Visiting Hanoi Train Street

[Travel Newsletter: 24 Nov 2023] The day train to Chiang Mai, Istanbul trip report, a bohemian cafe in Dublin, Dubrovnik overtourism conundrum, young digital nomads of China, and a clown-themed hotel

Nov 24, 2023

Welcome to the Nomadic Notes Travel Newsletter, where I curate the best travel reads of the week.

After my Hanoi trip, I have a pile of articles to write and update. This week I wrote a new article for Hanoi Train Street. I visited in 2019 but that section is now closed. I decided to keep that article as a historical archive rather than rewrite it, so I have made a separate guide.

As for the rest of the blog, I’m still blogging my way through 2022 trips. I plan to get up to 2023 before the year is out.

Latest posts at Nomadic Notes

• Hanoi Train Street Guide: Where to visit the open sections

Hanoi Train Street is where the railway passes through narrow alleys lined with houses on either side of the track. Houses in the alleys set up cafes to allow people to watch the trains pass by.

• Train 7 Bangkok to Chiang Mai: The day train through historic Thailand

Train 7 is a Special Express service from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. This is the fastest train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, and the only day train between the two cities.

Travel reads

• Istanbul Diary by

Ribbonfarm Studio

I like finding these trip reports from bloggers who aren’t travel bloggers.

• Dublin’s best bookstore has been a bohemian hot spot since the '80s

I lived in Dublin for a year in 2002/2003. There was no wifi and I don’t think there was an espresso machine in the city (or anyone that knew how to work one). I used to go to The Winding Stair on weekends and read a book while drinking filter coffee.

• Tea, a train and an epic sunrise at a summer retreat of the Raj

“Darjeeling, in the Himalayan foothills, is famous for its tea, its elevated railroad and the view of dawn breaking over Mt. Everest.”

• There is no good way to travel anywhere in America (archive)

• Everybody should see Dubrovnik—and that’s a problem

(Cloudflare blocks this website in Thailand, so here is the archive.)

This article doesn’t have the answer to this problem, and I don’t have the answer either. I have been to Dubrovnik, and it is the sort of place I would revisit if I am nearby, but on my last visit to the region, I didn’t revisit. Perhaps it is one of those places that is a “once in a lifetime” experience.

• The secret decision-making behind ‘best-of’ travel lists – and why they always seem to get it wrong

• How a sleepy town in Cambodia won a place on Unesco’s culinary map

• A Stranger Quest: David Rumsey’s marvelous map collection