🇹🇭🇰🇭🚄 Trains are the best.
The pastel green and orange wooden train from the Malaysian border into Thailand was of utmost charm. Entering a new country or destination by rail puts me in a very unique mindset; a mix of expectant curiosity and child-like enthusiasm. We look out the window, observing if and how the landscape is changing, and searching for signs of a new culture and society to learn about. When I’m not basking in the views outside the window, I am immersed in my book, loving the time that taking the train gives me for long page turning sessions. I am reading “Wifedom” by Anna Fender – which is excellent, I highly recommend it.
We spent a night in the old port-town of Songkhla, exploring narrow streets lined with old chinese shophouses and decorated with murals, and trying our luck with delicious thai street foods; then we were back on the train again. This time a night train, taking us to Bangkok. Though this train was apparently one of the oldest ones, it was again very clean and comfortable, with sleepers folding down from the ceiling. We went to bed in Hat Yai, and woke up in Bangkok, 940 km and 14 hours later.
After Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, we were really pleasantly surprised by Bangkok. While also huge, Bangkok feels like it has many “small quiet pockets”: old neighborhoods almost car free, golden buddhist temples everywhere, tranquil riverfronts and canals to walk along. A perfect city to discover on foot. Whilemodern, clean (except for waterways) and orderly, the city still boasts old charm and royal grandeur.
From Bangkok we made a ‘short’ detour to neighboring Cambodia, not accepting that we could pass this way without visiting Angkor Wat. The train ride to Cambodia was something of an unexpected birdwatching expedition. The train left the towering glass buildings of Bangkok and made its way into the Thai countryside of vibrant green rice paddies, and ponds full of lotus. Peering out the wide open windows, we started noticing many different species of birds feeding in the wetlands bordering the train tracks or watching the train go by from their perch on the electric lines. We recognised a few: bright blue kingfishers, cranes, rainbow honeyeaters, pheasants, but also some species unknown to us with red or purple colours – beautiful, and a positive change from the limited birdlife we’d witnessed in the Indonesia countryside.
For three days we explored the ancient Khmer city of Angkor and felt like we had travelled back in time. We visited many temples and palaces in various states of ruin, admiring intricate stone carvings depicting the epic stories of buddhism and hinduism. It was bordering mystical with the rain sharpening all the greens of the lush forest around, and big trees and root systems devouring the temples. I loved how history, spirituality and nature seemed to come together in Angkor. We only spent four days in Cambodia but immediately we were taken by a very friendly sentiment for its people. Many of them approached us for a friendly and curious chat. It was the case of Phayu, an 18 year old with the biggest smile, a candid mind and enquiring spirit who approached us at the train station on our way back to Bangkok. He was going on his own for the first time for a couple of weeks of holiday in Bangkok, and we spent an evening and day out in Bangkok with him, talking about his plans to study philosophy and French, and hoping we will meet again in the future.
Alongside the incredible refinement and sophistication of temples and palaces, we couldn’t help but notice the flagrant signs of global homogenisation and of the cultural expansionism of “the West” and China. These have been evident in several places we have visited, and certainly in Bangkok and Siem Reap. We walked through the touristy area and Chinatown, lined with colourful neons, restaurants serving western or chinese food, sports bars, western music blaring, and stalls selling tons of plastic wrapped cheaply and mass produced goods that no one really needs but they still buy it. We reflected that these places have a “universal” feel: we could be anywhere in the world, and these places would look and feel the same anywhere.
This is a lingering thought that we are grappling with while travelling: often, and especially in places on the tourist trail, we feel challenged in our perception of what is “authentic” in current days. Is “authenticity” a very western notion, one that can descend into voyeurisme or neo-colonial expectations of finding things that feel “exotic”? Or is it that we search for things of the past, know-hows and ways of living which feel authentic to us, but in reality belong to the past and not to the present-day “authenticity” of a country? For certain, it is a very subjective notion we’ll continue to chew over.
Now on the train to Paris from Hamburg, after a flight from Bangkok, we are watching familiar landscapes of green rolling hills dotted with white cows go by. We are taking a 1 month interlude in our no-flight adventure, to attend two weddings of very close friends, visit family and friends. We will be pausing the Targo on Tour updates until we return to Bangkok to resume our flight-less itinerary at the end of October. But for now, we are marveling at the speed of the French fast rail and looking forward to eating our weight in cheese.
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