Great train journeys

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.

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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.

To Bangkok

Arriving to destination

Tin sheds

Speed

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

Preparing food

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.

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