Midnight Express to Hue
Friday, 18 November 2005
Topic: How many colds!!!!?
Last night we caught the train from Hanoi to Hue. As usual the journey was interesting. First of all we were travelling with a carriage full of people with coughs that only materialised just as we wanted to nod off to sleep.
It was a journey of contrasts. Before we got on the train we were talking to Vietnam Vet who had come to the country to make peace. This wasn't said in so many words but you could see he wanted to make amended for the past. When we had been travelling for a while a Vietnamese gent came to talk to me and Den. I think it may have been because there were only 4 "foreigners" in the coach. After a while chatting the Vietnamese gent told us that he spoke Russian and had lived in Moscow for 18 years. After further chats this morning it turns out he worked for the CIS, which is the Soviet Unions equivalent of the CIA. Who would have thought that 2 people with ideologies so poles apart could be travelling on the same train?
