I wanted to have a train experience here in Vietnam and thought I would make this journey. The travel time is only 2.5 hours so a nice quick trip and chance to check out train travel here. I travelled by train from Da Nang to Hue City and it was marvellous!
Online Booking
First, this is the official site. Using any other will cost you more as they are adding on their fees. They are very good at making their site look like the official one. Do not be fooled!
The Vietnam Railways site does have an English version; however, it was not that easy to navigate. Once you figure out which train you need, you then select the seating. Since I was making a short trip, most of the seating was unavailable to me. This railway track runs trains from Saigon to Hanoi which is a 32-hour journey, so most of the cars are sleeping cars.
So as not to fill up the train with bookings of smaller trips, like mine, most seats are unavailable except to those booking the longer trip. Only when say two beds out of a 6-bed room are booked, do the other four beds pop open and become available to someone booking a short trip.
Now, once you select your train and seats/beds, the timer starts. You are given 500 seconds to complete the transaction or your seats become available to the next person!
I had much difficulty trying to complete payment with my Canadian credit card. In fact, I had no luck and had to use my sister’s card which required an additional verification, to complete the transaction. To say the whole process is frustrating is an understatement. It took me multiple tries and multiple days to book my seats.
My return trip cost 283k dong or $15.50 CAD.
Da Nang Station
A quick Grab ride to the train station and I was ready to travel. I arrived one hour early and that was waaayyyy to early. The station is small, with one ticket counter, a small waiting room and a shop. The clerk will not let you enter into the next waiting room, until your train is close to arriving.
Once you have been granted access to the 2nd waiting area, there you sit once again until your train has actually arrived. It is only then that you are allowed onto the platform to board the train. The system is very controlled and measured.
Even though a conductor is waiting at each car door to look at your ticket, you are not given any assistance with luggage or otherwise, to get up the steep steps and onto the train.
The Trip
So much fun!!! I booked 2 beds in a 4-bed room, it was the only way I could get two seats together. (My sister is visiting me for a week). Luckily, we had the room to ourselves. I had read unpleasant stories of others sharing a room with loud sleepers.
The room was tidy, although not that clean. A booklet is on the communal table which includes the menu and regulations. You will know when the food trolley comes around, as the sing song trill announcing their arrival is lovely to hear.
On the way to Hue, the view is coastal most of the way. The return trip is inland of mountains, jungle and low-lying agricultural fields.
Don’t worry if you read that the sleeper rooms windows do not open, for just across the hall, the windows do open, and you can look out and feel the warm Vietnamese breeze on your face for as long as you want. Careful not to reach too far out, trees, power poles and tunnel entrances are super close to the actual train.
I absolutely loved this train trip and would recommend the experience to anyone travelling inside Vietnam. On the return trip we did have a sleeper in our room on the top bunk. It was uncomfortable as we felt we had to remain quiet for the 2.5-hour journey, but luckily there were no noises or bodily smells.
