Does someone know the web adress of the rail company of Vietnam or any other adress where we can find out about routes and prices. Thanks

eva-- <BR> <BR>not the site of vn's rail company, but one which contains schedules anyway: <BR> <BR>http://www.indochina-services.com/cg...ces/trains.cgi <BR> <BR>pls note that these schedules are highly optimistic, esp in typhoon/rainy season, when flooding on tracks can add hours and hours of delay. even in the best circumstances i wd expect delays, given that the system runs on a single track, so that northbound trains must wait at stations for 'expresses' and southbound trains to pass and vice versa. <BR> <BR>i heard that the system has finally gotten new railcars, and wd be interested to know if anyone has firsthand experience on them. the old trains had difficult toilet conditions even in first class, and no showers. baggage safety is a real issue and u must guard ur belongings at all times. since trains are the major means of north-south travel for vnese, very few of whom can afford to fly, the cheaper cars are so stuffed w/ passengers that at least when i traveled in 1996 and 97, many wd string up hammocks and roll out mats in the hallways of the air-conditioned first-class cars to sleep. <BR> <BR>if u're an adventurous traveler, i wd recommend the trains only for short distances between cities, and fly the longer distances. the trains are a much better way to meet local people.

Thanks Mari, unfortunately there is not very much info to find, even at that webpage. How do people book their trains in advance? Thanks Eva

eva-- <BR> <BR>i don't know how people book in advance except to go to the train station and buy a tkt. u cd just do this when u arrive. there is another site, www.viet-nam.net, which seems to be a japanese service w/ vnese liaisons that offers to arrange and purchase train tkts in advance for visiting foreigners, but i don't know if they're reputable. u might also try doing a search for and contacting diethelm travel in bangkok, which arranges a lot of southeast asia travel for foreigners. <BR> <BR>as i said, train travel is mainly for vnese, unlike air travel, which is favored by foreigners. so whereas even in the mid-90s the vn air reservation system was computerized, the train system was not. u really did have to go to the station, ck availability and purchase tkts, and the clerks wd ck their charts and write out receipts by hand. i really hope they've upgraded their system. <BR> <BR>a couple more notes for u, eva, since u seem very interested in traveling by train: make sure u get the 'soft bed' air-conditioned option. this is a country where many people sleep on mats on floors, so 'hard bed' will be something like a wooden platform, and even soft means a flimsy mattress. don't even consider 'hard or soft seat.' it's interesting, bc u'd be traveling w/ vnese people carting everything up to and including live chickens, but on slow delayed trains this can make the trip interminable. i booked nha trang-hue in oct 96 when the planes were full, and what was supposed to be 8 hrs turned into 16 bc of flooding. we crawled thru towns where people were rowing themselves across streets in aluminum tubs. power was out much of the time, so it was sweltering. <BR> <BR>finally, if u do end up on the train, can u let us know how it was?

Thanks Mari, <BR> <BR>IŽm sure it will be an interesting experience if we make it with the train. Have been on trains before in Thailand. Hopefully weŽll find a decent way to find out. if weŽll do it IŽll talk about it when we get back. Thanks again for the infos. Eva