Train to Hue

I’ve been debating on whether to take buses or the train north to Hanoi. Either way it’s a long ride. Madam Touc (our hotel manager) has booked me a ticket on the “overnight” bus from Mui Ne to Nha Trang (1am-6am). Apparently it’s a sleeper bus so I should be at least able to get some sleep before arriving in Nha Trang, the first major city north of us that has train and bus stations. I’ve packed my bag and chatted w/ Atish, we don’t know when we will have the luxury of video chatting again. It’s 12:30am, I have half-an-hour and I’m about to go hang out with my father when there’s a knock on my door.
“Madam, Nha Trang?”

“The bus is here already?!”
I had been told it would come between 1am and 1:30am, not this early!
“Dad!! The bus is here! Let’s go!”
Dad takes my bag to the bus, I frantically gather the rest of my things in my backpack and run out of my room. My bag is already in the bus.
“Bye daddy, I’ll miss you.”
“Zyanya, listen to me, I need to tell you one thing. Listen. The choices you make for yourself have affects on others. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
“Ok? I love you.”
“I love you too. Bye!”
I board the bus and it leaves. I won’t see dad for 4 months, the longest I’ve ever been gone from home for. I almost cried saying goodbye, but it was too brief and rushed for emotions.
The “sleeper” bus is a bus with far reclining chairs, the bus isn’t full so I actually have 2 seats to myself. Even so, by the time we reach Nha Trang I’ve woken up too many times to have really rested. When I get off the bus in Nha Trang its only 5:20am and still dark. I have a moto take me to the train station; I may as well get my ticket now and then find a hotel. As I walk in I see three westerners. I ask them where they are going, “Danang.” The train leaves in 20min. I go to the ticket counter and find a woman who has just woken up, the office isn’t officially open yet. She makes me wait 10 minutes and then sells me a ticket, sleeper-class, to Danang. It’ll be 10 hours to get there.
I’m relieved to find when the train arrives that I have a compartment with four berths to myself. I’m able to relax and lay down. I realize I’ve chosen train as my method of transport. It may be slower but now I can sleep, read, write, even walk around, and there’s a toilet. As the train gains speed I watch the sun rise over the ocean. I lay down and the rocking of the train lulls me to sleep…

Vietnam’s landscape is exquisite. Mui Ne showed us nothing of the sudden mountains that shape the land available for the picturesque rice paddies. I see small villages with red dirt roads and dark red brick roofs covering colorful homes. Large water buffalo graze with white egrets perched on their backs. Women and men work in the fields, with the traditional cone hats making the view around every mountain a perfect postcard picture. When the train crosses a main road in a town I see all the locals on their bicycles waiting to continue. There are school girls in their uniforms of the long white dress shirt over white flowing pants. I thought that was just in the paintings!
Some children become restless and start to play in the train’s hallway. I notice their wide eyes when they pass my door. They start to walk up and down the hall and as they reach my compartment they slow way down and turn their head to stare. When I smile they shuffle forward, their head still lagging behind for one more look and then they are gone. But never gone for more than 10 minutes.
I know this train continues north but for some reason the woman would only sell me a ticket for Hue. After reading my LP I decide there’s nothing I’m interested in in Danang. So when the train arrives I enter the station and manage to get another ticket to Hue, for another 3 hrs.