The Reunifcation Express runs by the South China Sea just north of Hai Van Pass, between Hue and Hoi An – this country-spanning train line took nearly 40 years to complete
PHOTOGRAPHS MATT MUNRO
Just before noon each day, the southbound train from Hai Phong to Hanoi rumbles past Mrs Bay’s front room, missing her porch by no more than inches. To me, the scene looks like something from a disaster movie. With its horn blaring like the last trumpet, the huge locomotive barely squeezes through the tiny space where the railway track runs between two rows of dwellings. It’s close enough to block all the light from the windows, fap the drying laundry and silence our conversation. Mrs Bay, a well-preserved 64-year-old, whom I’ve bumped into on a stroll, bats away my concerns. ‘I hardly notice it,’ she says as the last carriage fnally disappears, continuing to massage black hair dye into her scalp with plastic-gloved hands. Mrs Bay is a retired railway worker. Space in this teeming city is at such a premium that she counts herself lucky to have a centrally located home, despite its obvious hazards. ‘It’s fne for the kids, too,’ she says. ‘We just call them inside when the bell rings.’