Best laid plans of mice and men

When last I left you I was full of piss and vinegar with my procurement of a sleeper ticket to Lao Cai. I am revisiting this in order to continue my tale. Unfortunately I have to do it from memory as China very effectively blocks WeeDoo. It's obvious to me that I have been found out by the Comrade authorities and they are scared I will incite a revolution for freedom from their oppression.But back to the train.
Here I was just waiting for the train. I decided I would go in a little early, get my bag out of the locker and find the right loading platform. It was kind of funny but I noticed the clock at the platform gates was an hour ahead of my watch. Yup, you got it, Vietnam is an hour ahead of Cambodia and I had not to set my watch to the new time so I got to watch the red lights leave the station taking my highly prized sleeper with it.
Not all was lost however as an official seeing my delema said I might yet catch the train at the next stop at the other edge of the city.He offered to help but said I would have to buy a new ticket and the taxi was expensive.
So if I had to leave that night we could try. Having nothing else to do I was up for the challenge. A deal wass struck. 1,000,000 dong and away we went. This would cover the taxi new ticket and his time.
With little fanfare he commandeered a taxi and we sped of into the night of Hanoi in a race against time and train. I now know what it would be like to be giving birth and being rushed to the hospital. Around cars in the far lanes, through redlights. I think we did a couple of sidewalks at one point. The driver showed no fear and seemed to love the challenge but alas we arrived to redlights again.
Buddy who was helping me was reluctant to take any money since we had failed to beat the train but a cursory glance at the taxi meter showed in excess of 1,200,000 dong, so I forced buddy to accept 600,000 dong pay the driver and buy me a new ticket for Lao Cai on a soft seat not a sleeper since the next train was 6:48am the next day.
Buddy helped me find a hotel about 500 meters from the station and allowed me to handle negotiations for the room from 500,000 to 350,000. The hotel guy accepted but wasn't happy with these arrangements but showed me to my room and put a 5:30am wakeup call in the book.
Next morning at 6:20 he got his revenge knocking on the door and amusing himself watching me scramble out to race off 500 meters with bags barely straped on to the station to make my train leaving in 38 minutes.
Visions of red tail lights spurred me to herculean efforts and I managed to make my train. I think I would have just stayed in Hanoi and would probably be there still had I missed the train again.