Last year I was sitting on a bench seat 3rd class going to Khon Kaen. Girl beside me, looking at the view. What a joy. Simple living. Hardly a farang in sight. Farming country. It wasnt too hot. Drinks from 7/11 in a bag. 

 

I thought to myself this is life. Simple joy. No real plan. No russ. No bs. No politics. No drugs. No alcohol. Just pure simple life with a smile on my face.

 

I was halfway to enlightenment.

I was sitting there thinking about all the crazy days, the busy days last 20 years. And yet just a basic train ride was pure joy. Nothing much to do. Didnt want anything. No cravings. No I want more just joy. My gf said to me she had never been on a train before. I looked at her face, pure joy. At that moment I felt the essence of life.

Sitting on a Thai train is purgatory, you are in heaven when you can get off the damn thing, eventually.

I have always liked traveling by train. I ride that train from Korat to Khon Kaen often. I live about halfway between those cities, a half mile from the tracks.

1 minute ago, bunnydrops said:

I have always liked traveling by train. I ride that train from Korat to Khon Kaen often. I live about halfway between those cities, a half mile from the tracks.

Pure joy.

21 minutes ago, bignok said:

Pure joy.

Not quite sure about "Pure joy" but it does beat dealing with the boring drive. It is also good to know which seats numbers gives you the most leg room.

A train adventure.

Traveling by train in Mexico. The train had been traveling slow for about an Hr. when it came to a stop in the middle of cane fields. There were a very large number of people waiting in the field. When the train stopped everyone on the train got up and tried to get out but couldn't because all the people outside were trying to get on. A Mexican girl motioned to me to lower the window and throw my pack and hers out. We followed suit threw the window. After getting out we ran through the cane field. As I came to find out. A train had derailed. and a train was brought in from the other side of the derailment to transfer people. It got there first. Since I couldn't speak Spanish at the time the whole thing was like some kind of dream. The good old days.

52 minutes ago, bignok said:

Pure joy.

OK "Pure Joy" Also on a train in Mexico. For some reason someone started singing "Micheal row your boat ashore" in Spanish and the whole car chipped in. In about the middle of the song I got up to go to the beer car to get a drink. Each car I went through had picked up on the singing and was about a half a stanza behind the car before it. It was 4 cars to the beer car, everyone singing.

1 hour ago, bignok said:

I was sitting there thinking about all the crazy days, the busy days last 20 years. And yet just a basic train ride was pure joy. Nothing much to do. Didnt want anything. No cravings. No I want more just joy. My gf said to me she had never been on a train before. I looked at her face, pure joy. At that moment I felt the essence of life.

I took my missus to Laos and Cambodia trains n buses, just after we got Married, she had never been on a holiday in her 40+ years, she was smiling everyday for 6 weeks.   

Love that stretch of train to Ubon. Very bare and etherial landscape.  

 

'Can't recco the new Laos train. Hard, thin seats, squat toilets. Massively packed out with Lao people so you need to book in advance  (in cash, pristine bills only). Myanmar wins it for old trains through beauty.

 

I'm sorry to see that a lot of day train options, partic going south, have been cut back. I did the jungle railway down to Singapore twice. It's a lot less jungle-ish these days.

 

Best long distance bus ride: Hue to Vientiane. 24 hours back in the day.

16 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

Love that stretch of train to Ubon. Very bare and etherial landscape.  

Will do maybe later in year or next year. Stop off hire motorbike explore. 

Sisaket is a good stop off. Some old Khmer ruins (viewable from afar), and the wat made out of beer bottles.

 

Here's Sisaket's abandoned movie theatre and a great site about abandoned movie theaters in Thailand and Laos. I have been to about two thirds of these theaters back in the day.

 

http://seatheater.blogspot.com/2010/03/sisaket-rama-sisaket-thailad.html

Paddy hated it 55