Tag Archive: train


The Day That Still Isn’t Over

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.10, 2010

When we rolled into Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city) it was about 4:30 in the morning. As we worked out where we wanted to go in the lobby we got a really dirty glare from one of the people waiting there, and Jen came back from the washroom with a bit of a story about the people in there… we had to laugh to ourselves a bit.

Finally ready to brave the wall of taxi drivers outside the train station with our destination in mind, we settled with a driver finally and headed off to Pham Ngu Lao which is Saigon’s backpacker’s area. Most places were still closed and one lady tried to sell us a place way up in a building which seemed like one heck of a dump. We checked it out but quickly headed off in a new direction to find something new.

After waking up a few night watchmen to look at rooms, we eventually left Jen with the bags and went on a real hunt. Eventually we found a really nice place over looking the busy alleyways below. We ate some food, and started knocking off our list of things to see in Saigon. The trips to see the Cu Chi tunnels leave early in the morning, but you need 1 day notice, so that was put off until tomorrow. Instead we wandered off to see the War Remnants Museum. It was by far the best museum we went to in Vietnam, some of the stuff was really hard to look at or read though.

The museum was hot and filled with people, so we headed for the first restaurant with AC. After some food we grabbed a taxi to bring us to the water slides. We were pretty excited about it having read about their toilet bowl slide. The taxi only brought us close, we had to wander the rest of our way based on intuition and hope :P Eventually people started making swimming motions and pointing us in the right direction. When we got there it looked almost deserted. Middle of the day, during the week, makes sense, but still made us wonder a little bit. When we got in, we were told to go to the “foreigner bathing area” were we could lock up our stuff separate to the locals and the girls could lay in the sun in their “skimpy” bathing suits (compared to the essentially fully dressed Vietnamese girls.)

The slides here are fast. Fast like you are out of control fast. So much fun! There were some “black hole” type slides, some straight speed slide, zip lines, tube rides, the toilet bowl, one named “a giant slide”, crazy carpet slides… everything. It was all fun, and we escaped essentially unharmed. We met an American/Vietnamese girl who was pretty surprised we found the slides on our own. Then it was time to head back.

Outside the slides we were lucky to find some cabs waiting. We knew the price we paid to get here, and in Vietnam, it is common for metered cab rides to take a lot longer than ones where you decide on a price up front. We did our best to stick to our guns and eventually we convinced the guy, who seemed a fair bit insulted when we said we don’t want to be driven in circles on a meter, to take us back for no more than what we paid to get there. He drove with the meter to show us how honest he was. On the way we really got to like the guy. He knew very little English, but was very happy to be able to communicate with us in any way possible. Then he busted out his music. Karaoke in the local languages is all over, and hard to listen to after a while, so we prepared ourselves for it, but when it came on… we heard Hotel California!

He LOVED north american music apparently. One of his best lines was “I do not know English, but I do know this!” as he busted out his best air guitar. A few more songs, and lots of busy city streets later we rolled up by our hotel. We was a little bit over on the meter, but only asked for the amount we agreed on before. Of course after such an awesome ride we tipped him well, and he again tried to reassure us that his cab company was regulated and didn’t scam tourists.

We changed, washed, ate, wandered around, Amy shopped, we made sure our tunnels and trip to Cambodia were all figured out, had a snack, had a drink, and then around mid night, finally called it a night. Back at the hotel room we watched some TV, and settled in for a few hours of sleep before getting up at 6:30 to be ready to go see the tunnels.

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The Day That Never Ends

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.09, 2010

Well we woke up early as we had a few things to pick up before heading off to the local bus to get back to Danang. We say bye to Mascha and get to the bus just as it was rolling away. By chance it was the same one as the trip in. It started a lot slower, but soon became a racing, honking, yellow bullet through the crowded streets. At one point we picked up a full load of school kids which added to the craziness. We were able to communicate that we wanted off at the train station (or as close as possible) through some “bumpy bumpy bumpy” and hand motions from the Vietnamese guys. It ended up being a lot closer than when we left… good to know “for next time.”

We had some food, as we finally were confident we had some time before the train left, and then we shuffled on to see what awaited us. Hard sleepers on a new train, after being told repeatedly that you wouldn’t be able to sleep at all, made us just a little apprehensive. When we got in there, it was perfect. No different than China, except there were only us in the cabin for the first 6 hours or so. We played some cards (golf has replaced asshole as the game of choice) and then tried to have a bit of a nap. Eventually we got some Vietnamese cabin mates and we all were forced up into our beds. 2 top and 1 middle bunk. We slept on and off, but it was so hot, you were never really asleep.

To be continued…

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Sleepless in Vietnam

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.07, 2010

Well, the train has to this point been a favorite mode of transportation for us in Asia. It is usually the most comfortable, it is continuous, there is food and drink available, you can walk around, and when it is for 14 hours… you can catch some sleep.

Unfortunately the train books up quickly here in Vietnam. Travel agents buy up all the tickets and then sell them back to you at really high rates, and that is if you can find one with some left. We managed to find some soft seat (think like a greyhound bus seat, but smaller, Asian sized) tickets and that is what we used. We had planned on sleeping over the night, but there are nothing but warnings when traveling with locals on buses and trains because of the amount of things which are stolen. Jen fell asleep pretty quickly and Amy eventually got some sleep around 4:00am. I think I was waking up every 15 minutes for most of the night just to look around and see how things were. The lights were never off, and the ride wasn’t the smoothest ever, so it was fairly easy to keep this pattern going.

Eventually we rolled in to Danang, Vietnam’s 4th largest city (1 million people.) Our goal was to rent scooters and ride down to Hoi An ourselves. We left Amy with the bags and Jen and I set off in the heat to try and find somewhere to rent them, but after a kilometer or so with no luck we went back to get Amy and find a new way down to Hoi An. The cheapest option was the local bus. We had no idea what it was, and even less of an idea where it was exactly, but we headed off in what we figured was the suggested direction of the guidebook. When we got to the spot, a man came up and asked us where we were from (Canada… ahhh Quebec *french french french french*) when telling him we were headed for the bus to Hoi An, he took us to where we needed to go.

Now we have been scammed so many times (or attempts made at least) that we are a very skeptical group. I didn’t have a horrible feeling from him, but we just kept waiting for it to happen. Eventually he saw us off and it was all fine, he was just being nice (I got to use some of my French with him which was fun.) We regretted not offering him some money after we realized that it was all just to help us, but the opportunity was gone. Up rolls the local bus and it is a dash on to the stairs as it just keeps rolling by. The system is, listen for the continuous horn, wave when you want it, run like hell to get on it, and grab something when you make it in. It was about 30 – 45 minutes of this and then we got to Hoi An.

A German girl named Mascha got off as well, and she joined us on the hunt for a guest house. After finding one, showering, and dropping off laundry, we headed off to find some food. They have “fresh beer” which is made daily and disposed of at night if there is any left. It costs about 20 cents a glass and it is very tasty. We had a set menu at a place by the river and everything we were brought tasted fantastic. The restaurant was empty when we arrived, but through the magic of having tourists sitting at at table in your place of business, soon after there were 7 other tables filled.

The evening was spent shopping with Amy (custom tailoring is huge in Hoi An) and topped off with a massage. The goal tomorrow is to rent the scooters we wanted earlier and check out the My Son ruins.

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Formaldehyde, Glutaraldehyde, Methanol, Ethanol

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.06, 2010

Well, Hanoi part 2. We had a day to spend until our train leaves later today at 11:00pm. We loaded up on free breakfast and then hit the streets on the bikes. The Drift was really nice in letting us keep our bags here free, and still use the free bikes. I am currently using the free computers now (at 6:30pm) even though we checked out at 9:00 this morning. Amy and Jen are off to use the showers for free too. Very nice experience here over all, too bad you can’t bring a hostel with you on the trip.

We checked out Ho Chi Min at the Mausoleum, it was quite something and hard to imagine what is going through the heads of the throngs of locals and school children on field trips showing up to see the body of their revolutionary leader. I didn’t really even know what I was thinking as I walked by his body.

We rode back to pick up David and then we headed off to grab some food and run some errands. We then checked out the Vietnam War/Army Museum which was closed for lunch earlier when we tried to see it. It was quite something, maybe the best one of the 3 we have seen here. There was a preserved prison where they kept prisoners of war which we wanted to see, but never had a chance as things close so early here.

Since then, we have come back, and Alex and David had traveled off to Hoi An and Laos respectively. We are also going to Hoi An, so we might see Alex again there. We caught a movie in the movie room at The Drift, and I think plans are to go for dinner after and maybe ride swans around the lake it they are still open. Tomorrow afternoon will be the start of a new adventure. Hoi An is an old port city (I think still used) and should be neat to see. We might stay a couple days and just rent bikes or scooters so we can see things at our own pace.

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Ninja Monkey Attack

Filed Under: Pictures, Thailand
Feb.08, 2010

We woke up in Ayutthaya and headed for the train station. We got our stuff packed and went for the train station. We looked into what it would cost to take a sleeper train from Lop Buri (about 20 bucks for second class) and we got tickets for the train to Lop Buri as well. We skirted around the offer of the “Express train” (what we could only assume was the “tourist train” as it cost over 10 times as much as the “ordinary” train and only got us there maybe 20 minutes faster.

On arrival in Lop Buri we realized we were even further from tourist safe Bangkok. Under full assault from bike powered (single gear) tuk-tuk drivers, we finally gave in to paying a little more than what we wanted as long as they took us to the monkeys. First stop was a temple which looked just like every other temple we have seen, and it cost a butt-load to get in, so we skipped it. Then we were taken to some Buddha shrine-like thing which was one of maybe thousands we have seen. At this point we realized that the price we already wern’t happy with might be an hourly rate, so we just kept saying monkeys to them until they got the point to cut the tour short and bring us to the area with all the monkeys.

Now, granted, we had seen the odd monkey on the side of the road, on a sign, a fence, a pay phone, what have you… we had the impression that there would be a lot more around. Finally we were brought to an old wat just CRAWLING with monkeys. We left our tour guides at the street and went in. There were bags of sunflower seeds for sale for 10 baht (30 cents) so we thought it must be safe, plus everyone else was doing it. Not knowing exactly what to do (do we throw it like feeding ducks?) some guy made sign-like language motions showing me to put it in my hand and have the monkeys take it.

Amy was pretty nervous, but after seeing this one monkey politely take the seeds from my hand with his little monkey fingers one by one, she asked for the bag to try herself. This is when it happened. We were lucky enough Jen had started a video and sort of caught the act on camera, but it doesn’t truly do the situation justice.

We found that inside you could more safely feed the monkeys as you were essentially in a cage, and they were on the outside looking in. Their only option was to nicely take the seeds one by one through the bars. It was quite odd being on the inside of the cage with the monkeys on the outside.

After we got rid of the tuk-tuks and set off to waste some time until the night train. We discovered that the monkeys were maybe a 5 minute walk from the train station, keep that in mind for future trips to Lop Buri… Then as we spend a lot of our time, we had some food, indulged in some ice cream, hit an internet cafe to get some accommodation for Chiang Mai, and then spend the rest of the time at a really cool little side walk bar until heading back to the train station.

The train was a lot nicer than the Chinese one. Softer beds, not as jam-packed with people, AC… not a bad deal.

Also, for a bit of fun, here is some elephant dancing from Ayutthaya…

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Chugga Chugga Cheap-Cheap

Filed Under: Thailand
Feb.06, 2010

With the fact that Lop Buri (the monkey city) and Ayutthaya (old capital of siam) are a lot smaller cities and a lot less western, we spent the first part of our day getting together some extra cash and toiletries etc. We then wandered down to the river (a minute or so walk from the guest house) to check out a longboat river tour. Previously billed as 500 baht per person the lady was selling seats for 300 baht per person to other tourists, and we convinced her to go down to 200 baht per person (She reluctantly said “OK” with a message of “no tell others”) I was quite glad we got to see it. The main goal was to go see a floating market, but the areas that the boat toured around were maybe even more fascinating.

Along the way we found a huge lizard-like creature swimming in the water… pictures will have to follow, I hope at least one turned out.

We had a nice lunch and headed to the train. A travel agent guy insisted that we needed him to pre-book the train and accommodations for our trip earlier, but that doesn’t fit with how we want to schedule things (ie. we don’t schedule) Anyways turns out that the trip to Ayutthaya cost us 15 baht. That’s like 50 cents. Not the hundreds he was trying to sell us.

We got in late and after some horrible confusing phone calls we got to the guest house.

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The Monkeys

Filed Under: Thailand
Feb.05, 2010

Short one this time… we are planning on taking the train tomorrow to the old capital, and some city with monkeys everywhere… then it will be on the way to Chiang Mai. That is where we are hoping to have some fun with the outdoorsy trek type adventures. This area is fantastic and it is fun to be in the city, but I think we all want to get moving into the next part of our adventure, and really see what Thailand has to offer.

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Two Part Episode

Filed Under: China
Jan.28, 2010

Well if this was the Amazing Race, this would have been one of those “to be continued” episodes.

We had a lot better luck at the forbidden city… aka, it wasn’t closed. It was neat to see, but I wasn’t blown away by it. Tienanmen Square was nice to visit. Impressive, and I am glad to say I have been there… the amount of security in the area is crazy. After we hit the metro/subway to get towards the Summer Palace. Turns out there are two Summer Palaces. One isn’t so impressive… that’s the one we found first. A couple picture of fake cherry blossoms on the trees and we were off to look for the “real/better” one.

When we finally arrived, we were a little taken back. It is an immense area and it was not really clear what everything was. A guide approached us and we took her up on her offer. She was nice, hard to understand, but clearly smart and really into this one Empress. I think Opa would LOVE this place. It might have been my favorite place over all in Beijing. The great wall was exciting because of how famous it is, but the Summer Palace was just beautiful. It takes some work but if you can in your head remove the thousands of tourists, and instead picture what it was like “back in the day” you really cannot help but be even more impressed with the area.

Our guide really wanted to stretch out the tour (plus I think she really really likes everything in the area, and wanted to tell us all the stories of all the pictures, legends, and buildings.) We finally convinced her we were in a rush, and she took us through what i found one of the more beautiful areas really quickly. There were few people around, and it was up in the hill (which was built by dredging the lake by hand.) We cabbed back, had an awesome meal at the Hutong (alleyway) around the hotel, and then had to head off to the night train (and therefore the “to be continued” part)

The train was interesting. Small would be a word to describe it. Also crowded, hot, smoke smelly, and generally speaking something I do not think Marijke would have enjoyed/had the patience for at all :P 14 hours later we were in Shanghai. The cabs tried to take us for all we were worth, so we took the metro to Amy’s apartment. Now after some lazing about we are off for some fun times tonight. I suppose that update will need to come later.

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