They’d NEVER get away with this at home!! How often do you do a double take, on your travels, at those iffy situations and locations you find yourself in.
I do feel, at times, that we have lost the plot here with Health and Safety – protective fences and barricades, handrails everywhere, safety notices at every turn….. All for good reason, I acknowledge – with so many idiots pursuing civil claims due to their own negligence ( I know – not everybody… but you know what I mean!).
So I’m trying – and failing miserably – to visualise Hanoi’s TRAIN STREET here in Dublin!
It’s not so much the train line itself as what has developed around it. After all, it IS merely an ongoing regular train service running through the city. No big deal about that!
The single track line was built by the French in 1902, connecting Hanoi to Saigon. Sometime in the 1950’s, buildings were constructed along the line in central Hanoi for railway workers and their families. This was a tough neighbourhood – but unremarkable – right up until 2013 when an couple of enterprising travel guides organised a local photography tour including the trains and Train Street. The published photos attracted a lot of interest and caught the attention of the TV Travel Channels. A trickle of visitors became a flood – then along came Instagram!!
By 2017, the local residents were in on the act – converting their cramped houses into cafes and lining the route with chairs and stools. To be fair to the Authorities, they did react when train drivers started reporting near misses and emergency stops on the tracks. The first ordered closures and erected barriers occurred in 2019. Enforcement has fluctuated since then with periodic clampdowns – travel agencies have been instructed not to include Train Street in their itineraries while the cafes seem to temporarily comply only to reopen and continue on as normal!
Our visit to Train Street…
Our first morning in Vietnam included a city tour of Hanoi and our guide, as we drove over a section of track, mentioned that the train passed through at 3.00pm. We decided we’d offer up our first – and only! – afternoon in Hanoi to go back for the spectacle.
We arrived back about 2.45pm to find barriers manned by police who were never going to let us through. The train was due at 4.00pm apparently – so much for our tour guide!! We were approached by several women offering us seating at their shops. With the deep suspicion and distrust of new arrivals we shunned their advances – to be honest, we didn’t really know what they were saying (lost in translation!)
A couple of tourists directed us around the corner and a few hundred yards along the street to the next junction. This was better – now we could see the scene – stools and chairs lined along the side of the track and those already seated enjoying their beverage of choice. Of course we were going to pay ridiculous money for the privilege but hey – it’s warm, we can sit down and we’re more than ready for our first Hanoi beers! (which were still far cheaper than home!!)
The atmosphere was great – lots of chat and banter. Nobody doing anything silly or dangerous – everyone just loving the fact that they are actually there. The cafe owners kept an eye out that no one sat too close to the edge. You actually had to admire them – building something out of nothing! As 4.00pm approaches, police move nearby barriers to stop pedestrians crossing the tracks.
And suddenly its here.
For some absurd reason (never having watched any YouTube clips!) I’d assumed the train would pass by relatively slowly! Eh – NO! It shrieks past – noise, wind, heat, vibration – and in 30 seconds it’s gone! Nothing left but a cheering crowd with beaming faces!
All of us wishing we could do it all again tomorrow!
What a great experience
It really was! We almost gave up on it when we discovered we’d have to wait around for another hour but we all (6 of us) really enjoyed the experience.
Great storytelling of the fun and insanity of Train Street! We were there back in about 2017 before any of the barricades, stools, and cafes were in place. Back in the old days, there were vendors selling produce within inches of the tracks, and the train was a clunker as I recall, nothing like the one in your photo! Your post brought back some happy memories – thank you.
I can’t believe the whole thing only took off in 2013!! I actually think the stools and cafes added to the experience for us… there was a great build up of anticipation….
Oh my goodness!! I don’t think I’d be brave enough to be that close.
Maybe it was the part of the street we were on but there was lots of room on both sides of the track – no one was in any danger unless they did something daft… YOu’d be well able for it, Lissy!!
A great description of the experience in addition to your photos that really capture the scene well! We had the same experience of visiting in the morning with a guide and took lots of photos, but unlike you we didn’t manage to get back there in the afternoon as our tour went on too long. I wish now we’d persuaded our guide to break off the tour so we could experience this! If ever we go back to Hanoi …
It took up a lot of our time – with the result we never even got to see the Old Quarter in daylight – so we’ll have to head back there too!!! We got a great kick out of it so it was well worth doing….
It’s crazy isn’t it, we found it quite a stressful experience – but when in Rome and all that! 🙂
Ah no – that’s such a pity. We were a bit flustered when we arrived and couldn’t work out what the scene was and where we should go and were very reluctant to head off with any of the women because we couldn’t see where we were headed and they were vague about what we’d have to spend for the privilege. Once we found another way in, we’d lots of time to pick a place and enjoy a drink…. so overall it worked out great for us…
Wow!
That’s what we said!!!!
You know, I live about 50 yards from an old railway track. Well it’s been dismantled since 1990-ish. But the shaking alone back then was enough to be thankful we weren’t any closer. Cannot imagine my home butted up that close to the track! Your post definitely gave me food for thought!
My pal lives about a mile from me here – beside a commuter train line. I can never get used to the noise of it when I’m in her kitchen. Of course, she doesn’t hear a thing at this stage. Mind you, her’s was a new build and back from the track but the train trundles through the city centre and very close to some very old properties…
Great post about one of the “iffy” travel experiences. I’ve encountered several of those along the way. Will have to make blog fodder out of the next one!
If we dwell on these things too much we’d never leave home!!! The joys of travel!!
Sounds a little too close for comfort! Glad to hear that there weren’t any idiots doing silly or stupid things.
No – it felt very safe and everyone was tthere to have a good time thankfully
So it obviously passes through only occasionally? One can plan for that a bit easier. I’m not sure Dublin’s LUAS is much safer (though the streets are a bit wider). Never mind Cork’s equivalent which, like the fabled Event Centre, I doubt we’ll see in my lifetime 🙂
Definitely more incidents on the LUAS, Roy!!! And never mind Cork!!! I’m awaiting a metro from the airport to Dublin city centre – it’s a disgrace in this day and age! In my lifetime??? Not looking like it!!!
There’s an episode of the Mighty Trains show that has a train in Vietnam that goes right through a street market. People with stalls along the tracks pull all their stuff back when a train is due and then put it back out over the tracks as soon as it passes by. It’s possible that could be another section of this same track. Or it could be somewhere else.
It probably is the same track – maybe a different section – I didn’t see any traders on the track. I do remember though – in Peru- we were at the back of a train and as we passed through a town, the track filled in behind us with tables, chairs and traders – I think there was only one or two trains per day so I suppose it was good use of the track!!!