Train Street, Hanoi

Years ago I saw a video of a market in Thailand. Stall holders were rushing to move baskets of vegetables and brightly coloured tropical fruits from the train tracks, and pushing parasols and awnings back clearing a space for a train lumbering ever closer. With just seconds and centimetres to spare the train passes by the stalls. When the train has passed, the parasols, awnings, and baskets are all returned and the market returns to its former bustle. I love a spectacle and the strange and unusual, and if that can involve a market and a train, I'm in traveller heaven.

My memories of the video became murky with time, and in the end all I could remember was that it was somewhere in Asia, and that you end up very close to a train if you're there at the right time of day.

It was something I needed to experience.

Cut to Hanoi years later.

I'm walking back from the Australian Embassy where I had just voted in the Voice to Parliament referendum. I had read about Train Street in Hanoi before setting off on the trip, and knew it was somewhere on the way back from the embassy to the Old Quarter where I was staying. The articles I'd read online were vague. Was Train Street closed to tourists because someone had been hit by the train? Was it open again, but you needed to get tickets? Had all the cafes closed because of the risks that come with sitting mere centimetres from a moving train?

After a chat with a cafe owner at the entrance to Train Street, I was quickly guided to a seat, served a coffee, offered a commemorative cigarette lighter to buy, and told that the train was minutes away. It was at this point I realised that Train Street and the market in the video were different things. But I knew I was still in for a treat.

The coffee wasn't much more expensive than elsewhere in town, and just as good. Coffee in Vietnam is consistently fantastic, and if you get the chance to try a salted Vietnamese coffee you should jump on the opportunity.

Police moved quickly through the street, making sure everyone had a place to sit. Anyone without a seat was ushered out of Train Street. Then I could see the train approach. Raised voices from cafe owners urged people to sit down, and remain in their seats as the train came past. It is in their interest that Train Street remains open to tourists, so are understandably intolerant of tourists doing the wrong thing.

The train approached. Slowly, but in that clearly unstoppable way. Rails bending as each bogie rolled past, all within easy reach. Once the locomotive had passed, the noise was a consistent clunking interspersed with the occasional hiss of a leaking compressed air line.

I don't know how many carriages went past - I didn't think to count - but suddenly the train had passed, and all was quiet again. With no trains looming, we could walk down the centre of the train line and take in more of the gorgeous scene.

It wasn't what I'd seen in the video, but experiencing Hanoi's Train Street is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

Back in the hotel, and a few internet searches later and I found the video again. The market is Mae Klong Market in Bangkok, Thailand. I guess I know where I'm heading next...