Wow. The romance of rail travel can sure evaporate quickly. Especially if you get up at five in the morning to go to the bathroom and you realise that you're freezing cold, and then you remember that train bathrooms are basically holes in the carriage. This is symptomatic of tropical developing countries when the air-conditioning is put on, regardless of the temperature outside, when leaving it off would mean that it's just nice.

The upper bunks on Thai trains are actually slightly narrower than Malaysian trains. Sleep last night was memorable for the number of dreams I had. They all had some variant of "travelling" as it's central theme. I dreamt that a guy from MDC called me and asked me to help with some project, and I had to tell him that I was not in Malaysia. I dreamt that I was flying with Adzam to New York and that he forgot the name of the restaurant that we booked dinner for later that night. I also dreamt something about a hotel and trying to catch a criminal, but the details escape me.

I'm not sure how one is meant to take travelling on rail. It certainly is more comfortable than bus, even if it takes a little longer. You can, if you want, talk to fellow passengers. That is, as long as you can speak the lingo. And if it's light outside (which it isn't at the moment), you can take your time to appreciate the countryside as it whips past. You can see people get on with their everyday life around you. It's a microcosm of the outside world in a moving carriage.



I suppose, all in all, it's a more interesting way of getting to where you want to go.

Labels: big trip