Comments on: China to Vietnam, By Land http://tochinaandbeyond.com/2010/01/china-vietnam-overland/ Inspiration and information for travelers to China, Asia and beyond. Fri, 11 May 2012 03:34:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Nolan Shaw http://tochinaandbeyond.com/2010/01/china-vietnam-overland/comment-page-1/#comment-1415 Nolan Shaw Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:00:50 +0000 http://www.tochinaandbeyond.com/wordpress/?p=730#comment-1415 Thanks for the concise and informative post, Jess. Found the site by accident a few days ago and only after a while realized I knew the author! I just want to chime in that the train is not always so empty. I just took the train last night (June 28, 2011) and it was nearly fully booked; I could only get a soft sleeper berth (228 RMB), which was fine with me, a little extra comfort does not hurt. I buddied up with four other travellers on the train in anticipation of taking a taxi in the morning from the train drop off at Gia Lam to the Old Quarter. The driver was willing to take RMB. He opened the price at 200 RMB. We got him down to 100 RMB, but he demanded 120 once he found out we were divided between two destinations. I later looked on google maps and found the distance to be a mere 5.5 km, so I think he made a killing off the 120. But for us splitting it four ways and getting the ride at 5 in the morning, it was tolerable. By comparison, a metered taxi in Beijing at 5am for a 5.5km ride would be no more than 30 RMB, if that. Thanks for the concise and informative post, Jess. Found the site by accident a few days ago and only after a while realized I knew the author!

I just want to chime in that the train is not always so empty. I just took the train last night (June 28, 2011) and it was nearly fully booked; I could only get a soft sleeper berth (228 RMB), which was fine with me, a little extra comfort does not hurt.

I buddied up with four other travellers on the train in anticipation of taking a taxi in the morning from the train drop off at Gia Lam to the Old Quarter. The driver was willing to take RMB. He opened the price at 200 RMB. We got him down to 100 RMB, but he demanded 120 once he found out we were divided between two destinations. I later looked on google maps and found the distance to be a mere 5.5 km, so I think he made a killing off the 120. But for us splitting it four ways and getting the ride at 5 in the morning, it was tolerable. By comparison, a metered taxi in Beijing at 5am for a 5.5km ride would be no more than 30 RMB, if that.

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