The overnight sleeper train

To Neil and Jacqui for our train to Nha trang and to Roy and Margaret for our train from Nha trang to hoi an (danang).
If our first Vietnam train experience was to be a rather nice surprise, then this overnight sleeper was a bit of a reality check!
After leaving the sanctuary.....the beautiful cocoon that is the Six Senses, we sit in the waiting area of the train station and get some excellent assistance by the bossy kiosk sales lady who it turns out is just a bit abrupt and not rude at all she checks our tickets and takes us to the seating area on the right platform, while the actual train station staff just ignore us.
Our train is at 22:20 from Muong Man station in Nha trang and we arrive in Danang at 08:35 so a cheeky 10 hours on a train it is then.
We booked air con and soft sleeper bunks, but they were grubby and had the sheets still on from the previous passenger!!!! Luckily the third person in our cabin was a Vietnamese tour guide and quickly got us some clean sheets

Gem: I think I am pretty ok with slumming it. I don't mind camping, I have slept out in the desert and on the floor in an orphanage surrounded by massive ants with no mattress and pillow. However, for some reason I was really not a fan of the over night sleeper train. I think some of that may have been tiredness and the oxymoron having come from six senses. I was fuming when the train man decided to put one of his staff/mate into our four berth sleeper. The guy didn't have a ticket and shouldn't have been in there and it made me feel really uncomfortable, maybe it's a woman thing but I really didn't like the thought of sleeping 50cm away from a twenty year old man who I didn't know, didn't have a ticket and who shouldn't have been in our cabin. I was a bit upset by it, the reality was that I needed to get my head down coz I was knackered but my head couldn't rest and I had thoughts whirling through my head and my normal calmness kinda turned to a bit of panic. One minute it was the sounds, the clunking, the speed of the train, the guy tossing and turning, then snoring, his smelly feet, the darkness of the room, the claustrophobic-ness of the room, the bed was hard and probably insect ridden, the guards pacing up and down outside the rooms with no lock on the door, our luggage in the room, the shaking of the train and the smell. All in all, not the best experience I have ever had. Having said that, I would go on an overnight train again and it worked really well as we got into danang about nine thirty in the morn and then went and checked into our hotel, so we really utilised our time.
The best thing about the trains is the scenery. I just wish I had a better lens on my camera and a better understanding of how to take moving shots.

Location:Nha Trang to Danang