In Reply to: train posted by Roo_Ted on Thursday, 15. April 2010 at 18:03 Bali Time:
Our plan was to experience a local train in Vietnam. We wanted to see what the trains were like and view the scenery from a train, not a plane or car. The train we took (I think it was called SE6) was definitely a local train! We booked the soft seats but ended up upgrading to a sleeper car. The sleeper cars had 6 berths in them and we told the ticket lady (who spoke no English) that we would pay for the extra berth, so to have the whole room to ourselves).
Everything was looking good until the Vietnamese family showed up that had booked 3 of the beds in our compartment. It's now funny but at the time, it wasn't. The train was ready to depart and we were trying to find other compartments with room. Our 2 boys ended up staying in that original compartment with the family (who cooked and ate the entire time!!!) and my husband, daughter and I shared a compartment with 2 Swedish backpackers. Hubby was more than happy and the girls were happy to share with us as they could see we weren't about to start cooking. We drank the local beer (333) for 7 hours which definitely helped.
There was a much nicer train that left HCMC around 600PM but we chose the 1230PM departure so we could see the scenery. The windows were so dirty you couldn't really see much outside but it did provide us with lots to talk about on the rest of the trip!
If you do take any trains, make sure to pay the extra to get the bottom berths in a sleeping compartment. I think the girls said they paid the equivilant of $15USD for these lower berths...so a really cheap way of travelling.