“Quick, quick, quick, we have to get to the train track in time, quick, quick, quick!!!”
Those were the words spoken by our fab guides Jane and D, on our first full day in Hanoi. “Yeah, yeah, ok, what’s the rush?” As a group we had no concept of what to expect, a small tractorized train we see in many European resorts, a narrow-gauge railway…..we really didn’t get it.
As we turned into the street where we were to wait for the train, we found a narrow bustling street, totally overshadowed by full-size railway lines.
Businesses were open on either side of the tracks, alongside people’s houses. There was a definite French colonial feel to many of the buildings, reinforcing the previous French ownership of the country.
We stopped at a cafe for our first experience of iced coconut coffee, whilst loitering on the tracks, taking obligatory photos for the album.
The cafe owner emptied a couple of bags on the tracks, full of cans and bottles. Initially I thought that he was putting them there to get the train to crush them, but within a minute a lady turned up on her bike and started sifting through it, sorting them to recycle and sell. This was obviously a daily event that happened. She put them all into some order in her own bags draped around her bike, then set off again down the tracks to the next collection point.
Suddenly whistles blew and everyone jumped into action, pulling their wares in from outside their shops, grabbing their children inside, and the cafe owners insisted on us standing away from the track, as the train was coming…..
Nothing had us prepared us for what was about to happen, a full-sized train thundered past within a breath of us, not what we were expecting at all! The surprise made it all the more spectacular. As soon as the train had passed, normality continued as if it never had happened, apparently, this happens twice a day. Just another day in Hanoi on Train Street.
It turns out that the single track metre gauge railway that runs through the narrow streets of Hanoi, is the principal line connecting Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city in the South, a total of 1726 km. It is known as the Reunification Express, built by the French in 1936. during that time it has been bombed, abandoned and rebuilt and then started again in 1976 just after the war as a celebration of the new country.
It is possible to ride the Express, it takes 36 hours, although many people take longer by hopping on and off on the way.
One of the small businesses on Train Street
The sign at the cafe – made us feel very welcome!!
Should you ever find yourself in Hanoi this is a must!
This blog is dedicated to my dear father David Flather: had he been around before I had travelled to Hanoi, he would have told me all about the train, its timetable, the menu in the carriages and probably the colour of the driver’s underpants!!
Rambling With Ruthie 