Trains in Vietnam: Hanoi to Da Nang

Tuesday December 11 - Wednesday 12

While stations in China are chaotic, messy and overcrowded, the cross country services themselves are reasonably efficient and the carriages fairly clean.

A 14 hour overnight journey in a sleeper compartment shared with three other people is not something anyone looks forward to - but at least it is reasonably comfortable.

The same can't be said in Vietnam.

Bed for the night: A top bunk in the four bed compartment

But after navigating our way across China in this way, we decided to again get the train from the capital Hanoi to Da Nang, a city some 500 miles down the coast.

The roads are so bumpy and the go for broke driving style so hair-raising that the rails looked like the safest option. Flying was out of the question because it is so expensive.

Hanoi train station was bombed by the Americans during the Vietnam War and although its been repaired since then it remains run down and is desperately in need of an overhaul.

The people are so poor here that a significant proportion of those getting our train were Western tourists.

Kelly-Ann reads her Kindle sitting on her bed as we head towards Da Nang

941,000 dong (around £30) bought us a soft sleeper bed each in a small compartment we shared with two Vietnamese men who were getting off at 4am.

They decided to sit on our beds for half an hour uninvited and chatter away before retiring for the night at 11.30pm.

The trains themselves are remarkably similar to those in China - just at least 20 years older.

I'd wager that this same train was running up and down the same single track line during the Vietnam War 40 years ago.

The stuffy compartment was apparently air conditioned although the cooling system had clearly seen better days.

The bedsheets may have been cleaned at some point in 2012, although it's a moot point.

Ignoring it all we drifted off to sleep as the train trundled slowly out of Hanoi.

Scenic: The view out of the window in the morning

 In the morning I went in search of a toilet and discovered a Vietnamese man urinating inexpertly in the general direction of the bowl with the door wide open.

With a working lock on the door (so often a luxury in public toilets in Asia) I have no idea why he was doing it.

These toilets are truly vile and impossible to sit on. The stainless steel bowl fills halfway up when flushed and the train is so bumpy the water slops out onto the soaking wet floor.

Of course many people don't believe it's necessary to flush - if indeed they have hit the target in the first place - so it's largely human waste and not water glistening on the ground.

It's not even worthwhile venturing into the wash room - because you won't come out cleaner than when you went in.

A lady wheeled a trolley full of what I believe were spring rolls but they were quite clearly not fit for human consumption. I'd had enough.

Outside the view was occasionally spectacular, more often just mile after mile of flat barren countryside.

Trains are the least bad way of navigating your way across Vietnam - but this was far from a comfortable experience.

The ticket from Hanoi to Da Nang was for a 'soft' bed in a four-person compartment. The ticket shows the coach number and the bed number - 18. The bed is level one, the bottom of the two. The price of 941,000 dong is roughly 30GBP

Ha Long Bay: A night on a junk boat visiting one of the seven natural wonders of the world

Monday December 10 - Tuesday 11

As one of the seven natural wonders of the world, a trip to Ha Long Bay is a must for any tourist in Vietnam.

The idyllic coastline in the north-east of the country has 1,969 separate islands made out of limestone which formed over 500 million years.

We spent a night in a junk boat as we explored the islands. During our visit we also went kayaking and went inside the largest cave - named with no hint of modesty 'Amazing Cave'. The cave was merely not bad.

View: What we could see in Ha Long Bay from on top of one of the 1,969 islands

A junk boat like the one we spent the night on

Freezing: I swim in the water. Although the air temperature was around 22C it was very cold when I got in

People trying to sell you things get everywhere in Vietnam

Hanoi: A city overrun by motorbikes

Thursday December 6 - Sunday 9

Large modern cities are fairly similar with the same branded shops and the same frenzied pace.

Shanghai, Sydney, London, New York and Paris all have their unique identities but definite similarities.

But Hanoi, Vietnam, is unique. Very unique.

The city is constantly alive with the vroom of thousands of motorbikes weaving their way through the narrow streets.

Chaos: Hanoi at night - the narrow streets crowded with motorbikes (the same as it is in the day time)

The pavements are impossible to walk down because the busy and overstacked shopfronts sprawl out into the road.

There is a whiff of petrol in the air and the humidity at times is intense.

For the tourist just arriving in this capital city the whole experience is an assault on the senses and crossing the road is terrifying.

But the Vietnamese people are friendly and this city is to be celebrated for its sheer uniqueness and intensity.

Heart of the city: The Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi

In the centre sits a large lake called Hoan Kiem and on a small island within it is an ancient Buddhist temple.

The city, with a population of three million, is relatively compact and can easily be explored on foot.

With a dense maze of streets in the Old Quarter where we were staying, a good map of the city is imperative.

Hanoi by day: The streets crowded with motorbikes again

We booked into the Blue Sky Hotel run by a friendly Vietnamese woman called Moon. Our large room cost us just £4.50 a night each - and breakfast, tea, coffee and a seemingly limitless supply of bananas were all thrown in on top.

Unlike in China, there are dozens of tourists like us about the city.  

The people are all keen to talk to the tourists - although irritatingly it's because they're constantly trying to sell some tacky merchandise or carry out a scam.

We stayed in Hanoi for four nights and beyond the initial madness of it all there is a lot to see.

Vietnam remains a country scarred by war in the relatively recent past. An estimated four million people died across the country as the Communists fought a successful guerrilla war against the US.

The conflict began in 1954 with the Americans propping up the largely corrupt but anti-Communist dictatorship in the then independent South Vietnam.

Military victory: The remains of an American B52 bomber shot down on December 27 1972 just months before the US pulled their troops out

 The US eventually withdrew their forces in 1973 after suffering 60,000 deaths. Within two years the whole nation of Vietnam was united as the Communist north took control of the south.

Hanoi is defiantly proud of how they embarrassed the Americans in a war of attrition.

In the north-west of the city a downed American B52 bomber can be seen jutting out of a green murky lake as an enduring symbol of this celebrated military success.

In the Vietnam military museum there are a number of downed US planes from the conflict.

We also visited the prison - Hoa Lo - where US serviceman captured by the Vietnamese were interred.

Captured: A US Navy plane at the Vietnam Military Museum in Hanoi

Long before the Americans arrived the facility was used by French colonialists to hold the Vietnamese.

The exhibits proudly told us how humanely the US servicemen were looked after. They also explained that the Americans dubbed the prison the "Hanoi Hilton" because they enjoyed their time there so much.

There is definitely a different side to this story.

Elsewhere, we went to a water puppets show. Performers in a waist-deep pool controlled the wooden puppets from behind a screen. It told us all about Vietnamese folklore.

After four days in this noisy, busy and crazy city we were moving on - and to its polar opposite. The tranquil Ha Long Bay.

My verdict: China the superpower in waiting that will never arrive without democratic reforms

When I started university a few years ago, I met a fellow student who said he was studying Business and Chinese.

China's economy is growing so quickly, he said, that it will be a very important language to know in business in years to come.

But after spending three weeks in the Communist state I've got to disagree with him. This is a country where GDP is expanding at breakneck speed - but I can't see it continuing.

2012? What life seemed to be like for the majority of Chinese people once you looked beyond the glittering tower blocks

Cities like Shanghai have transformed beyond all recognition - the incredible steel and glass skyline simply wasn't there in the early 1990s. Other cities across the country also have glittering office blocks for big business.

But, based on what I've seen, these glittering symbols of growth exist only on the margins. The majority of people don't go near the sleek shopping malls - they are the preserve only of the wealthy.

Young graduates with impeccable English skills find themselves working in hostels because there is no other work. High street stores and restaurants are massively overstaffed with workers standing around waiting for customers for most of the day.

Growth: The Chinese economy is soaring forward - and this is most visible in Shanghai

The majority of people remain, and will remain, very poor. Unless the Communist Party lose their iron grip on power, Chinese growth will come shuddering to a halt.

In reaching this conclusion, I am not lazily lumping this nation together with the failed project that was the USSR.

Following the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, there have been major economic reforms - this is no pure Communist project. Xi Jinping, who becomes President early next year, is a very different man to the revolutionary who took power in 1949.

But although the party have ushered in some elements of capitalism, unless there is political reform Chinese growth will stop.

As I'm writing this on a bus to Vietnam I can see out of the window a group of farm workers hacking down bamboo with machetes. I can see an ox stood nearby.

Shanghai: The New York of the East

While industrialised countries adopted tractors decades ago this labour-saving device has not arrived in this field.

There's no incentive for the Chinese government to encourage people to adapt the technology - if less labour is needed most of these workers will be out of the job.

There's no booming private sector for these people to turn to for work. The only businesses that are allowed to prosper are those supported, at least tacitly, by the Communist Party.

If farmers like those on the road to Vietnam are out of the job, mass unemployment would result and the very legitimacy of the Communist state would be called into question.

It is simpler then for the Chinese government to keep these people poor.

The streets below the high-rise towers are still swept by people with brushes made from leaves. The unseen masses remain very poor and would never step inside the western shops.

Unless China develops capitalist economic institutions it will remain poor. There is too little incentive for ingenious individuals to think creatively and start businesses.

In Britain, George Stephenson, born into poverty in 1781 and illiterate until he was 18, is credited with building the most famous early steam train in 1829. The economic system - and the profit motive - powered the Industrial Revolution.

Chinese dynamism: The iconic Birdsnest Stadium built for the 2008 Olympic Games

In contrast, corrupt institutions, taxes and a lack of education are holding China's economy back. Markets are not competitive.

State sponsored growth is possible under Communism - but it has limits. It is easily forgotten that the Soviet Union grew rapidly for decades. As late as 1980, US academics were predicting that Russia would be the richest country in the world within a couple of decades.

But without economic institutions that promote individual enterprise, that growth came crashing to a halt and then the whole project collapsed.

Because of the 1.3 billion population, I fully expect the Chinese economy to become the biggest in the world. The great surge forward may continue for another 20 years before there is stagnation. But although total GDP may surge past the US, GDP per head will remain much lower.

Impressive: The Shanghai skyline which has shot up in the last 20 years

But like in Russia, there will come a point where growth will come to a standstill - unless this becomes the world's largest democracy.

Based on what I've seen, the potential of China is hugely overstated in the western media.

Yes, this country is surging forward economically while the west struggles. But they've got a lot of catching up to do.

If this page remains online 30 years from now, my prediction may be proved emphatically wrong. The future often plays out in ways we could never have predicted.

But my view is that Chinese growth will come to the standstill without economic and political reform.

A weekend in Hong Kong: Dodgy mussels, an angry man at the market but an incredible city

Saturday December 1 - Monday 3

** More pictures to follow when we can get them off the camera (sorry no pictures of the skyline yet) **

A relatively short bus or train ride over the border, a tour of China isn't complete without a few days in Hong Kong.

This southern state was a British colony until 1997 when power was handed back to the Chinese.

A brief but painful period of Japanese occupation during World War II aside, this was part of the Empire continuously from 1841 after the Opium Wars. It was from then that the small coastal town expanded rapidly to eventually become the remarkable city it is today.


When you cross over the border it feels like you have been transported forward several decades. Defiantly capitalist Hong Kong is a modern and wealthy city with districts full of ex-pats and western prices to boot.

Our hostel was right in the heart of the shopping district and a short walk from the ferry terminal which takes you to the other Hong Kong islands.

The pavements were so rammed in this crazy city that frankly they could have pedestrianised the whole place and it would still have been almost impossible to walk anywhere.

On the biggest road down to the boat terminal - Nathan Road - there are dozens of the world's leading designer shops. Unfortunately for this trip they were well beyond our budget.

It's a place where East truly meets West - dumpling and noodle shops share the street with a M&S store and a Clarks shoe shop.

On the first night we ate fresh seafood in a street restaurant near the Temple Street Market.

Before: Crabs waiting to be cooked

On the dinner table: Our prawn covered in breadcrumbs

  Buckets of still alive prawns, crabs and other sea creatures sat outside destined for the dinner plates.

We ordered a delicious dish of mussels garnished with garlic. We also went for a fresh prawn which had been cooked before being garnished in breadcrumbs. The fish itself was quite gristly and we really had to pick away at it and stab it with chopsticks to get at the fresh prawn which lay beneath the almost armoured shell.

Unfortunately the following day we were both left feeling decidedly unwell. The food was great - but we wouldn't go back there.

With limited time we headed for the hills on the Sunday and got the Peak Tram up to one of Hong Kong's highest points.

The service has been running since the early days of colonialism and the 400metre climb up a one mile track gave us an excellent view over the city.

Amazing selection of wares: The Temple Street night market in Hong Kong

In the evening we had a visit to the market, near where we had eaten the previous evening, which we won't forget in a hurry.

Stallholders sell a remarkable array of glitzy wears including clothing, paintings, mobile phones, bags, watches, DVDs and headphones.

I tried to help Kelly-Ann by some "Beats by Dr Dre" headphones - counterfeit of course. I don't know who Dr Dre is, but I know he makes headphones and apparently isn't a real doctor.

The short plump Hong Kong native asked for $290 HK (around £25) - but we equivocated and asked to try them. He thought he had a deal.

After the trial run (they were excellent) I offered $200 HK hoping he'd meet us half way. But he insisted we'd agreed a price - and said we had to pay.

Dinner time: I eat the mussels. We were both feeling unwell the next day

When I said "no", the response was "f*** you, you have to pay. F*** you".

As he went red in the face shouting the crowds parted and shuffled well away from his stall. On he went (with the same again).

Finally this tirade came to a stop and he offered "OK, $250 HK?"

After this unbelievable outburst in the genteel marketplace there's no way we'd buy them. We marched off into the humid night sky.

For travellers, China is a huge culture shock to the system because it is so busy. Hong Kong may feel more familiar, but really this is just a capitalist China on steroids.

Rude: The block where the Lee Garden Hostel which we stayed in is located

Southern China's answer to Thorpe Park: Chimelong Paradise in Guangzhou

Friday November 30

** More pictures to follow - struggling to get them off the camera! **

Bored by a constant diet of temples, palaces and mausoleums we headed to a theme park in southern China.

Chimelong Paradise opened just six years ago and is similar to Thorpe Park in Surrey.

Terrifying! Us on one of the rides at Chimelong Paradise, Guangzhou

 However, the entrance price of 200CNY (£20) is beyond the reach of the vast majority of the local population - according to the grumpy man on reception in our hostel.

Unfortunately it was pouring throughout the day.

An elderly Chinese woman sold me a poncho for 50p which was actually a large bin bag with a hood.

A westerner in the park was entertainment enough for the locals - but a westerner in a bin bag made it all the more entertaining. So rare are the English in southern China that at times we felt like an additional attraction in the park.

'Poncho': The bin bag with a hood I wore throughout the day. It cost 50p 

Rides include the imaginatively named ten inversion coaster and the dive coaster.

One of the wackiest rides features not the traditional carts but 'motorcycles' you sit on as you are carried around the track.

We visited purely because it was one of the top rated attractions in Guangzhou on TripAdvisor.

On the doorstep to Hong Kong, there is not much else to do in this southern city.

Despite the rain and the bin bag poncho this was a great, and very different day out.

Better: Kelly-Ann's more expensive rain jacket

YouTube video of the Divecoaster (not my own) - one of the park's main attractions

Picture round up: Our first month away in the United States and China

Communist China's censorship laws have made it very difficult to update this blog while we are away because the site is blocked completely.

As a result I've had to email the posts back to England to be uploaded there. It's been even harder to get images on.

So just over one month in to our four month trip, here is a pictures round up.

It takes in New York, Washington, Beijing, the Great Wall of China, Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors and Shanghai.
 
Skyline: The view from the river in Shanghai as we took a boat ride
 
Freezing: On the water in Shanghai


Shanghai at night

Terracotta Warriors near Xi'an

Biew from the top of the hill at the Summer Palace in Beijing

A street market in Beijing in the evening after we had been to the Great Wall

Amazing: The view from our trip to the Great Wall of China

Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games

Star attraction: A panda walks round its encloure at Beijing zoo. Although the pandas were amazing, we were horrified by the lack of space some of the animals were given to roam in

Polar bear at Beijing zoo

2012? Vegetables on sale in the street in Beijing

 

New York: The new Freedom Tower which is being built on the site of the former World Trade Center

 

'Why lie?': The cheekiest beggar in Times Square, New York

America decides: Outside the White House on election day

Poignant: Arlington Cemetery in Washington for US military personnel