Before passing out myself, I snapped this photo--train rides just seem to lull people to sleep.
Vietnam is a bigger country than most people expect, and backpackers will at some point find themselves traversing from one length to the other on some form of time-quickening transport—plane (for those who didn’t go bust in Hoi An), or overnight train or bus. By the time I left Hoi An heading north I was running out of time—I still had nearly two weeks remaining in the country, but I wanted to be sure that I maximized relaxation and minimized needless hurrying along. The next big stage of the journey was from Hue to Hanoi, but the distance is vast and the roads slow going (it takes between 12 and 16 hours). Still, I couldn’t fathom wasting a day by sitting on a bus with cabin fever as I longed to be outside stretching my legs and exploring. This meant I’d need to sign up for some sort of overnight journey.
If at all possible I don’t regularly choose the overnight journey option—I’m always skeptical of a driver falling asleep, or of having a replica situation occur as what myself and some friends experienced when driving between Livingston and Lusaka (Zambia) on an overnight bus in 2007. Never mind that our driver fell asleep at the wheel; at a random checkpoint several of our bags went missing, permanently. It was at the end of our trip, but being robbed while you’re “sleeping” in your upright seat, three-abreast along a bumpy African road just sucks.
So which would it be, train or bus? I still haven’t chosen. I’m on a train right now, on the stretch between Da Nang and Hue, said to be the most gorgeous railroad stretch in the country. And it just might be—we’re passing mile after mile of white sand beach and evergreen jungle, gazing at deserted islands just off the coastline.
Despite the beauty just on the other side of the glass, I can’t help but feel drowsy. I recall an event of my childhood—15 years ago, perhaps, on a train ride through Russia, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I cannot recall where we—my mother and I—were going (she was there conducting doctoral research, I was her small child along for the adventure), but at some point we took an overnight train to get somewhere. Though I must have been 8 at the time I remember very clearly that train journey, since it was my first. Trains in California had long since been replaced by cheap airfares and car travel, and I can count the number of times I’ve ridden a train in California on one finger. Besides the elegant red carpeting and décor of the compartments, I remember falling asleep on the top bunk of a padded sleeper bunk, only to wake up on the bottom. My mother informed me that in the middle of the night, I rolled off, and somehow managed to stay asleep despite the fall. I’m no longer such a heavy sleeper, but maybe there was something about the gentle rocking along the tracks that lulled me into an almost hypnotic sleep.
So maybe I’ll choose the overnight train. Were it not for the multiple Vietnamese coffees I’ve ordered since getting on this train I’m sure I’d be dozing, like the rest of the passengers. Perhaps they’ve seen this stretch of coastline before. I, however, am not going to miss it… to miss it… missing it… zzzzzzz.
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