Overnight hard sleeper to Hekou is Y105, arrives 6AM.

Theres this saying Chinese/Asian people do not have a smell of sweaty armpits. Might be true?

They do however have smelly feet. Now, how does this relate to the night train.

Bring a MP3 player with Dylan songs from 60's as well, they filter the loud snoring.

Apart from this, and toilets, night train is OK.

The train is perhaps for those who are not so damn picky and think airplanes emit too much crap into the air. I can sleep on them fairly well. The picky ones usually can't/don't/desire not to adapt well and will never be able to be happy here.

Anyway, there are day trains as well - cheaper, I think, but the advantage of the night train is that you arrive at 6AM and can go into Viet Nam the same day, without having to worry about the train being too late for the border.

A good way to adapt is to do it local way, bring a bottle of 红星二锅头白酒, (thats the cheap green bottle) a packet of 春城香烟 cigs, and playing cards. Works very well. Picky ones wont adapt this way either, they got their Wenlin streets. Nobody took adaptation as far as the American Taleban, John Walker Lindh. He deserves his song.

For a train leaving Kunming at 10: 46 at night, 'the local way' is usually to go to sleep.

Last time I took the night train from Hekou to kunming lights were shut off at 23:30 and anyways everyone got to sleep directly

Was actually pretty quite for a hard sleeper train, had a good night's sleep ;)

Recommend to take the lower bunks as the upper ones only have limited space, will bump your head every time you try to get up haha

Best book your train at local train ticket office, spread around kunming almost everywhere. Just have to pay a 5rmb fee and don't forget to bring your passport. They are by the way mostly official train ticket offices.

@Peter99. If you want quiet, no smells, then get sleeper car 4 or 3. It's practically empty in there.

@Alien. Bring an umbrella. You got to kill 2 hours till border opens, and Hekou sees early morning rain pretty common. A tasty noodle shop across from the post office near border is open then.