picture of ding in his cafe

The crazy australian guys bought motorcycles and planned to ride to hanoi and then ship their bikes back to australia. But I was thrilled to be getting back on the train. Nice, comfortable sleepers with air con. yay! there was some uncertainty about it, but it seemed fairly hopeful. with all western roomates, I went to sleep feeling fairly confident...

And woke up in almost the same place that the 1st train had stopped. This time we were in a tiny, tiny town. A second train stopped behind us and we all waited. no one could tell us any news, but all of the bathrooms were soon not working. which wasn't that big of a deal, since the only food was ramen soup and the same chips and marshmallow cookies that I had been primarily living on for days. so we were stopped in the middle of nowhere with no one telling us anything. the train employees literally ran away if we started to ask them anything. I walked around the area, and there was really nothing, no stores, no interesting buildings, no views, nothing nothing nothing. 2 of the people we were sharing the room with (a german guy and an american woman) had had enough, and they joined the many people who were paying locals with motorbikes to drive them the 25 km to the next town to catch a bus. I had finished my mirakami book, so i gladly borrowed jan's english language book. it was by the guy who wrote the kite runner, which i won't read, but it was mildly entertaining and I read the 400+ pages that day. at one point, they thought they might leave soon and locked the train doors so no one could leave but they had also locked the bathrooms, which was disturbing. finally they unlocked the overflowing toilets, which was neccesary, but horrible. But still we waited. We stayed there all day, until 10 when I finally was getting ready to sleep, feeling miserable and totally defeated. And then the train started to move. There was applause and happy yelling from both trains. went to sleep feeling positive. when i woke up we were almost there. chatted with an australian guy about his plans for some new kind of homeowner loan in australia, and was so happy to get off that train. Jan and I ignored the overpriced taxi rides and stretched our legs, walking first to his hotel, then mine where i paid him back. I checked in, took a shower and a nap, then met jan and the german guy for Xoi.