4/17/2013: So much
time on the train…I'm currently (while writing, I'll have to upload later when
I have internet) just outside of Hat Yai, one of the southernmost towns in
Thailand. At 6pm on April 15 I boarded the special express from Chiang Mai
bound for Bangkok. At 11am 4/16 we arrived in Bangkok - 2.5 hours late, and 17
hours of train time. I went to the ticket counter to get a spot on the next
train leaving for Butterworth (Malaysia) and I was told that they were all sold
out. I could get a ticket to Hat Yai, at least in the right direction, but I
left the counter to do some research in my travel guide about whether it was
worth spending any time in Hat Yai. After deciding that I could spend a day
there, I went back to the counter and they actually had one ticket left for the
2:45pm train bound for Butterworth (by way of Hat Yai). So I paid with my wet
Songkran money and grabbed a smoothie before hopping on the train.
Not a lot of
exciting events happen on a sleeper train. On both trains, I've gotten an upper
berth in an air-conditioned 2nd class sleeper. The upper berth is not as good
because when the beds are set up, you can't see out the window. Obviously that
doesn't matter much at night, but in the morning it would be nice. I've read
that 3rd class is not much better than a cattle car, and when I peeked in after
arriving in Bangkok, it looked brutal. Just hard, rickety, wooden benches and
holes in the sides of the cars. I only saw a handful of Thai people and some
monks in there. My 2nd class sleeper from Chiang Mai to Bangkok cost me 750
Baht ($23ish). I sat across from a British guy from the York area that I could
barely understand. He felt the same about me, and was even mystified by the way
I pronounce my name. He was with his wife, who was across the aisle, and they
were visiting her daughter (also across the aisle) who is living in Thailand
teaching English. Sean (the step-dad) was a nice guy from what I could gather,
but I understood about 50% of what he was saying. He's a huge soccer fan, a
supporter of Hull City, which is currently in the 2nd tier league in England
but probably moving up to the Premier League next year. He wore two different
Hull City jerseys throughout the trip. It was fun talking to the family,
though.
The attendant comes
through around 8 to set up the beds (the lower seats are converted into the
lower bed, and the upper berth pivots out from the wall like a murphy bed kind
of). We didn't really want to go to bed yet, so we told him to hold off for a while.
Eventually I climbed up to my upper bed and watched some episodes of Mad Men on
my tablet. I slept ok - not great. Lots of rocking and jerking. I woke up
around 7:30am, passed on breakfast thinking we'd get into Bangkok in an hour,
but then our train was two and a half hours late so I was starving when we
arrived.
I killed time in
Bangkok after getting my ticket, and even bought a collared shirt at a nearby
shop after finding out that my interview with Duke would be over Skype while
I'm in Malaysia.
My second train ride
was pretty uneventful. My section just included me and a Thai family of three
who didn't speak English, so it was a pretty quiet ride. I mostly just listened
to This American Life episodes and other things while looking out the window
and taking in the sights.
The view from the
train was the main reason for this trip. Unfortunately I didn't see much on the
first leg, since it was overnight. I did see a massive Buddha outside of
Bangkok. Outside of Bangkok is some extreme poverty. Along one stretch, it
appears that everyone just dumps their trash over the tiny wall that separates
the road from the train tracks, and I even saw a dead cat in there. It was an
incredible amount of trash. Leaving Bangkok, we passed a long stretch of
"shanty towns" with improvised wooden walls and corrugated roofs. In
these areas there were lots of stray dogs running around or sleeping in the
shade. Some of the shacks were eating and drinking establishments, with a few
guys sitting around smoking and drinking and looking pretty content. I saw a
girl walking from one shack to another one a few doors down, listening to her
iPod. When I see living conditions like that, my first reaction is to feel bad
about people living like that, but who is to say that they are unhappy. I've
certainly seen worse conditions in Tanzania and China.
As we got further
out of Bangkok, we entered more rural areas, like we had traveled back in time
30 years. This is what I'd wanted to see - endless rice fields, greenery
everywhere, huge palm trees, and maybe a few rice hats. The climax was around
sunset, as we passed through one particularly bright green area that appeared
to be in its natural state, with some big rocky hills sticking up in the
distance. I even saw a monkey hanging from the telephone cable near the train.
It started to rain after that, then it got dark, and my viewing session was
over.
The attendant set up
the beds around 7:30pm, which was disappointing because that meant I'd have to
be horizontal for a long time. I watched a lot of Mad Men, and chatted a little
with an American couple whose beds were near mine. They're from Texas, teaching
English in Surat Thani (Southern Thailand on the east coast) and traveling for
2 months during their "summer" break. They had been in Vietnam, then
went to Chiang Mai for Songkran. We had been on the same train from Chiang Mai.
Very nice couple, maybe a little younger than me. The guy (Eric) was reading a
nerdy physics book that I'd read (part of it at least) so we talked about that
for a little. They're heading to Penang, too.
Last night I took a
sleeping pill and slept much better. The attendant actually had to shake me
pretty hard to wake me up this morning to tell me it was time to take the beds
down. 3 more hours until we arrive in Butterworth. Then a ferry to Penang. I've
had my fill of trains for a while. If we arrive on time in Butterworth, I will
have spent 38 hours on trains. I need to get some exercise when I'm in Penang.
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