In April 2012, I was finishing roughly hour 13 of the 15 hour exhausting journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang, when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw this little boy slide open the berth door to take a closer look at me. His playfulness was infectious. For the remainder of the journey he and I played peek-a-boo, hide-and-seek, and flew paper airplanes down the narrow cabin before I sent him back to his mother with coconut candy in hand.

I promise to write more, soon, about both Vietnam as well as that train journey.