Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived on schedule in Ho Chi Min City (HCMC / Saigon), and  the airport transfer to hotel we arranged also showed up.  It was late (11:30PM) local time, so we just crashed when we got to the hotel.  Next morning the front desk called about breakfast; the hotel had just been built and had no breakfast room yet, so they’d send it up to our room.  Would we like Vietnamese or Western style?  We knew Vietnamese would be Pho ( Vietnamese noodle soup) so went for that.  Up came two steaming bowls of chicken noodles, pot of tea for Ellen and strong coffee for me.  We knew we were in the right place.

After getting our bearings we set out on a walking tour of the city.  We were near the old city center and soon found ourselves by the Palace Hotel, on the river.  Our first challenge was crossing streets.  While there are signals, the flow is constant from one direction or another, with no real gaps.  After following some locals, we learned; give large vehicles the right of way, everything else, you have to pick a destination point and go, no slowing or stopping.   Traffic in the city is 90% motorbikes, with a few bikes and insistent taxis in the mix.

We enjoyed the local sights and got a feel for the city, which we would visit more later.  One surprise was all the preparations for Christmas.  It was early December, but still, Vietnam?  All the big hotels were starting to decorate, and across from the Catholic church was a store packed with home decorations.

Back at the hotel we had the staff arrange our next segments – a night train to the north, stopping in Hue for a couple of days, then continuing on to Hanoi.  The train options were Hard Seats (like it sounds), Soft Seats (airline-style seats, but sitting up for the night), hard sleeper and soft sleeper.  We wanted Soft Sleeper, but none were available as soon as we wanted to go, so we took Hard Sleeper.  It’s an experience, right?

We left HCMC that evening on the train.  We soon learned that the most important difference between hard and soft sleeper berths was not the padding – it was adequate – but the ‘hards’ have six people to a compartment, and the ‘softs’ have only four.  Six is tight, with the lower bunk having not enough space to sit up, and the top one at the ceiling.  Also, with an evening departure, there was plenty of time for stops to the north with people coming and going from the room at night.  Also the WC in the car is a porta-potty size room, swaying, with only a hole in the floor.  Hold on!

But we made got some sleep, arriving in Hue the next afternoon after some great sights from the train along the way.

Above, our hard sleeper; the ‘ceiling’ you see is actually the bottom of the top bunk!  As always, lots more pictures on FLICKR.