Hue to Nha Trang

Today was a 12 hour day train along the coast. The scenery was nice, but the AC in the train is another story. Some people just don't get how AC works. If you leave the doors open between cars, you are going to let the heat in. Easy as that! Also the smokers go into the connecting sections and never close the doors. You might as well smoke in the cabins. Dahrrrrrr! There was also a mean little boy sitting in front of me, maybe 2 years old. I could tell from eye contact and body motions that he would a be a little problem. He winged a juice box across the train at the ladies sitting next to me with no remorse. Mom? Well, she did nothing.

He was also fascinated with flipping the head covers on the seats back over to us in the back. I let it go for a while, but then had the idea to flip them back at him. Nice. Good job Garner! Now he is pissed and will keep doing it over and over. As I write, he is also trying to type on the iPad from between the seats. I guess i should switch to the present tense, since this is all happening right now. Let me get a pic of him.

Oh yeah, I think he messed his pants too by the smell in here.

To take my mind off things, I am listening to my favorite music as I type. That would be Cuban music from the Buena Vista Social Club. Somehow, I can't ease this pain. Writing is helping, a little. Well, now he just jacked himself on the window and is crying his eyes out. I hope he doesn't take his anger out on me or the iPad. Now he is roaming the aisle, finger in mouth. From the looks of things, there is not a clean thing around here. Should I just hose him down in antibacterial hand wash? From the food poisoning or E. Coli we have been fighting, you gotta do something. Geeeeeze! Take him to the bathroom, he smells horrible.

As I write, the entire car is filled with Vietnamese people. We are the only white people, and for sure the only Americans on the whole train. Besides being unaware of their trash and the door shutting, they are very nice. The ladies next to me, you know the ones that got hit by the juice box, offered me some fruit. I kindly declined. My stomach is still not right and might take weeks to recover at this pace. The food cart keeps coming up that aisle selling what is pretty much street food. The little monster in front of me having a tantrum.

Wait!!! He stopped. The "end all" child soother has caught his attention. No, not a sucking pacifier. The TV. This might get better.

Nope, that lasted 1 minute. Now he is blowing his puke smell at me and playing with the head things again. Oh! And hitting my iPad. I am just waiting for the juice box.

I put the iPad away for a few minutes and now he has just peed on Katherine's foot. Great! Mom is doing nothing about it. Katherine has gone to the bathroom to wash her leg and sandal. Lovely! Now I think he is breast feeding. Can this get any better? This doesn't look like a wild beast from the forest, but just another city rider on the train. Yup, I looked. Breast feeding. Go ahead and load him up for another round of urine, maybe he will puke.

Katherine is now standing in the aisle and we have 6 more hours on this train.

Wait! The train has just stopped. Mom just spit a huge one on the ground and is rubbing it in with her foot. Little animal has his toy car and the ladies across from me are watching this all. The mom/son are getting off at this stop. The seat is soaked, lugey is on the floor and they are leaving. Nice, but who will take their seats? Will the ladies help notify someone?

No. No help. I tried to tell the next people boarding that the seat had a problem. The ladies just sat there. Surely we can find something to clean this up so the other lady and daughter don't have to sit in it. Nope. Squish!

Now for all of you that are thinking, "he doesn't have children, and doesn't know what it's like." I don't think you can call this normal. I am just stating what has been done on the train and presenting our situation. I think we might have just found a nominee for "mother of the year."

Things got a little better. The sun went down and the train cooled off. There was even a James Bond movie on the TV. I was now "soothed."

We arrived at the train station and walked to the hotel. They were waiting for us and walked us up to a lovely room. This was a long day.

 

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