‘A sharp, pungent smell I couldn't identify wafted into the carriage. Coupled with the rumbling, rocking motion of the train and the incessant clickety-clack, I found it easy to obey the number-one rule of Vietnamese train travel: whatever you do, don't eat any food off the trolley.
We'd departed Hue two hours earlier and still had another 13 hours to go till we arrived in Hanoi. Lining the tracks, vendors sold lukewarm Saigon special beer and jellied
