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Wed, 01 Oct 2008

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/xLife/Vietnam: Direct Train Between Hanoi and Beijing

I had no idea this was possible until a travel agent educated me, but I just bought a Hanoi to Beijing train ticket right here in Hanoi. I thought it was impossible to buy Chinese train tickets outside of China, but I was quite wrong. This option has the excellent bonus feature of not getting stuck in Nanning for days trying to buy the onward train ticket after riding the bus from Hanoi to Nanning.

The Hanoi to Nanning leg is quite a PITA. It leaves from Hanoi at 1830, and then there is a bed-time delaying train change at the border just before midnight (this is also where you clear Vietnamese immigration). This would not be so bad, but then the train quickly stops at a Chinese immigration station, where Chinese immigration take an hour+ to clear the whole train. Final bed-time: 0130. Then we arrived in Nanning around 0600, and were promptly kicked off the train for two hours while they added the cars from our little train to the much bigger train headed for Beijing. I would recommend trying to get some sleep on the Vietnamese train. The damned thing bounces and jolts around too much to read comfortably anyway.

Total cost for the trip (soft sleeper accomodations) was US$150, less then half the best airfare I was being quoted. And I think my cost was augmented by a US$20-30 travel agent fee. Next time I will go directly to the train station to buy the ticket.

posted at: 08:35 | path: /xLife/Vietnam | permanent link to this entry