Northbound Train

After two nights in Hoi An, Sarah and I headed north to My Khe to check the surf. Still churned up by the storm, the ocean was disorganized and a mess so we ended up missing the train to Hanoi and spending the next day wandering the streets of Da Nang, the 4th largest town in Vietnam, a business center, where we saw not a single Westerner for 24 hours. We did, however, eat soup alone in a pink banquet hall and played rummy, much to the amusement of the curious staff.

I love trains. The pace, the history, the idea of a train is beautiful. The train that stretches along the Vietnamese coast was renamed the Reunification Express in 1976. I've seen few signs of this quasi-Communist country- a splattering of propaganda billboards and a few large Communist Youth Work Parties that marched through the streets of Hoi An in hunter green uniform, red star cap and shovels over their right shoulder. This train was "bombed by the Japanese to destroy the country, bombed by the Americans to divide the country and rebuilt after the war to reunite the country," or so "they" say.

On the train we were able to put a window down. Feeling the wind, slow dancing with the mountains, the ocean below us, gave me an indescribable feeling of joy. We ate hard boiled eggs with salt and pepper, played cards on the top bunk bed and drank Mirinda and Hanoi Vodka before bed. We woke up to Hanoi, the 1000 year-old capital of Vietnam.