The Indian Contractor visits Vietnam and China on a Shoestring

Picking up where we left off.... We reached hanoi at 0430hrs. We intended to deposit our luggage at the cloak room and walk around the city. But the station only opened at 630am so we waited oustide the doors resting on the floor, against our bags. My buddy was slowly dozing off so i took out my camera and took some photos of people passing by my line of vision to keep myself awake. It was getting to be an uphill task especially since I hardly slept the previous night.

So there we were, dirty, foul mouthed, and sitting on the floor of a railway station waiting for it open up. It opened bang on time. But the cloak room opened half an hour later. So we lugged our luggage inside and occupied 4 chairs in the nearly empty waiting hall. But within minutes there was a healthy crowd of people crowding near the ticket office.

The cloak room opened at 7. I took out my toothbrush and brushed my teeth at the toilet for a fee of VND1000. Upon entering the toilet I was reminded of India whereby people payed to get into unclean toilets. I did my morning rituals and got out as soon as possible. We had to be back at the station by 1830hrs to take our China bound train.

We deposited our luggage at the cloak room and I took only my passport and wallet with me. I was in no mood to bring my camera bag around. We took a slow walk to the cafe north of the Hoan Kiem lake. Finished breakfast and gulped down my last but third cup of Vietnamese coffee.

We walked down to the part of the city we had missed the last time. It was teh administrative hub of the city. If you've only seen the old quarter of hanoi the admin centre will come as surprise because of its wide roads and footpaths. The buildings too get bigger and more security personnel prowl the streets in this area. Our first stop was a oldlooking building that I have no idea what it was. The guard ushered us in and i felt cheated of my 10,000 dong as there was absolutely nothing in the building except some chinese sculptures.

Then we went to the war remenants museum. Ah, now we're talking. The sight of the MiG 21 brought a smile to my face. This place was loaded with the spoils of war. Being an aviation buff, I admired the aircraft and tanks that lined the courtyard. Inside the museum the Dien Bien Phu campaign (the defeat of the French) and the american war were graphically illustrated with some remarkable photographs. There was a huge tower outside the museum and from the top of the 35m high (I think) we could get a nice view of the surrounding places. Sadly though, the museum closed for lunch at 1330 hrs and would only open at 1530. So we left with some portions left unseen.We then went to the Ho Chih Min Mausoleum which was also closed. Just our luck. We did witness a small change of guard ceremony though. It was free and easy after that. We walked around aimlessly around the west lake. This lake was huge but dirty. We decided to take a bus to hoan kiem lake as it seemed the cheapest way to get anywhere near the station. Bus 33 came and the conductor was, as always, shocked to see the barbarian board the bus, as were other passengers. We payed the fare (VND 3000) and stood all the way. Upon reaching the Hoan Kiem lake we tried to track down the watch shop where we had bought the russian watched earlier. We failed to do so. We were quite tired that day and the lack of sleep only made it worse.

We went for coffee at one of the cafes and while I was sipping my penultimate Vietnamese coffee, I saw this man in a uniform who was taking care of motorbikes on the sidewalk for a small fee. So I just took out my camera and fired a few random shots at him from inside the cafe.

After coffee, we decided to go to the station and bum around till we board the 1830 train for Beijing. We took a motorbike and reached there around 1530hrs.

I was getting restless. So I walked over to the cafe opposite the station and gulped down my last Vietnamese coffee! It was sad. I will never taste proper coffee for the rest of this trip. Coffee and China have only the c in common!

We idled around and talked to some locals till the International waiting room was opened up for use(1730).

The room had some cool furniture and everybody inside were non vietnamese for the first 20 minutes. There were 7 people in total. 2 frenchmen, 2 Dutch, one englishman, and the two of us. Then the Vietnamese came. All wearing the same white cap, it was definitely a package tour of some sort. There were about 10 of them with one guide who spoke both Vietnamese and Chinese. We were allowed to board the drain 45 minutes prior to departure.
When we walked out we were surprised to see that our train had only two compartments!

We got on the train and the moment we put down our bags, we got out armed with cameras. We took some pictures of the train and the station. You can see them below. The last picture was special because it described Vietnam perfectly. Things moved, but at their own pace, no one was in a rush.

About two minutes to departure, I saw two foreigners rushing towards the train. They were John and Alison. And they were seated in our cabin. We said hi and they reciprocated the greeting. It would be a pleasant ride from then on. We had a great couple for company, a couple who would keep my Indian motor mouth busy with lots of talking! No topic was left unexplored. We started off with our travels and went onto british politics finally stopping at the Indians' ability to talk on stop! It was then that the train reached Dong Dang. The Vietnamese Border was here.