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This train car turned out to be just like the Russian ones, but significantly newer and cleaner. I was very happy to find that the bathroom at the other end of the car had a western toilet, unlike the one I used for the first 12 hours.
When I arrived at my cabin, it was filled to the roof with boxes. There was another passenger in the same boat. She was Shin, a Korean student studying in China and now travelling. Amazingly, she could speak Chinese and English. This would make the first contact we had on this whole trip with someone who could translate. She asked them to remove the boxes. To emphasize this, I started heaving the boxes out into the hallway. Eventually the owners moved them away, with the conductors pushing them on. I wasn't worried about this because I knew they would be out of our way, if I had to move them all out myself. They said they were done, but I pushed them and insisted that they also clear the floor, the table, and the upper storage space. I again had to remove a box myself to drive this point home.
Once the boxes were shifted, it turned out the owners had both bottom bunks on the cabin. After things settled down, we were social and we all got along just fine. They were a couple from Hanoi who were obviously traders.
This leg of the journey was two nights and one day. We stopped in Guilin so I was able to snap a few photos of the famous pointy mountains that could be seen from the train. We also stopped in Nanning where we were forced off the train for less than an hour to wait in a first class lounge. It looked like they were rearranging the train cars.
Chinese emigration officials came on the train before our debarkation stop to stamp our passports out of China. No problems for me this time. Four hours before Hanoi we arrived at the border. We all got off the train with all of our baggage (the trader couple had boys in other cabins who were brought along to lug all their boxes). The process was confused and complicated, though simple and painless compared to Russian procedures. One uniformed official stands in the middle of a large busy room and directs people to various booths in different corners: customs, immigration, quarantine inspection (which included the guy sticking something in our ears), the ticket counter (where the lady changes all our seat assignments for the next train), and the food counter/currency exchange rip-off lady. Again, no specific problems for me this time.
I don't think the next train going from the border to Hanoi ever exceeded 30 km/h, and eventually we arrived about 2.5 hours behind schedule, the first late train on the whole trip. At the Hanoi station, I argued rates with taxi drivers for a while and then gave up and took a moto-taxi to the hotel for 10,000 Dong, or less than $1 US.
Eric - from Hanoi
Stepping into the Sofitel Metropole Hotel completed Phase II of Surface Travel. This is where Kevin and I had stayed at the end of Phase I. The hotel was as nice as ever.
There were some changes in Hanoi since I was last there:
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much higher ratio of motorcycles to bicycles now
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10 times as many tourists
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more spoken English available now
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while the vendors are still the most aggressive in SE Asia, they are less so now than before
It was great to be back in South East Asia again, and Hanoi was as pleasant as last time. Highlights included the "world famous" Water Puppet Show, and walking around the old quarter.
Eric - from London