Vietnam Unification Express - Danang to Saigon

Saying goodbye to our lovely South China Sea town of Hoi An we boarded the train headed for Saigon, a 15 hour overnight journey on the Vietnam Unification Express. The name express is quite contrary to its travel time. I read that the VUE holds the record for being the slowest traveling trains in the world. Lets see, boys here's a relevant math problem...

Outside the Hoi An Station

15 hours to travel 580miles = 39 miles an hour. Yup, pretty slow. In fact the boys say that's slower than the Alaska Railroad.

The rail was first constructed by the French when they ruled Vietnam as part of Indochina, divided when Vietnam was split North and South in 1954 according to the Geneva Accorrds, targeted and bombed during the Vietnam-American War then fully restored in 1976 when Vietnam was united after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Boarding the Train

We boarded the train and found our berth with empty coffee cups and muffin wrappers and the bedsheet unchaged. I guess there had been other travelers heading South from Hanoi that departed in Danang where we got on board. The boys were up in arms disgusted at their accommodations. Said with total attitude, "Mom why did we have to take the train? I told you I wanted to fly." My response, " I wanted the adventure of the train."

Schooling them in the art of calming down so you can think about handling the situations was not the easiest but in the end Taylor asked the steward to clean our room and refresh our linens. I will say that even with this improvement the whole train was dirty and kind of smelly, especially the toilet. Whew Wee! We were all glad we are traveling with sleeping sheets.

Linens Refreshed and Berth Tidy

Our 15 hours were spent exploring the rest of the train, eating in the small somewhat unsanitary dining car, watching a movie on the computer, reading and sleeping. We discovered that our berth was the nicest on board. Others had six people sleeping in one berth, ours had four, and then there were three cars packed with people sitting in dirty, uncomfortable, broken seats for 15 hours. At least they had entertainment - Michael Keaton starring as Batman (1990ish) with an annoyingly high pitched Vietnamese lady voicing the whole movie, all parts. That gave us a good chuckle.

Boiled Egg Purchased from the Food Cart. Great Appitizer.

In the end we were all glad for the experience and will take the train again. I can guarantee this train trip will not be our last.

Arrival in Saigon 5:00am Friday, December 3, 2010