So we now sit in the moderate comfort of our 4 bed cabin on the last leg of this epic train journey south through Vietnam, and as my last two posts described , the conditions and atmosphere at the station were horrid, but for poor Imogen the situation was about to get a whole lot worse. With more than an hour still to wait, and with no warning what so ever, she decided to take a massive dislike to something she ate today! The projectile vomit closely missed the Vietnamese business man sat in front of us, but she did manage to hit the sign informing us of this evenings delay with her second splash as she ran towards the door (rather brilliant in a way!), by the third splash she was half way through the door and into the rat infested pavement infront of the station, with mother in toe. The whole population of the station were by this point standing and staring at this difficult development in their evenings wait.
Bless her, she came back 20 minutes or so later to be fussed over by a number of well wishing, if not slighty weird Vietnamese women all wanting to help. One could not be stopped from performing some form of exorcism on her by rubbing her forehead and temple region, which she appeared to enjoy, but later confessed was not that pleasant.
Imogen is now feeling much better, and was able to provide editorial control of this blog before it got posted so hopefully fully recovered tomorrow!
The evenings drama was not completely over however, as I took a complete dislike to a rather aggravating family also boarding our train. The dislike came from the point that we reached the ticket guard at the main entrance, just as I was about to show our tickets (holding the vast majority of our bags, to allow Steph easy passage with Imogen). The son of the family decided he should bypass the queue and barge in front, with his very heavy and clearly important polystyrene box! He achieved this by shouting very loudly something in Vietnamese. The result of this is I have to stop, drop all my bags, and move out the way. By the time the train pulled up, it was clear that he and his family were due to board the same carriage.... hmmm.... how shall we say!! - I was not likely to get left in second place again!. My boarding the train came without problem, as I loaded most of the bags into the carriage, but Steph and the Kids did not manage to hold back the enthusiasm of the competition who slid onto the carriage to the discomfort of all the other travellers. So as we are winding our way down the corridor to our cabin I notice behind me a delay in Steph and the kids getting to me, and the reason was a slow entry into the cabin next to ours by this aggravating family and their polystyrene box! So with all the grace of a bull at Pamplona I barged past the son in order to help steph, the chap went flying in, leaving only the mother behind who's jaw had dropped leaving the smug grin back in Nha Trang. Anyway the situation was slightly diffused by the entry of a couple of Aussies we had met on the last leg of the train trip.
All calm now, roll on Saigon!
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