10-29 (Sunday) On the Reunification Express . . .Neither of us slept well last night. I was too cold and then too hot. I got the extra cover from the bunk above me. This morning the conductor reprimanded me for using it. It belonged to another bunk even though no one was there to use it! We were awake when the sun came up because the curtains fell off the window last night when we were trying to close them.They brought us a container of dry noodles for breakfast. I’m sure we could have gotten hot water to mix them with but we didn’t want them. We ate the snacks we brought with us, mostly M & M’s and other candy! It’s no wonder I’ve only lost 2 lbs on the trip! For lunch they gave us steamed rice, soup, beef with something in it and another unrecognizable veggie. Pass.A big crowd of Westerners got off in Hue. I got real excited thinking it might be Saigon. The conductor said, “No.” I asked what time we’d get to Saigon and he wrote on his hand, 4:30. Bummer. We were thinking we’d get there around 2 p.m.The scenery on this part of the journey was breathtaking: lush rice paddies, water buffalo chasing each other, quaint villages, and gorgeous mountains with the sea crashing onto giant rocks down below. We traveled in the mountains looking down on the coastline for a long, long time. It reminded me a little of S. Africa.This was undoubtedly the nosiest train I had ever been on and I’ve been on a lot. It was also the roughest ride. We thought we were going to be lulled to sleep last night – NOT! Our compartment must have been right on top of the wheels because we felt everything.At 4:45 p.m. it appeared we were getting near Saigon because the houses and shops started to build up. The train began slowing. We got all of our luggage out in the hall next to the exit. We went back in the compartment to wait when Joyce said, “You know, we haven’t been on the train 24 hours yet.” Oh horrors! We grabbed all of our luggage and hauled it back into the cabin. We knew the trip was no less than 27 hours but we were so anxious to get off that we believed we were almost there. It wasn’t long before they served Joyce’s birthday dinner: steamed rice, some green veggie, beef with what we thought was potatoes but turned out to be giant hunks of fat! Happy Birthday!We were finally over the shock of being another night on the train. We brushed our teeth and settled in for another night. We hadn’t been asleep long when the train stopped at some station around 11 p.m. Don’t you know a whole crowd got on and to make matters worse four people switched on the lights and came into our compartment. Thank goodness we had the two lower bunks. They crawled all over us and went to their places. Happy Birthday!We arrived in Saigon at 4:30 in the morning. We were dead tired. We got a taxi (paid too much) and went to the hotel. We had told them we were coming in the night before so we paid for the room even though we weren’t there. The good thing was that we could go into the room at 5 a.m. and shower and throw our stuff around. I fell asleep while I was waiting for Joyce to come out of the bathroom.We got ourselves together and went out to see the town. We walked down to the Notre Dame Church. Went to a big department store and walked down to the old palace to take a tour. It was closed for lunch! We went back to the hotel after eating some lunch to take a rest. We were pretty much out of it all day.That night we went out for a nice dinner at a place where Dinki and I had eaten when we were here last year. I bought Joyce her belated birthday dinner. She liked it much better than the globs of fat she had on the train the night before.

10-31 (Tuesday) dumped

After breakfast we headed out to Chinatown. Joyce wanted to do one thing and I wanted to tour the ancient Quoc Tu Pagoda plus see some of the other sights so we split up. I hired a cyclo to peddle me around to the various places. The driver and I agreed on 35000 for an hour. About half way through the trip he started telling me that he had four children and how poor he was. We were on our way back to where he picked me up and where Joyce was waiting when he started telling me I was going to owe him more money. I told him we had agreed on the price. He kept saying it wasn’t enough. I said “Fine, pull over right here and I’ll get out because I’m not giving you any more money.” He didn’t like it but he kept peddling. He started telling me again that I owed him more money. I said, “Stop.” And he did! I got out and handed him the 35000. He wouldn’t take it. I walked off. In a minute here he comes holding out his hand. I gave him the money. I started following him because I was sure he was going back to the market where he had picked me up. Of course in wasn’t any time before I lost sight of him. I had NO idea where I was. I stopped and asked some woman how long it would take me to walk to the market. She said 30 minutes. I was supposed to meet Joyce in about5 minutes so I hired a motorcycle to take me back. There was that Cyclo driver! Joyce was waiting for me. She said he came up to her and it sounded like he was saying something about medicine. She didn’t know he was my driver but she wondered if I had been in an accident. Several of his fellow drivers came up and asked me how much I gave him. I told them about the agreement and what he had done to me. They said, “He’s a very bad man.” I was furious at the time but later I thought it was really funny.

When we got back to District One (the main part of town) we went on a tour of the Presidential Palace. This is the one that the tanks ran through the gates when Saigon fell. Both tanks are on display on the grounds. The tour was so interesting. We saw where the President entertained, had cabinet meetings, the war rooms with all the original maps, the private quarters, the helicopter pad on the roof and the location where the pilot “spy” dropped two bombs on the palace. One of the most interesting parts was seeing the bunker way underground. We got to go all through it. The equipment (phones, teletype machines etc) all looked like it was from WW I instead of the 60’s. The kitchen was also very interesting with all the original equipment. The woks were HUGE.

That night we went to the historical Caravelle Hotel (9th floor) to the Saigon Bar Rooftop Café where all the foreign war correspondents used to hang out and drink. The view looking down on the city was breathtaking.