Last Train to Hoi An

After our previous experiences on the buses we decided to use the train to go north. We spent sometime investigating the various trains, looking at websites etc and decided we needed to be on an "SE" and that as we were only travelling during the day a first class, airconditioned soft seat was our choice. Tickets bought we were at the station at 5am and the train duly arrived. However it seemed everyone on the platform was heading to our carriage! We were the last to board and found our allocated seats in the middle of the carriage. Half the carriage faces forward and half back and the middle seats face each other with a lot less leg room. We had scored the worse seats possible, we were the only non Vietnamese and we were the only ones not to eat at least one if not two meals from the food carts on the 8 hour journey. The bathrooms were another experience all together and if I had been even one size bigger would have been impossible. We arrived safely in Hoi An and made the decision that a longer train ride north to Hanoi was just not going to happen.