The GCW Tour, Vietnam: Further Evidence, Not That Anyone Needs It, That Timing Is Everything

First, the good news: neither Sib2 nor I were injured in a crash involving the night train from Hanoi.

Now, the bad news: the engineer on the following night's train was killed, and four passengers sent to the hospital, when a truck driver carrying a load of rocks stopped on the tracks and the train plowed into him. The front of the engine was torn away, and the first three passenger cars derailed.

We found out about this when we took a driving tour of the DMZ which required us to drive back north along the railway. About ten miles north of the city there was equipment in all sorts of weird configurations and a ton of people milling around. We were wondering what was going on when we got to the point where we could see the mangled train cars. 

Later we asked our tour guide about it and she'd seen the story on the news, and so provided the details I've shared above. Sib2 also found the story on the Internet.

Likely as not we would've been fine, as we were in the ninth car on the train, but it's still incredibly weird to think how different this trip would have been if we'd elected to spend one more day on the bikes. 

And so sad to think about everyone whose trips -- and lives -- were impacted by the accident.