Riding the Reunification Express

Wednesday swimming: 0.43km

Wednesday walking: 2.4km

Cocktails: 2

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Sweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind
Had to get away to see what we could find
Hope the days that lie ahead
Bring us back to where they've led
Listen not to what's been said to you

Crosby, Stills and Nash sang about taking the Marrakech Express in 1969. It was a story about a trip Graham Nash had taken three years previously, a carefree trip where:

Ducks and pigs and chickens call
Animal carpet wall to wall

Apart from not scanning as well, Graham would have had problems writing about the Hanoi Express in 1969. Fortunately we only saw pigs, ducks, chickens and animal carpets from the windows of the train ....

In 1969 the Vietnamese railway was suffering a few challenges; the country had been split in two along the 19th parallel after the Geneva Accord in 1954 following the defeat of the French. It was also subjected to massive damage in the American War, some of it intentional and some a result of collateral damage from carpet bombing. After the war ended in the fall of Saigon in 1975 a remarkable repair campaign was mounted which saw over 1300 bridges and 27 tunnels being repaired or replaced in just 18 months to allow the line to reopen at the end of 1976. Fast trains running on the line are known as "Reunification Expresses" and so we caught Reunification Express number SE2 leaving HCMC at 19:30 and due in Hanoi, 1726km distant, two days later at 3.30am. Our stop was just over halfway at Da Nang after a night spent in a four compartment "soft sleeper", our fellow travellers were two Vietnamese men, on of whom spoke no English and the other was a tour guide with Intrepid Travel taking a British tour group from HCMC to Hanoi via Hoi An and Hué (coincidentally our itinery as well). The accommodation sharing a four berth compartment is pretty good too:

Moving from Hoi An to Hué we again took the train buying the tickets at Da Nang station - a rather chaotic process much enlivened by the man in the ticket office riding around on an upholstered chair on wheels and fanning himself to confirm by sign language that I wanted soft seating with air conditioning. This section of line is very scenic as it runs along the coast of Da Nang Bay and over the Hai Van Pass, passengers get plenty of time to admire the view as the train is limited by gradient and tight bends to 30kph for most of the way, as slow as 15kph on some sections.

Reunification Express SE4 pulling into Hué station to take us on to Hanoi.

Our third and final section took us on another overnight run from Hué to Hanoi (Há Noì in Vietnamese) - this coaches on this section were nearly new and we pulled into Hanoi 5 minutes ahead of schedule at 5.25am.

We travelled by train last year in Japan and, although Vietnamese trains in no way compare with JR. transport, train travel in any country is a much nicer way to see the countryside than road or air travel. The very rural nature of much of Vietnam is really evident from the train as was the scenery through the old De-Militarised Zone (DMZ) which was bombed and defoliated in equal measure during the American war (defoliants contain the very toxic chemical Dioxin which poisons the earth for years). It was just getting dark as we crossed the Ben Hai river on the 19th parallel, the former border between North and South Vietnam.