the train. Check out my blog at ww.vnfrom.blogspot.com. You might enjoy.

slurp! said...

thanks for linking me up, just saw it :P

can't wait to see Nha Trang (from your blog of coz). if you could add trip duration or train info (along with some tips?) it will be most helpful for travellers like me :) thanks in advance!

Crystal said...

My husband tell me that in China the trains are so crowded when migrant workers come back for the Holidays, that people sometimes wear "adult diapers". I guess because there aren't always toilet facilities. Long train/bus journeys are always such a pain.

alan said...

Always such beautiful photos, and insightful writing! Thanks for finding me!

alan

Tim Rice said...

I enjoyed your photos. And I love train rides even when they're crowded. There's just something of a promise of adventure with trains. And I love studying people guessing about their lives.

The Phosgene Kid said...

I rode the Green Train from Taegu to Seoul once. It was pretty exciting. It was packed with students so I wound up riding inbetween cars. It was an interesting way to see the countryside, even had one of the students I was riding with decide to try some of my chewing tobbacco. That didn't work out to well for him, or maybe it was just motion sickness. My friends and I always called the Green train the "Chicken Train" because you could bring livestock on board if you had any.

Anonymous said...

Hello! Just sorta stumbled upon your website... I traveled to Nha Trang briefly last year, and loooooved it. What a beautiful city, and such warm people.

Bạn có phải nguời Việt hay Việt kiều? Bạn lớn lên ở đâu? Mình thì sinh ra và lớn lên ở MỸ, nhưng mong một ngày sẽ có cơ hội về Viêt Nam sống một thời gian. Hân hạnh đuợc gặp bạn!

Preya said...

Tu, your pics remind me so much of my travels by train across VN as a child:) Great memories! Wonderful post, as usual.

Van Cong Tu said...

Thanks for your comments, Train in Viet Nam is not that crowded but still.

Van Cong Tu said...

Hi, I am a Real Vietnamese :)