We took the train from Saigon to Nha Trang today. Most tourists take buses, but the train is marginally faster…and had the interesting benefit of traveling mostly with locals.
What I noticed pretty quickly is how familiar Vietnamese people are with one another. It’s nice, but also sometimes a bit surprising. I watched strangers offer bits of their food to other people’s children. I saw a lady help an old man into his seat, and later she was unfazed as the old man smacked her on the ass to get her to get out of the aisle. That wasn’t the only time I saw someone spank someone adult to get them to do something either.
At one point this giant moth was flying around the train. The Vietnamese didn’t care at all, didn’t even blink an eye. I’m not trying to be patronizing, but in Asia I’ve found people are generally (at least outside of the big cities) more “in touch” with nature. I know on any train in America people would freak out over a moth the size of someone’s hand. Needless to say, when the moth flew towards me I started trying to hide (but didn’t scream! I was trying!) while Hugh was attempting to catch it in a lunchbox, only to have an old lady come up and just grab it in her hand and THREW it to the back of the train (at a sleeping woman, lol.) She gave me a big grin. She saved me again from Mothra a few hours later.
Anyways, the train ride was surprisingly fun. Minus the 7 hours of blaring television showing pretty much the most GOD AWFUL television possible. I’m talking about Cholesterol Man attacking ladies while Barley Tea man comes to save the day (all live action, taking place on a stage.)
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From Queenie:
Hahahaha oh man, I can see you shrinking away from the moth and Hugh using a lunchbox. Gross though…small moths are bad enough but huge ones?! No thank you. And…well I guess if you saw someone with a nice ass and smacked it..no one would think anything of it huh? hahaha
From じゅんちゃん:
Hahaha, I enjoyed reading this entry very much. I actually lol’d. It’s so wonderful that you and your fiance get to travel like this.
From Janelle:
Queenie: Lol, you can’t smack people’s asses you don’t know tho!… Or can you?
Junchan: Thanks, we’ll try and get into more misadventures =)