Last day in the city before catching a train North to Hanoi this evening.
Yesterday I booked the motorcycle tour with street food, this morning the same people collected me from the hotel for a morning tour of the city. A different girl this morning but we met up with one of the girls from yesterday evening.
First stop was for fresh coffee and orange juice next to the river and looking over towards the city. We were met by Andy from Saigon Buddy Tours which was a good personal touch from the boss man.
After the refreshments three of us went to the local market. This seemed more organised than the fresh market in Hua Hin as there was more space between the lines of stalls and there weren’t any motorcyclists delivering ice everywhere. It was then onto the Post Office and the French built church. After this it was to a Chinese temple and then lunch in a Chinese restaurant.
If you’re ever in Ho Chi Minh City I would thoroughly recommend either of the tours I took with Saigon Buddy Tours. They’re a new company and very good at what they do. They can be found online at http://www.saigonbuddytours.com
Video of part of the motorcycle ride is now on YouTube, it’s a little longer than wanted and not as entertaining as a video of the previous evening was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M42X5UCd0w
Back to the hotel where I had already checked out to see if I could have a room for the few hours before the evening train to Hanoi. Success!! Not the same room but a shower and shave before the train was more important.
Arriving at Ga Sa Gon for the train at 20:00 I was told that it would depart at 20:30 and to get on as soon as possible. I’m glad I did as advised as the train was heaving, it still didn’t leave until 21:00 which was the stated departure time. This train was only going to take us a little way up the line where we were to transfer onto buses to take us to the next station; this was due to a barge crashing into the railway bridge sometime earlier this year. The transfer was very quick and extremely efficient. The transfer from one train to the other was completed in about 30 minutes, 15 minutes of which were on the bus.
Soft sleepers are compartments with 4 bunks, advice was to get a lower bunk as they were a little wider. There is very little, if any, difference in size but was happy not to clamber up and down from the upper bunk every time to go for a cigarette.
Fortunately the other three occupants all spoke English, although they spoke Mandarin when they talked amongst themselves, and were very good company. The following morning when I had missed the food trolleys they passed an egg baguette to me and insisted they didn’t want me to miss breakfast.
They really were lovely people and it was a pity they were only travelling to Da Nang on the train. They were replaced by a Vietnamese business man who wasn’t on the train for long. Next was a man and his teenage son followed quickly by a Vietnamese lady and two young boys. They travelled all the way through to Hanoi which made the compartment quite cramped but we managed to get by.
Two girls who played in the corridor for about and hour of the journey.
Some of the views from the train as it made it’s way through the mountains and along the coast were spectacular.
Food trolleys were quite regular throughout the day. The above was available for lunch and dinner and at 35,000 Vietnamese Dong (about £1-10) was good value for money. A few cold beers with the evening meal and ready for bed.
Keeping up to date with the last pool league match of the season in Hua Hin started well against the team that was second in the table but level on points with Maria Bar. Unfortunately the match was abandonned during the eighth frame as Ivan from Robin Hood suffered a heart attack. I hear he was taken to hospital and I send my best wishes and hopes for a very speedy recovery.