Railroad Man...

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Leaving Bangkok on the train from Hualamphong station on the 15.10 to Hat Yai about 50km from the Malaysian border gives me time to blog, especially when it didn't leave til after 4 but hey, who's in a rush? My bike got its own ticket and got passed thru the window of a carriage towards the rear, no doubt to be secured again by a small length of string with the rest of the cargo while I found a/c carriage number 2 seat 6 across from John, a fellow scribbler and a retired teacher originally from California but cycled up from Singapore through Malaysia back in the 70's and fell in love with Asia.....have I heard this one before?
As we rattle out of the suburbs leaving the skyscrapers and elevated expressways behind I am pleased to be leaving the madness as I find it overwhelming. Bangkok sprawls out with ever expanding building work extending the city with housing that ranges from the affluent mansion to roofing sheets and fabric under the newly constructed rail link for the less well off. Palm trees and jungle scrub make the place look greener than it actually is until it gets a little more rural and paddy fields become common. The train is stopping at every large built up area and as it starts to become dark the street stalls start to light up as they crack on with the nightly task of making tea for everyone. Sellers clamber on at each stop with baskets of various foods which I took advantage of but now I need to stop as I've bought enough 'baggin' to last me a week, I have a tray of rice,chicken and a cold fried egg, a tray of a grapefruit looking type fruit and a tray of brown custard wi nuts on the top....now I don't need pick anything off the buffet car menu so that will annoy the fella who I promised I would choose something later on to...
I had a shower for 20 baht at the station and now I can sit comfy in my seat that has just turned into a bed by a man in a uniform and wonder if you can get H5N9 from a cold fried egg?
Ok. I need to get this out of my system....literally!...Having a pooh on a moving train is quite an experience due to a few uncontrollable factors....you still here?....I realise now that is probably also best to go early because after about 5 hours into the journey most folk have been a few times so you need to start by cleaning up after all the dirty gets! Then, when you get as settled as you can in a lurching about style while trying to hold on you realise that there is no tank underneath so it's going to plop down a gaping hole onto the tracks...because of this gaping hole there is what I can only describe as a vortex of wind that blows back up and not only rattles yer cobblers but complicates the whole process of what should be straightforward gravitational pull....Sir Prof. Brian Cox.MBE could probably explain in a little more detail but that's the best I can do....it was awkward OK, let's move on, I'm over it now...don't say I don't cover ALL aspects of solo travel in my blogs.

Previous blog post title inspired by...Paolo Nutini.. - EASY : 1 point
" these streets have too many names for me" a song about being in an unfamiliar place.


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