Vietnam
Kunming to Lao Cai to Hanoi
We travelled through Vietnam in the spring of 2009. We started in the north, having spent some time in China. The overnight bus trip from Kunming to the border town of Lao Cai would have been fantastic, if I was 5'2" and about half my weight (infrastructure, as they say, is created with an end user in mind), and could withstand motion sickness like an astronaut! The road had potholes like craters in an asteroid belt; I think the driver enjoyed hitting them as hard as he could. At least we had bottom bunks - one European fellow we met had the center top bunk with which to cradle his 6'4" frame. There was some small comfort in looking up from time to time to see his limbs splayed in every direction. Misery, as they say, loves company.
After a quick trip through customs and a bathroom break, we took an eight hour train ride to Hanoi, on hard wooden benches in a crowded commuter car. Normally I'd say an eight hour train ride isn't that bad, but after twelve hours of lurching on a night bus and eight cramped hours on the slowest train in Asia, we were pretty happy to stretch our legs in Hanoi. In fact, Hanoi ended up being one of the highlights of our trip: a beautiful town with parks and vibrant markets, temperate spring weather, and 20 cent cold draught beer pints on street corners, what's not to like!
