Hanoi closes trackside cafes thronged by shutter happy tourists

Off the rails: Tourists walking past cafes along a railway track in Hanoi. — Reuters

HANOI: It’s the kind of shot every Instagram connoisseur yearns for: century-old railway tracks cutting through dusty backstreets, flanked by tourists drinking beer or iced tea mere inches from the slow-moving trains.

The sight has become such a draw in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi that authorities have set a weekend deadline for the removal of dozens of cafes that have cropped up, citing safety concerns.