Terrible Day at Hanoi

Overnight Train to Sapa

Our first day of tour in Hanoi was an utter disappointment. We were put together with a group of 10 other tourists, and led by a tour guide who did not speak much English, and simply asked all the passengers to get off the bus at each site without offering a single explanation. We were really frustrated because we paid to have a private tour, not a group tour.

When we talked to the tour organizer himself in the evening, there was no question that he was scamming us. Our meals certainly did not cost $6 each, as he had told us. He even planned to send us to Sapa as part of a group trip. Both of us were really angry and in the end he agreed to stick to his promised itinerary. I was amazed by how openly dishonest he was. We hate to say it but our impression of Vietnam and its people had been tainted by this experience.

The organizer tried to make things up by introducing another tour guide to us for the rest of the evening. She was much better and for the first time of the day we enjoyed ourselves. She took us to one of the squatting stalls for a fruit desserts (for which I suffered a mild diarhea after).

But after having been to so many countries, in all honesty there was not much in Hanoi that was worth a visit. Monuments were poorly maintained, and the sense of culture in the city was lacking. Most people appeared to be discontent with life and unmotivated.

We were to take an overnight train to Sapa. The train station was a run-down, filthy building, and there were many locals sleeping in mats placed on the floor. Sachin and I were waiting there and we felt that we really stood out. We were relieved when it was our turn to board the train.

The train looked ancient. The interior was dimly lit, and there was only one hole-in-the-ground toilet with 50 other people on the car. The only available piece of handsoap beside the sink was darkened and cracked.

We were in a 4-person berth with two other french ladies, one of them used to live in Montreal for 5 years and did not even try to hide her dislike of the city. So much for self introduction. Our bunk beds felt somewhat clean, but we could hardly tell in the dim lighting.

The train started slowly. The ride was rocky and noisy, a far cry from the streamlined bullet train in Japan we have become used to. As it crawled through the Hanoi city, from our windows we peeked into the homes of the locals. After being in Cambodia, and now in Vietnam, we realized how much more a dollar means to people here.

The perpetual movement of the train rocked us all to sleep. We were awaken by a national anthem followed by violent bangs on our door as the conductor made his rounds repeatedly waking up the passengers. This was Vietnam, we thought, unwelcoming and cold. Sapa awaited us, and with less enthusiasm we hoped the next two days would be another disappointment.