Sharing a train compartment in Vietnam

Old Aug 5th, 2007, 06:43 PM
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Sharing a train compartment in Vietnam

Hi, we're a family of 4 heading off to Vietnam in September. We're planning on catching the overnight train from Hanoi to Danang and were thinking of booking two whole sleeping compartments (8 beds) so that we can fit all our luggage in and not have the kids worry about sharing a compartment with strangers.
I've read on seat61.com that the Vietnamese rail workers will stick people in with you even if you've booked all the beds if they know you're not using them all. Is this true? Can anyone provide first hand experience?
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Old Aug 5th, 2007, 06:51 PM
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I can understand how you feel about not wanting to share but it ain't that bad sharing. I've shared with strangers in India and Vietnam and had no problems.
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Old Aug 5th, 2007, 07:06 PM
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Why not just book the one compartment, if it has four beds? Will you have so much luggage?

If you only have the four beds, you won't have to worry about the kids and strangers (and I'd put one adult with one kid anyway..not two kids on their own).
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Old Aug 5th, 2007, 07:06 PM
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Cilla, thanks for your reply. We don't really have a big problem with the idea of sharing and if we have to, so be it. My question was more about whether we'd be wasting our money to buy 8 tickets if we weren't going to get the benefit attached to them.
Lcuy, the compartments are very small and we'll have 4 large suitcases with us so I think it'd be quite a squeeze. Admittedly only for a few hours but if we can spread out a bit I think we'd all enjoy it more. Thanks, P'chook.
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Old Aug 5th, 2007, 07:19 PM
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There is no way in the world you will keep 4 empty beds to yourself on the Reunification Express, even if you book them. We did with two families of 3 - so two compartments. The extra person in our friends' compartment invited 4 people in to sit on his bunk.

We had had the loveliest guy in our compartment. He was the first Cambodian doing a post grad course in Tourism. I still remember my daughter (11 at the time) and him playing cards on the top bunks.
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Old Aug 6th, 2007, 05:47 AM
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I'm very very new in this forum and this is my first post. I'm working in tourism in VN so I know about your question.
You can't book the train ticket for sure actually because you will need to pay immediately to get your seat on the train, so you should have some one to buy your ticket. For a familly of 4, you need 1 cabin with 4 berths, if you want 2 cabin instead, then of course, pay for 2 cabin, and actually, you should have some one of the familly to keep an eye on the cabin for lugguage. With the price of 2 cabins, it turns out that travelling by train is more expensive than flying. And honestly speaking, the part from Ha Noi to Da nang is not worth 16 hours on train. Strongly recommend flight Ha Noi - Hue, then take a private car Ha Noi - Hoi An enroute Hai Van Pass, stop over in China Beach, then headed to Hoi An. Flight Hoi An - Nha Trang then take train Nha Trang - Sai Gon, or take a train Da NAng - Sai Gon.. go for day train, views are nice.
Just feel free to ask, I'm really happy if I can help with anything.
Vinci is offline  
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