Day 21

Day 21

Today we travelled to Hanoi and the number 1 thing on my list to see was the train street! For those who don’t know the train street is basically this really narrow street lined with coffee shops where the train runs through twice a day, however I discovered today it is now closed and is illegal to go in to!

So I arrived at the entrance and it was barricaded off with police officers monitoring and stopping people from going through. There were also hundreds of men with bikes and taxis trying to get you to come with them to take you to “a different train street” 20 minutes away. This is such a scam and I quickly walked away from this as there were loads of people trying to get in and it was just chaos.

I managed to find another entrance but again there were barriers up and police men, some people were allowed past the barrier so I tried to slip past but I was dragged out by two police men saying they needed to have “a chat with me”. I think they were looking for a bribe as they were doing it to almost everyone. Luckily, I had an advantage as one of my dads friends Mark lives in Vietnam and told me if I ever got in trouble with the police to say that he was my sponsor and to give his name and address and said this should be enough to get them to leave me alone! Thankfully, as the police officers tried to escort me to their police car I shared this information with them and I was let go with no questions asked.

Feeling incredibly stressed but also thankful for getting out of that situation (thank you Mark you are my saviour!) I called one of the other girls from the group who managed to get into the train street. At this moment, a Vietnamese lady grabbed my hand and was pulling me down this alley way. Trying to get away from her she said “trust me train street”. Against my better judgement I followed her as she led me through four different houses and I had to climb from house to house till eventually she brought me to a coffee shop right on the train street. I ordered two drinks as a way to thank her and waited patiently.

Just before the train arrived she pulled me back up again and led me outside right next to the train tracks and I got to see the train wiz past us along with a few others she had “smuggled in”. Back firmly pressed against the wall the train went literally right past us and if I reached out I could have touched it easily- but of course I didn’t do this!

Such a thrilling experience! After the train went past a police officer then started walking towards us and I thought we were done for! However, as he walked down he took bribes from all the coffee shop owners and didn’t even take a second look at any of us- a very corrupt police force here I have discovered!

The lady then lead me back through the houses and out of the train street. The most crazy and surreal experience but probably my favourite experience yet! I met up with the other girls who were on the train street but further down and they had been led by a small boy who made them climb over a fence and climb onto the roof of one of the buildings- no one tells you about any of this on social media so it was quite the shock for us but we managed to see it and it was 100% worth it!

After this adrenaline rush we went to see a water puppet show, I couldn’t tell you what the actual story line was but I enjoyed it very much and it had a good dose of humour to it! And we got the “worst seats” for £3 and in London you’d pay serious mega bucks for them! - brilliant!

Then to celebrate our last night in Vietnam as a full group and one of the girls birthdays who is leaving tomorrow we danced the night away on tables in local bars- literally the best day!もっと詳しく