Think Vietnam, think Hanoi and the one place that might spring to mind [courtesy all the endless social media reels and selfies] is Train Street. Been to Hanoi and not been to Train Street? Shucks, the Hanoi visit does not count then. What is of more critical import nowadays though, warranting endless threads, is the do-or-die question: Is Train Street open?

For the uninitiated, Train Street is a 0.85-kilometre-long narrow road lined with open-air cafés in Hanoi’s Old Town in which railway tracks slice through a busy neighbourhood. At regular intervals trains whistle past, forcing households, café-owners, and their guests to stow furniture away and huddle behind doors. Once the train has gone, life carries on as usual—right next to the tracks, and yes, over the tracks.

Following a series of incidents caused purely out of tourists’ own negligence, access to Train Street has been closed with frowning security guards now resolutely seated behind bulky barriers.

But remember it is a ‘Street.’ Hence, there are still parts that can be accessed. For instance, in Google Maps, instead of ‘Train Street,’ if you type in ‘Train Street Coffee,’ voila, you will be in the company of travellers who had managed to crack the code. Sipping Vietnamese coffee, seated right next to the tracks. Please, however, do follow the rules. Which translate to: duck when the train arrives; it is not selfie time. 🙂

PS. Yes, I did see the train pass. Five minutes before I took the above picture!

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[Note: This blog post is part of a series from my travels to Vietnam for three weeks in March 2025. To read more posts in my Vietnam series, click here.]