“Kunming-Hanoi, Monday, June 19th 1939. Everybody yesterday talked about how lucky I was to get a seat on the “Michelin”. It was partly luck but I wouldn’t have gotten the seat unless I had gone to the station personally and had a look myself at the seat plan and discovered those two vacant places. I was up at 5 o’clock and the dejeuner was very petit as it con- sisted only of bread, butter and coffee. They had told me the train would leave at 6:30 but I found out that it was the bus that was to leave at that time. Eigner went with me as he was going to Hanoi by the slow train that left a half hour later.

I didn’t know what the “Michelin” really was until I got aboard. It is a big motor bus that was on the railway tracks – about the size of a Greyhound bus at home, but not so comfortable. one thing that struck me especially was the tinted glass in the windows that not only kept out the glare but actually made the colors of the landscape more vivid. I would have been just as happy with a little glare and a little better upholstery but I wonder why railways at home have not adopted this kind of glass.”