Posted August 15
Train to Ho Chi Minh City
It’s been over two months since I started my journey in SE Asia. So far in SE Asia, my train trips have all been on super high-speed trains. They’re the most modern versions of the mode of transportation that Japan revolutionized back in the 1960’s. These modern versions in Indonesia and Laos were built through partnerships with China, and the actual trains and lines are engineering marvels.
The train from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City, which is a subset of the entire North-South train run from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, is altogether traditional. Instead of 300 kilometers per hour, think closer to 30. The entire journey from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City is over eight hours, covering about 350 kilometers.
Ga Nha Trang (Nha Trang Station)
Your head may now be swimming with visions of the Golden Age of train travel, where in the US at least, muscular locomotives pulled both luxurious and pedestrian passenger cars on routes connecting metropoles and the little hamlets between them. Don’t bother, the reality of this train experience is much less glamorous. In fact, glamour isn’t even part of the vocabulary for this train trip.
On its southward journey from Hanoi, Vietnam Railways train SE7 pulled into Nha Trang about 15 minutes late. The disembarkation and embarkation was swift, if unconventional. Instead of stopping on the tracks nearest the platform that all the passengers were standing on, the train used the tracks on the other side, which then required all the passengers to walk off the platform, across the tracks, and then climb four or so feet onto the train.
This was all while carrying bags, and without the aid of portable steps or ladders of any kind. Have you ever seen the average height of a Vietnamese person? It’s almost like the elevated station platform was designed to perform some sort of function related to easing the process of getting onto a train car.
For some reason the train boards from the far side tracks
To their credit, the 80-year old couple in front of me was pretty spry and was able to get up onto the train without too much trouble. Their 800 pounds of luggage required a bit more convincing.
The car we were on had sleeping cabins, so there’s a single narrow passageway along one side of windows. Two people even of Vietnamese stature are not passing each other in this passageway, even more so if they’re carrying luggage or packages.
That’s when the 80-year olds started to argue with the railway employee, who apparently based on the next moves were telling them that this was the wrong car. An exercise in becoming human knots later, they and their luggage went past me the other direction in the passageway. I think the woman, purposely or not, copped a feel of my calves on her way past.
The railcar passageway. Vietnamese child for scale.
OK, that part of the struggle over, I went to find my compartment and my “sleeper seat.” As I got to my compartment, another woman was already in my seat. She had probably been there since Hanoi. Instead of arguing, I just took the seat opposite, having paid for a lower berth in a 4-person cabin.
The woman in my cabin also had about 800 pounds of luggage, and there was garbage strewn around most of the cabin. She had been busy on the overnight from Hanoi to Nha Trang.
A young couple with a small daughter took the two upper berths. Now we were one happy family for the next 8 hours. Yay!
My berth for the 8 hour trip. Not my box or garbage
The couple with the child isn’t much of a problem. The daughter, probably around 4 years old is quiet and so is the couple. The woman who came from Hanoi is a bit of an issue. She’s decided she’s in charge. She decides when the compartment door is open or closed. When the blinds in front of the window are open or closed. I’ve been fighting her for a couple of hours trying to keep the blinds open so I can see out.
The train itself is old and dilapidated. Some areas are both dilapidated and dirty. The floor of the sleeper compartment to which I’ve been assigned hasn’t seen the good end of a broom or mop in a long, long time. There are science experiments growing on surfaces in the bathroom, and once again I’m extremely grateful that I don’t have to sit on anything to pee. I use an alcohol wipe as a barrier for my flush and promise to not consume any liquids or solids for the rest of the journey.
There’s boxes and garbage everywhere
The weather outside is the same as it has been throughout my time in Vietnam, temperatures in the mid 90’s and humidity to match. When buying tickets, there’s a chart that lists all the features of the three types of seats you can purchase, and Air Conditioning is listed as one of the features for all of them.
While I can technically feel a random spit of coldish air coming from a unseen vent somewhere in the car, there’s a thermometer on the wall of the car that tells a more accurate story. It started at 87 and it’s now at a very cool 85. Just to be clear, the thermometer is on the inside of the train
The Air Conditioning is sort of working
The train doesn’t have a dining car. There’s a steady flow of vendors streaming down the aisle and it kind of makes me feel like I’m walking on any random street in Vietnam. They come with various street-food type of cuisine for sale. Roasted corn? Sausage on a stick? Various grilled stuff that you see on the streets? Cans of beer? It’s kind of cool, and not that unexpected since street stalls can prepare full meals in about 1 square foot of space.
I end up purchasing a Banh Mi Que, a very skinny and long version of a Banh Mi filled with pate and dried pork. It’s actually delicious, and you get two of them, each about the size of a typical US county fair Churro, for 30,000 Vietnamese Dong, so just over one dollar.
Banh Mi Que
We stop at small stations along the way, with an announcement in English and Vietnamese. The announcement extols the virtue of taking one’s trash with them when they exit the train, and not leaving it on the floor. Maybe that’s only in the English language version of the announcement because the floors in the various cars are getting dirtier by the minute.
Mainly I’m spending the time looking out the windows, especially when the lady in the compartment lets me. I see the countryside going by about at the rate that I could bike, so not that slow but not exactly fast. We slow to a stop at various times and then keep going. We pass makeshift crossings that look every bit as safe as normal Vietnamese traffic does.
The station at Binh Thuan
As the day is progressing, I’m getting used to the clickety-clack rhythm of the train and the occasional tooth-chipping lurches that should make me worry but doesn’t. I guess that I’ve embraced my SE Asian roots. I even found out how Dragon Fruit grows.
By the time we reached the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City I was conscripted by the luggage woman to help her move her luggage to the passageway. I’m not kidding, the boxes and sacks she carried must have been 50-60 pounds each. OK, I figured if that would let me have a little peace for the last bit of the journey, then I was good with that.
The other man in the compartment helped and we dragged her stuff out and then helped the station staff at Bien Hoa station take her stuff off the train. Then I find that the family in the compartment is also getting off here, so for the next little bit until Sai Gon station, I have the compartment all to myself.
Dragon Fruit plants along the railway
It was just a short trip from Bien Hoa to Sai Gon, maybe 15 minutes. The train ended its journey there and all the passengers disembarked. Grab took me from the station to the hotel and I spent the rest of the evening and all the rest of my alcohol wipes disinfecting my bags and belongings.
If you want an adventure, then sure, the train is the way to go. Just bring lots of disinfectant. If you want a simple journey from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City, just fly. It’s hours faster, even with security and the longer journeys to and from the airport. It will cost you about $20 more, but depending on your level of comfort with discomfort, the airplane may be a better option.
Finally made it to Ga Sai Gon