Living on the rail tracks I.

STORY BEHIND THIS PHOTO

Going to the North-East of the Old Quarter in Hanoi, Vietnam, you sooner or later bump into rail tracks. Chances that a steel road is laid through your town are pretty high. Because this is nothing new to you turn left or right and continue to enjoy the bustling Hanoi and quickly dive back into the Old Quarter. But by not looking closely at the tracks, you miss people living ON the tracks. Some of them in the environment business like Tony Soprano would say. Fantastic people.

 When you climb to the tracks, you feel constant fear of a train approaching. And this might really happen… the tracks are in use. Four times a day a train goes through, more or less on the timetable. Only after getting rid of this fear, the surroundings start  consuming you. How people can live one, yes one, meter from the tracks, when four times a day certain death comes by?

 Continuing your walk you start meeting people, some sitting on the tracks, discussing their daily life, some doing hand laundry, some selling water to rare visitors. Some quashing cans, others putting this garbage in bags and sorting bottles, aluminium and other leftovers. Vietnam is making real economic progress, so a new class of consumers is emerging. Together with tourists in the Old Quarter they are the main reasons for all the garbage piling up - recyclable to their luck. I saw a billboard in Hong Kong from where I came to Vietnam, saying: “There should be no difference between waste and energy”. This realisation is helping “track people” to survive.

 Starting a small conversation and offering to help them with garbage sorting shows them you’re really no differnet<ins>different</ins><ins></ins><ins></ins><ins></ins>, not afraid of making your hands dirty. Like them. And this gives you an opportunity for some really cool photos.

Second photo: kmetjurec.deviantart.com/art/L…

Third photo: kmetjurec.deviantart.com/art/L…