The Reunification Express is a railway network that runs down the entire length of Vietnam.
It's one of the most popular modes of transport in the country
due to being an excellent way to take in the stunning scenery while you travel.
The railway network spans all the way from Ha Noi North to Ho Chi Minh in the south,
which consequently is the journey that we'll be taking today.
The line covers over 1,700 kilometers,
and stops at multiple major cities along the route,
including Hue, which we spent 24 hours in only a week ago: click this video.
Originally built during the French colonial period in the early 20th century,
it was then known as the Indo China railway and was primarily used for transporting goods.
After Vietnam gained independence,
the railway was renamed the north-south railway and was used for both goods and passenger transportation.
And on this fine day, it takes me!
This is the Reunification Express in Vietnam.
I am currently in Hanoi, it's 6 am,
and I'm gonna arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, on the opposite side of the country.
I'm about to spend 35 hours on this train,
and this is my last challenge.
This train is made up of 9 cars, I'm on car 8, which is this one.
We should jump on and go see what the room looks like,
because I'm going to be spending a lot of time there, 35 hours.
Alright, let's have a look.
Okay, this is my room for the next 35 hours.
I've gone for a bottom bunk because in my experience,
bottom bunks are usually better because it's darker,
so if the lights come on during the night when I'm trying to sleep,
and you feel the wobble less,
but I don't know if there's going to be much wobble on the train compared to the bus.
I mean, it'll do! I don't know what this is.
It's got a towel rack, hooks, a net for some reason.
Pillow, blanket comes with the train.
We do have aircon, which is great. Not very powerful.
It's really cold at this time in the morning in Hanoi.
So what I've booked is a first class soft sleeper, I believe.
There was a few different classes to choose from.
There was hard seats which is apparently like just benches,
and there's soft seats, and there's hard sleeper, which is hard beds but with 6 people to a bunk,
and then there's the soft sleeper, which is the most expensive one I could get,
and this cost me I think 59 pounds or around that.
But now we're just waiting for the train to leave, it should leave in 25 minutes.
So far no bunk mates, let's see what happens.
And because I knew I was going to be on here for such a long time,
three bahn mi and an entire snack bag.
I think food is included. Just in case, I have a backup.
We are moving, the cabin is empty.
Alright, some music has just started playing very loudly.
Also noticed some lovely, lovely cigarette burns.
I really hope I don't get a smoker in here,
that would be probably the worst thing that could happen on this train.
It's officially 6:10.
I'll arrive at 5:10 tomorrow evening.
Let's start the countdown: 35 hours exactly until we arrive in Ho Chi Minh.
Fingers crossed no delays.
I saw something small and black run across the bottom of this floor.
It's either a mouse or a cockroach, and I really hope it's a cockroach,
because I don't want to be dealing with mice.
Wow.
First snack of the train.
6:30, breakfast time: bacon and an egg sandwich.
Very average.
After breakfast, it was time to lay down and try and catch some z's,
but suddenly, I'm briefly interrupted by mother and daughter combo coming into the cabin.
The girl kept laying down and staring at me while I was trying to take a nap,
and I thought this might be the end of me having a private room.
But actually, they got off after two or three stops and I'm alone again.
The train worker came in to fix the bed, so I assume I have more roommates coming.
I put my camera away because I'm trying to take a nap.
I can smell smoke already.
It's been 35 minutes and someone can't hold off smoking.
Oh well.
All right guys, fancy seeing you here, welcome back to the train.
It's now almost 9:45 so I've been on here for 3 hours and 45 minutes.
This time in, I think it's time for a toilet tour.
I'm going to show you what the toilet looks like on a first class sleeper train.
Let's go to the toilet.
All right, it's pretty loud out here, but the toilet is found on the connecting carriages.
It's this!
Okay, this is the tiny little water closet.
I mean, it is what it is. It's not too bad, I've seen worse.
At least it's a western toilet.
I haven't seen one of these little cleaning rules things since I left the UK.
It's not very common in Southeast Asia.
Sink.
Honestly, there's not a lot going on on this train.
I'm probably just gonna chill out now, eat a bahn mi,
and then a little bit later, we can explore the train.
I don't know what there is to see, I don't know if there's a food carriage.
I'm gonna try and get into some of the other rooms so maybe I can show you what the seats look like,
I'll show you what the other sleepers look like.
For now I've got another - you know - 31 hours to do that.
I'll see you guys a bit later.
Yeah, that thing I saw running around the floor this morning,
like the black thing, it's not a cockroach, it's a mouse.
But it's okay, I just watched it go out the corner of the door down there.
There are also plugs if you need plugs.
I also realized that this is actually a step.
In all honesty, being alone on the train was a tad boring.
I was trying to occupy myself with looking out the window,
but the condition of the window made it actually pretty difficult to see outside.
I did a lot of fiddling around in the room,
a lot of laying down on my phone or eating.
The train stopped a few times, but slowly the time crept by.
I just felt pretty lucky I didn't have any more roommates yet.
Alright, so it's now after midday.
It's 12:15. I've been on this train for over 6 hours now,
which means that's 29 hours left.
This cabin has actually been empty since that family got off earlier,
so I've been here alone for like two and a half hours, almost three hours now.
I think it's about time that we went to explore around the train, hey.
But I'm very very conscious about being a solo traveler on this train
with a very expensive camera.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to switch to the phone instead
and go incognito on this bitch.
Alright, let's go.
We're on the move again, which means no more new friends in my cabin.
I wonder if it'll be like this all the way to Ho Chi Minh, I doubt it.
I mean, we still got 28 hours, someone's got to turn up at that point.
Well, I hope you like that little train tour, we saw lots of things.
This is obviously the full bed soft sleeper, I showed you the six bed hard sleeper,
and then the soft chairs at the front, which is only one cabin.
But now I'm gonna go back to what I was doing before: absolutely nothing!
No, I'm trying to be very conscious about the fact that I only have 4 GB of internet.
I get that a day, which is great, so it resets at midnight.
But you know, I'd like to watch something before I go to sleep tonight.
So instead I'm reading a book, I found a book online,
so I don't I have no idea what I'm gonna do, this train is kind of boring.
I ate my chicken bahn me this morning, I only have cheese and ham left.
Almost 1:45 in the afternoon.
I'm trying to eat all of the bahn mis today because they're not like sealed or anything,
and if I leave them too long, they're gonna go stale.
Wafer time.
So in my research, I watched YouTubers on this train before I came.
I watched Lloyd and Mandy, I watched The Passport Couple.
And they got food in their rooms while they were on the train.
So far, I've technically been here for breakfast and lunch: no food yet,
so I don't know if that's because they specifically booked like the jewel VIP private room,
but I'm glad I stocked up because otherwise I would be getting very hungry.
But in case you were wondering what I did bring, let's do a grocery haul.
So I went to the tried and tested Circle K ,
and I got myself two big bag of chips,
two baked pain au chocolat,
two big bottles of water (one's behind you),
two of these packets of wafers.
Again, one's open behind you.
Two sticks of Oreos, I like Oreos,
and I also got a sandwich which I've eaten from Circle K,
and three bahn mi, again, two of which I've already eaten.
So I have a fair amount to keep me going.
I don't know if it's a meal though, like it's more of a snack.
I was kind of hoping a little bit for food on this train.
Alright, well,
it's now 2 pm,
I'm gonna go back to reading my book!
Still completely empty.
Just a cabin to myself, no complaints here.
I'll go back to reading my book.
Not that we had like announcement to say that we're coming into a station or anything.
This is just genuinely how slow the train is moving right now.
No wonder it takes 35 hours!
The views out the window were great, but at this point,
boredom was really starting to get to me and maybe turned me a little bit crazy.
During this next few hours, a Vietnamese guy joined my cabin,
let's call him Fred,
and not long after, some backpackers arrived.
My cabin was now feeling a bit crowded and a bit busy.
Fred went ahead and treated himself to some dinner from the trolley cart.
He looks like he's enjoying it very much.
And then I realized we just hit a time milestone.
Alright, we reached less than 24 hours left!
It's 6:20,
and I'm getting close to bed time, I think. Trying to sleep straight. away
after a few more hours of chilling, it's time to head to the nice sink and brush my teeth.
Feeling refreshed, I headed back to the cabin to get some shut eye for the night.
After my freshening up of the old teeth and putting on some deodorant so I don't smell,
the train guy came in to give Fred his change and now the entire cabin is awake.
So one of the backpackers headed off to look or his own breakfast and came back with...
I snapped a pain of chocolat in half to find no chocolate, how disappointing,
and Fred promptly gets back to checking out the views.
My new friends and I sat around the table and passed the time by just chatting really,
and Fred was trying to capture the view.
But then Fred did something unforgivable.
Fred just took my rubbish bag away that I've been using his entire trip.
I mean, I would have thrown away at the end anyway but I still got stuff to eat!
My new friends unfortunately had to disembark around 10:50 am.
- How was your first bus experience? - Oh it was amazing!
Yeah? Bye!
They were only on the train for about 14 hours,
and then it was just me and Fred again, and his wife,
who he was FaceTiming.
An empty panel chocolate later and we had some new cabin mates join us for the last leg of the journey.
Around 1pm, Fred ordered himself some lunch,
and I had a big bag of crisps.
All right, this is getting a little bit boring now for me and probably for you as well,
so let's speed run the next four hours.
The views are amazing, Fred ordered four giant cans of something,
I played on my phone some more, my new cabin mate looked a little bit bored,
I hit the one hour mark until we arrive.
More views out the window, Fred got dressed and then left.
Look, there goes forever. See you next time!
I was sad Fred was gone.
The bored guy took Fred's bed immediately after he left.
The views of civilization as we entered Ho Chi Minh City felt great,
and then the finish line approached.
My leftover cabin mates wore bicycle helmets,
and then we left the train, finally.
After 35 hours.
And with that, I survived a 35-hour train journey.
I never thought I'd do that in my life.
I am back in Ho Chi Minh City, south of Vietnam,
where I started this journey
three weeks ago. What a fitting place to round up the trip!