Prior to our arrival into Hanoi, we’d been discussing with the Hanoi Private Free Tours on the itinerary, and one place I was particularly interested in is Train Street. This famous if not especially long stretch of about 100 meters features an active train track with trains still operating on it at scheduled timings, and rows of shop houses and cafes on either side. In short, not too different from what we visited in Shifen @ Taiwan in 2018. The street was apparently closed to tourists from 2019 and only re-opened in January 2023 this year after pandemic restrictions ended and tourists returned.
Our two guides looked up the train timings and recommended that we observe the 11:30AM train that would be going through the street. We got to the location 20 minutes before that time, settled into a nice spot of a home-operated cafe, and ordered drinks for all of us while we waited. The actual train whizzing past us is just a short roughly 90 second thing, but it’s exhilarating to be so near a large train. There are also several locals patrolling the area to make sure that tourists behave when the train approaches, and one even thundered at a visitor who was still on the track itself taking her Instagram pictures while the train was approaching from the distance. The activity is actually pretty safe as long as one applies common sense: i.e. stay in your seats when the train passes by, don’t stand-up, and – most importantly – do not touch the train unless you like your limbs getting ripped off!
Our last place of visit was Hỏa Lò Prison. The prison in Hanoi was originally used by the country’s French colonial masters to imprison political prisoners, and then by the North Vietnam forces for captured Americans during the Vietnam war. The exhibits here contain replicas of cells and also exhibition areas that showcase the living conditions of its inmates, their apparel, and instruments of torture that the French inflicted on the locals. Information boards include English translations, and the prison turned museum made for a very informative if also sobering visit.
Our tour technically ended after the prison museum, but we headed for Bun Cha lunch – the dish made very famous by Obama’s visit to a family eatery serving that in 2016 in the city. The restaurant we went to isn’t the one Obama visited, but the cuisine was the same, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
That’s a wrap for Day 02: I’ll write about our dinner experience at Hong Hoai Restaurant in a separate post towards the end of our trip.