Foreign visitors at the Tran Quy Cap Railway Station, Hanoi.

I’ve never thought that I would have been in that situation: no home, no food while my pocket was full of cash,” said a passenger who returned to Hanoi on the first train from flood-stricken Lao Cai province yesterday morning.

Many people were in the waiting room of the Hanoi Railway Station at 4.30am, August 13 to pick up their relatives who were returning on the first train from Lao Cai after the Hanoi-Lao Cai railway route was resumed.

The train arrived at the Hanoi Railway Station at 5am. Tired and seedy-looking passengers poured out of the train. Putting down his bags on the ground, Nguyen Hung, a tourist from the central city of Da Nang, said: “A terrifying trip!”

Hung said he and his family planned to have a two-week tour in Sapa but just two days after they arrived the weather in Sapa changed with heavy rains. Hearing the weather forecast that there might be flash floods in Lao Cai, Hung’s family sought ways to return to Hanoi but they failed. The family was stuck in Lao Cai for three days.

“I’ve never thought that I would have been in that situation: no home, no food while my pocket was full of cash. My seven-member family had to rely on the local residents. Anyways, I must thank the railway sector for bringing us to Hanoi now!” Hung said.

He said the train left Lao Cai at 10pm August 12. Previously, hundreds of people strived to get a ticket to the train. The train took 30 hours to run from Lao Cai to Hanoi, nearly equal to the time of the train from Hanoi to HCM City.

Holding three big bags, Minh Hoai, a tourist from Hai Phong City, said she got into the train in the afternoon last Thursday. The train ran for a while before it was stuck because of flood and landslides so it had to return to the Lao Cai Railway Station.

During three days waiting for road clearance, hundreds of passengers relied on local people. “Local people sold a bowl of instant noodles for VND15,000-17,000 at 12pm and 7pm. If you didn’t get it quickly, you would have been unable to buy it. Passengers vied with each other to buy noodles and rice: I imagined the famine in 1945,” Hoai said.

When many passengers lost their hope and thought that they would have to stay there for many days, they heard that the road was cleared. Hundreds of people who were residing in homes of local people flocked to the railway station to hunt tickets.

The train left Lao Cai on Tuesday. After 20km, the train was stuck again at the Co Phuc Station. It was there for more than 10 hours.

“A carriage with nearly 100 passengers was allocated 9 packs of instant noodles, no water,” Hoai said.

“No water for personal hygiene, too,” said Nguyen Ngoc Dung, a traveller from the central province of Quang Nam.

“While waiting for road clearance, I strolled. I picked up any kind of fruit that I saw on the road to eat because I was so hungry. This morning, when I stepped down from the train at the Hanoi Railway Station, I believe that I’m still alive!” Dung said.

Many foreign visitors returned to Hanoi on this train. Pulling a suitcase after her, Maria Hug, from Sweden, said tersely, “So terrifying!” and walked away.

The next train from Lao Cai arrived at the Hanoi Railway Station at 6.45am, carrying nearly 200 tourists from Sapa, half of them foreigners.

Looking at the streams of tired people who were carrying small and big bags, a female staff of the Hanoi Railway Station said: “They are the lucky ones to catch the first trains back to Hanoi. Many visitors are still stuck in flood-stricken areas.”

According to the Central Steering Board for Flood and Storm Control, by August 13, 159 people were reported dead and missing in the largest flood in Lao Cai in the past 22 years. Lao Cai, with Sapa town, welcomes the highest number of tourists among northern mountainous provinces.

(Source:Vietnamnet)