Train from Quang Binh to Nimh Binh

So the train journey from Quang Binh to Nimh Bin!!!!!!! Trying to keep our spirits up as we faced this 12 hour train trip on a hard sleeper we sallied forth to the station to wait with the gathering crowds. Railway stations are very different in Vietnam as we were soon to find out. Everyone waits together in a room with a locked door which, when unlocked, allows you access to where you board your train. When the train is imminent the door is unlocked and everyone rushes out into the train yard. So this is what happened to us and we went with the crowd to find our train, our carriage and our cabin. The train pulls in and we are right at the end - carriage 13 - so we head that way with our baggage and backpacks etc. as the sun is falling below the horizon. Eventually we reach our destination way past the end of the "cultivated" yard and are aghast. OSH would have a field day! We have crossed railway lines without any controls in a dimly lit yard and now we have a two and a half foot step up into the carriage with our 20kg bags as there are no platforms just the rails that the trains run on. This is OK though because Gary and I have devised a plan and working in unison and sweating excessively we get the bags in and take a flying jump to follow them. Now to find our cabin. First of all though visualize everything, literally everything, being designed for very small Vietnamese people. So we arrive at our cabin to find a Vietnamese family of 3 ensconsed there.  They boarded in HCMC and two are on the bottom bunks and the third is on a middle bunk - their eyes open wide in amazement as we enter the minute cabin struggling with our bags. So you still have a mental image of the size of this compartment and our next issue is - where are we going to put our luggage? Macgyver to the rescue. Gary susses out very quickly that one of our bunks will have to be given over to luggage and we will have to share the other.(we have booked two). Struggling to lift, twist and place the bags x 2 in such a confined area on the top bunks takes a master, so Gary quickly jumps to it watched, but not helped by, the 3 other males in the cabin. I am busy at that time working out the logistics of how I am going to get into the 2nd tier bunk without losing my dignity so was of little help. Bags stowed I confess to Gary that I don't think I am able to get up into the bunk at all but with some gentle persuasion and really no alternative I hoist myself in and find that I have got myself wedged and sandwiched in half head to knee. This is where I will be forever grateful for Yoga. Trying to get my brain to work out have to unsandwich myself in this extremely confined space gave me a headache but after much laughing I am finally lying flat hugging my handbag, my tablet bag and my backpack. I am quickly joined by Gary who very nimbly catapulted himself into the bunk. Amidst an extreme tangle of arms and legs we finally managed to top and tail and find some degree of comfort. "But where are my sandwiches" Gary cries. Before we left we had some very, very expensive, very flimsy salad sandwiches made for us at the hotel and we had treated them with the utmost repect throughout. "In the top of your backpack" I say and he hauls them out licking his lips as he considers eating them there and then. Changing his mind he decides to wait until the hunger pains set in and we both settle down to try and get some sleep. Yeh right! Between pressure sores and the constant need to reposition ourselves and the Vietnamese family cracking open a picnic every 2 hours below us sleep was hard to come by. Water became a non essential because there was no way either of us could get down and back up again to visit the squat toilet on a lurching train (not that we wanted to any way) but our salad sandwiches called. "Where's my sandwiches" cries Gary (remember they are priceless and worth their weight in gold) and he pulls out from underneath him a plastic bag of squashed, flattened, warm, oozy stuff. Well we were hysterical and as I am writing this we are laughing so much our sides are splitting. What a sight for sore eyes but he still ate them!!!! 12 hours we spent there in that narrow, claustrophobic bunk - I would liken it to an MRI scan! At some stage the Vietnamese family tied a sheet across the door for security so it was a noisy entrance when our final "bunk buddy" arrived some way down the track. Now he spoke English so we gleaned some useful and vital information from him like - how long it would be before we needed to get off or the general ETA at Nimh Binh which was estimated at 11.30pm. He was getting off before us and I think quite concerned re our welfare (totally unnecessary of course) so he invited us to get off with him and stay at his house and he would take us to our destination the following day. That was very sweet but we had accommodation booked and we knew that the owner would be waiting for us to arrive. We were to ring the bell and he would get up to welcome us regardless of time. Anyway we survived and due to our ETA knowledge we got ready and off in time - albeit 2hours late!!!! Grabbing a taxi and paying way, way too much for it (another scam) we finally arrived at the Vancouver hotel having followed Gary's instructions derived from his GPS??? Jumping out to quietly ring the bell due to the unearthly hour whilst Gary paid the driver I was beaten to the bell by the driver who just would not stop ringing it. "No, no" I whispered, "he will come stop ringing it". "No, no" he yelled "he not come, me ring some more". "We will be fine - you just go please?" and off he sailed into the sunset grinning from ear to ear at the exhorbitant price we had paid for our 5minute trip. Turning round we came face to face with a dishevelled, sleepy eyed David and all we could say was "it wasn't us it was the taxi driver!" Very nice David showed us to our room and hastily returned to his bed. Dropping everything where we stood, thoroughly exhausted we turned "something" down on our bed only to find it had not been made up. There was nothing but a mattress protector to sleep on. Oh well, never mind, anything is better than a middle bunk on a hard sleeper Vietnamese train. Night all, sweet dreams xxx