Postcard from Vietnam 5

One of the greatest benefits of travelling by train in Vietnam is that it provides an excellent opportunity to view the beautiful landscape at a leisurely pace.  Trains in Europe are designed to get you from one place to another as soon as possible but to journey by rail in Vietnam fulfils the Chinese proverb which says ‘the journey is the reward’

Departing from Ga Saigon (from the French word for railway station – Gare) I was amazed at how close people live, work, play, eat and sleep to the single track that carves a narrow corridor through the tightly packed neighbourhoods of north western Saigon. One more metre to left or right and we would have been travelling through their living rooms, barber shops and bars.

After a while, the scenery opens out and we are in a watery landscape of rice paddies, lakes and small towns. Our train starts to climb to higher ground and the scenery and the light changes. This region reminds me of the Highlands of Scotland in many ways. The hills rise steeply both sides of our train and the lush green of the lowlands has given way to a starker landscape with fewer trees and villages and dusty roads that are less travelled I think. But the best is yet to come.

From the comfort of my sleeper carriage on Vietnam Railways, the landscape gently rolls past the window like a documentary film. In this seemingly idyllic land every view is worth painting and the fields and villages, themselves, seem to have been touched by the artist’s brush. 

If you take the midnight train from Saigon, you will arrive at the coastal town of Nha Trang at dawn. From here the single train track hugs the beautiful coastline which is dotted with romantic islands and purple peninsulas backlit by the rising sun. The views of the East Sea shimmering in the low light of a fresh morning are breath-taking.

On one of my journeys, this hour was marked by the arrival of the breakfast trolley carrying a large bucket of fresh, hard boiled, eggs. These delicious treats are served with a pinch of the ubiquitous chilli salt presented in a little recycled paper wrapper. Mine was part of page of an old train timetable – how apt!

As Vietnam wakes to another day, you can see people tending their gardens and allotments beside the train track. A cowherd takes his cattle and calves to pasture. A lone motorcyclist spins down a country road easily keeping pace with the train. Workers make an early start in the green and gold fields at the coolest time of day. Teams of women, in their conical hats, are gathering in the hay to make haystacks reminiscent of those in Monet’s paintings of rural France in the late 1800s.

Travelling along the single track railway that runs the length of Vietnam is truly one of this country’s hidden delights. It may be slow but I cannot think of any good reason to rush through this fascinating and varied landscape.

Published in OI Vietnam - July 2013 click here

Single track travel

One of the greatest benefits of traveling by train in Vietnam is that it provides an excellent opportunity to take pictures of the beautiful landscape. You can also take good pictures of cattle and birds and can even capture the expressions on the faces of cyclists waiting at railway crossings or of workers in the field. 

With a better lens, I might even be able to capture a cluster of dragonflies in flight ('cluster; strikes me a very dull collective noun for such ethereal flashes of iridescence - but hey). 

This advantage is not afforded by British trains, nor French nor any others I have, so far, had the pleasure of riding. Why? Because they are not trundling through the countryside at an average 23 miles per hour - that's why.

This aspect of Vietnam Railways didn't really occur to me until I looked at my photos a few days later when I was surprised to find not a single blur of passing trees. As a result, I can take you for a 400 mile, 17 hour journey through South Vietnam.

Unfortunately our journey started at 23:00 in the darkness of Saigon's Station - Ga Sai Gon and we traveled through the night northward toward our first station stop ay the popular seaside resort of Nha Trang where arrived just after dawn.

Nha Trang station - track side

Shortly after we set off again, the breakfast trolley came down the corridor offering two types of hot egg; regular brown chicken eggs and white, foetal duck eggs.

The duck eggs contain foetal ducklings at various stages of maturity - not for the faint- hearted.

Eggs are served with a little handmade paper sachet of salt and black pepper for dipping your egg. My sachet was made from an old bus timetable as you can see!

Here's Pandy on her top bunk cracking her first of two fresh, hot, hard boiled eggs.







Our cabin mates were a couple of businessmen from Loa Cai up in the far North West of Vietnam. They were making the 31 hour, 700 mile journey up to Hanoi.




 As you can see, they are setting themselves up with a good breakfast of four eggs each. 

A peaceful pagoda compound by a river

The lush countryside rolls by our window. There are workers in the fields making an early start in the cool of the morning.





















A woman is gathering her hay into neat piles before building a haystack like the one in the background here.

Rice paddies and fields of root vegetables, maize and corn.

modern irrigation systems criss-cross the rice paddies of Central Vietnam

A headland by a busy port

Getting into mountainous country now

A quiet road in the Highlands

This landscape reminds me of the Scottish Highlands

Typical Vietnamese family houses

Ah, 11am and it's meal time again for the boys on the bunks below.  they return form the kitchen carriage with two chicken joints and the raw ingredients for a piquant sauce; salt, pepper, lime and chilli. With a handy pocket knife, the younger mad sets about chopping and slicing to prepare the sauce.

A table cover of newspaper is spread out and the old guy breaks out the moonshine that he had kindly shared with us the night before. It was OK. Ot tasted like good grappa but was made from wheat or barley. Here you see the finished meal and two plastic cups ( left over from our morning coffees) of the hooch!

Proud of their efforts, many photos were taken and you can see the elegant hooch flagon on the floor beside them!

A duck farm

My word, is it that time again? 12.30 and it's time for meat and rice with some morning glory and some more hooch. Got to keep your strength up boys!

In the picture below you can see some graves scattered amongst the trees. There are more and more graves and grave yards the closer we got to Da Nang; a legacy of the war I suspect.






The photo above is remarkable because it shows a second railway track. We stopped and waited a little while here until another train passed by in the opposite direction.  The track soon went back down to a single line.


So, that's my whistlestop tour of the beautiful journey from Nha Trang to Da Nang