31 Hours on the Reunification Express

From Saigon we needed to get to Hanoi, 1,000 miles away.  It would have been easy and not prohibitively expensive to fly, but what would be the fun in that?  Instead, we opted for what is often referred to as the Reunification Express, a train that runs the distance between the two cities. 

We boarded the train in Saigon at 11pm, June 15 and arrived in Hanoi at 6am, June 17.  In between, we shared a tiny compartment with a father and his two children, got two surprisingly decent nights of sleep on paper-thin mattresses, barely ate (and what we ate wasn't good), and went through an hour-long stretch of scenery that must rank near the top of the best train experiences in the world.  As you can see below, our digs weren't exactly the Four Seasons.

Pictures from the Hai Van Pass in the full post.  Despite the poor quality due to being behind the window, they still show how amazing that area is.