January 6, local time 08.58, Ninh Hai, Vietnam . We fled the “torrential rain” announced in Mui Ne and “sheltered” for a few days at Sorrento Village. Spectacularly located, right on the seashore, the small village dedicated to kiters does not live up to the standards indicated on hotel booking platforms nor to the rates charged for accommodation. If you get here, mentally prepare yourself for possible encounters with rats, the size of a cat, but also with cockroaches a few centimeters long. Don’t worry! The rooms are equipped with anti-insect sprays :)))
And if we escaped the few drops of rain and the 27 degrees in Mui Ne, in the new location we ran into a storm, with gusts exceeding 35 knots. In other words, we will continue to use beach cream, instead of "gliding" with the kite on the water!
The "business" train from Hanoi
Fortunately, the quiet of the morning in Pha Rang helps me gather my thoughts to write about another experience I had in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. In all the guides and blogs found on Google, travelers indicate a visit to one of the most Instagrammable places in Hanoi, Train Street.
The place appears in thousands of photos that include the passage of a train set through a district ad hoc transformed into a market. The tables and chairs located right next to the railway and the atmosphere, specifically Asian, attracted millions of tourists like a magnet.
What no one says in the photo description is that the place has changed and is controlled by Hanoi police.
The "network" through which you manage to enter Train Street
Despite the warnings placed at the entrance to the narrow street, the tourist attraction has turned into an illegal business, coordinated even by the police.
The street is blocked in both directions and the entrances are guarded by uniformed police. Next to them, several women are literally pulling tourists to take them to the terraces located next to the railway.
Annoyed by the insistence of these ladies, Loredana decided to turn left and look for an alternative to enter the street. I didn't run away from the mandatory consumption, but if I still paid the entrance "tax", he wanted to choose the place where we would wait for the train to arrive. At the suggestion of a local woman, we managed to get near the terraces. But, all roads led straight to the checkpoint and so we still found ourselves in the middle of annoying Vietnamese.
And again, we were kicked out of the area! Our friend google maps helped us reach the second checkpoint. Reconciled with the thought that everything is an illegal business (if they had imposed a legal fee of 10 euros/tourist, we would have paid it gladly) we allowed ourselves to be led to a terrace. And so I could observe how another policeman was checking if the tourists left in the area were actually consuming in the establishments where they were brought by the network partners.
"We waited for the train yesterday too, but it didn't come"
With two overpriced Ha Noi beers, we sat comfortably to watch the spectacle of the train passing right through the middle of the houses.
And we kept waiting! Just like us, two young women from Malaysia who were attracted by our discussions in Romanian. The girls were also the only ones who knew where Romania was on the map.
As a side note, we kept getting confused with a Russian couple, and when we told them what country we were from, the locals would raise their eyebrows, a sign that they had no idea where Romania was located . From that moment on, we said we were from Europe!
The minutes kept ticking away, the estimated time of arrival of the train had long passed, and the Train Street experience seemed to be turning into a failure. And as if that wasn't enough, comes the remark of the two girls, neighbors on the balcony. "We waited for the train yesterday too, but it didn't come"! You can find such moments, in real time, on my Instagram account (click on the photo)
Tired of waiting for the train, we decided to leave the area after finishing our beers. Near the last sip, the policemen guarding the barriers began to stir, and the terrace staff to shout at the tourists to stop standing on the railway. In a few seconds, the iron colossus passed at low speed through the rows of houses, which have become tourist attractions.
I'm sitting here with my fingers on the computer keys, thinking about whether or not to recommend this experience.
