anna bella betts photography
  • Home
  • Tours
    • Memories of Angkor
    • Siem Reap Photo Walks
  • Portfolio
    • Portraits
    • Events
    • Product & location shoot
    • Something Yummy
  • Gallery
    • Photo Stories
    • Abstract
    • Life and Travel >
      • European spring
      • European summer
      • Glimpses from homeland
      • Urban
      • People
      • Temples
      • Street art and street life
      • Waves
      • Just Get Me There
    • Nature >
      • Landscapes, nature
      • He loves me, he loves me not...
      • Closer...
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Tours
    • Memories of Angkor
    • Siem Reap Photo Walks
  • Portfolio
    • Portraits
    • Events
    • Product & location shoot
    • Something Yummy
  • Gallery
    • Photo Stories
    • Abstract
    • Life and Travel >
      • European spring
      • European summer
      • Glimpses from homeland
      • Urban
      • People
      • Temples
      • Street art and street life
      • Waves
      • Just Get Me There
    • Nature >
      • Landscapes, nature
      • He loves me, he loves me not...
      • Closer...
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Great train journeys

5/6/2012

0 Comments

 
My eyes are scanning the passing scenery; combination of rusty corrugated iron sheds, modern apartment blocks under cloudy skies, green paddy fields spiced up by the occasional pagoda and the soundtrack is Wondrous Place by Billy Fury. Fitting - somehow.

Not that this part of the world is exotic to me anymore, not that mere 7 hours of train travel can be considered a "great journey" but there is something special about a good old rickety ride, nodding off to the comforting repetitive noise of wheels on railtracks and being rocked to sleep while the world remains a blurred line outside your window.

Picture
Bangkok Hualamphong Station
You can call me a voyer but people watching is great fun -  be it in the carriage or at the stations. So many faces, shapes and sizes, stories and ways to go. I have noticed one thing: train journeys make you hungry and it seems that as soon as wheels are set in motion and newcomers are seated, food comes out. My hubby who also doubles up as my constant travel companion is no exception. Within few minutes our rations purchased for the journey are gone and I wonder how we are going to survive the next few hours....
Luckily behind me I can hear the rattle of a food cart and instantly I am taken back to another journey, another time.
Picture
To Bangkok
Picture
Arriving to destination
Picture
Tin sheds
Picture
Speed
Picture
Hills in the distance
On various occasions, travelling in China, tired and starving, my companions at the time and I were ready to venture out of our comfort zones and try whatever was on the menu being pushed around - only to find a residue of "once was sauce" and bones making a drumming noise against the aluminium pot. No, thank you. Around this time we all started to worship the Instant Noodle and Hot Water Urn gods.

People carry the most peculiar looking parcels and baggage, this is perhaps most the case in India. There I spent 7 months travelling and train journeys formed a large part of my day to day developing itinerary. Spontanious, the way I like it.

I close my eyes and I smell India: sickening sweet smells of insence and excrement. There is no other way around describing it, this is how India smells to many. It is India's trademark.

I close my eyes and I smell spices and hear "chai chai chai chai chai" - an old man making his way through the carriage with offerings of delicious, rich, sweet and spicy concoction that all Indians and visitors alike love so much. Chai makes life better. Chai makes you smile, smack your lips and go aaahhhhhh. Chai is good and also slightly addictive.

Picture
Ayutthaya station

This time it's different. Having left the work ball and chain behind, I have two weeks of sweet freedom
to enjoy and for various reasons I chose Thailand.

OK, it's close and it won't break the bank. After three nights in Bangkok, against my will and against what was originally planned - but enjoyed nonetheless, I am finally heading to Koh Tao, secret hideaway in Hin Wong Bay (shhhhh), hoping that during two years of my absence it managed to keep its rustic charms and remains as lovely as ever.



As we are heading further south, with the wealth and urban decay of the city behind, we pass gorgeous emerald green fields, villages that look very similar to their Cambodian cousins, and oddities that make you giggle like a full size football pitch with a tree growing in the middle of it! Skies remain cloudy and I have to make peace with the fact that rainy season is just starting.
Along the way we are reminded of last year's horrendous floods that claimed many lives and made thousands homeless.
Dirty water lines mark many places higher that I find comfortable to think of. Let's hope this year Mother Nature will show her kinder face.


Picture
Smiley and flood line
It is my first time on Thai trains and it's overall a pleasant experience comfort-wise. Even open air 3rd "cattle" class was a great short trip.Safety aside and with standing room only available, I opted for "in between carriages" spot and enjoyed the exhilirating yet dusty ride thinking what
it must be like to travel on roofs of trains...

My eyes are in for a treat: green and golden rice fields with a stunning backdrop of lime stone hills in the distance. From gentle rolling swells to dramatic sugarloaf-like peaks, the scenery keeps changing and dense jungle breaks up the views and I am happy. Happy to see hills, from life on
a pancake this is a welcome change.
When I get frist glimpses of the sea on my left I am getting more and more excited and slipping quietly into holiday mode.

Picture
Finally! The ocean. Even the sun came out!
As I am fighting sleep, my mind wonders back in time. Back to one truly great and memorable train journey. Across Turkey. From East to West. Two days and one night from Van to Ankara. Having purchased our seating tickets (economic reasons of a backpacker...) and drank sufficient amount of sweet black tea with the entire crew of Van train station, we turned up on time the next day, found our spot and settled in: fairly empty carriage, few curious passengers smiling shyly, dusty seats and windows open for nature's own a/c.

Perhaps it was us being purely exotic to eastern Turkish eyes that earned us a free upgrade to - not our own compartment - but the whole train car! "For you to enjoy privacy" said the train conductor as he locked the doors behind him. And what a great ride it was! Hair rasing moments realisig that the rusting twisted mess in the bottom of the valley was in fact a train (not
unlike ours) that didn't make it.... Better not think or imagine... Breathtaking scenery, mountains, gorges, valleys and open spaces of uninhabited land. But the real memory of the trip is this: middle bunk down, me on it, flat on my belly, head in hands and face inches away from the open window, sun close to setting and outside endless orchards of sweet smelling apricot trees. Turkish delight of sorts!

Fruther down south, as we are nearing our destination - Chumphon - the rail track carves its way through thick towering jungle and we are embraced in the world of green.
The wilderness is occasionally broken up by palm and rubber tree plantations or orderly rows of spikey pineapples. It's green, lush and fertile here, ground still soaked from recent rains. Dark grey skies are promising more.

Picture
Preparing food
Picture
Chumphon night food market. Rain!










We are arriving into Chumpon with a mere hour delay beating the rain by a few minutes, eager to get out and stretch our stiff bodies and get on with the rest of the day. Ko Tao tomorrow. Great train journeys indeed.


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    anna bella betts

    Never still, always on the move, looking for the perfect capture... Cambodia is currently my home, presenting endless opportunities....

    Warning

    In this blog you will find no profound wisdom. 
    Just accounts of daily life, sometimes about photography, often about wine, occasionally about travel adventures  and sometimes about nothing at all. 
    So enjoy. 

    Archives

    March 2018
    September 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    December 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All
    Adventure
    Angkor
    Bagan
    Batneay Chhmar
    Battambang
    Black And White
    Burma
    Cambodia
    Cardamom Mountains
    Cassava
    Cats
    Czech
    Decay
    Driving Skills
    Dry Season
    Getaway
    Good Hair Day
    Green Rice Fields
    Hair Cuts
    Hairdressing
    Hike
    Holiday
    Home Stays
    Inle Lake
    Khmer Bride Outfit
    Kulen Mountain
    Mahendraparvata
    Make Up
    Myanmar
    Pagodas
    People
    Pepsi Factory
    Photography
    Photography Workshop
    Photo Tours
    Photo Walk
    Photowalking
    Rainbow Lodge
    River
    Siem Reap
    Street Photography
    Summer
    Tatai
    Traffic
    Travel
    Urban
    Wat Atvea
    Weather
    Wet Season
    Winter
    Yangon

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.