Thread: Trains (US vs Europe)

For all you old buffers Ceske Drahy from the home of closely observed trains "Trainspotting " long before the gadges.

Originally Posted by Norton

Spent a month+ travelling around China by train in my 20's, starting near Chiang Rai with a boat up the Mekong to Kunming. T'was a fantastic way to spend a month.

Amtrak in the US has great cars. Even my Japanese husband was impressed by the space and luxury provided. Unfortunately, Amtrak trains are always late by hours. You have to have plenty of time and a flexible schedule to ride the rails in the US of A.

But Thailand's trains are "cute" (when they work).



Take a Thai history trip on a cute Japanese train | Thaiger

Originally Posted by misskit

^ Fantastic? I thought train travel in China was a bit of hell back then, myself. Getting tickets was hell. Everyone smoking and spitting was hell. The bathrooms were hell. The cars stank of all the stuff the passengers dropped that got ground into the floors and seats and never cleaned. I carried newspaper to sit on. I traveled by train in China in the late 1980’s so perhaps close to the time you did?

Must have been a hell of an experience to be in China in the late 80's, well done for that!

We are looking forward to going to Wuppertal to see the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn

Originally Posted by misskit

^ Fantastic? I thought train travel in China was a bit of hell back then, myself. Getting tickets was hell. Everyone smoking and spitting was hell. The bathrooms were hell. The cars stank of all the stuff the passengers dropped that got ground into the floors and seats and never cleaned. I carried newspaper to sit on. I traveled by train in China in the late 1980’s so perhaps close to the time you did?

Not quite. That would have been around 2007-08.

Sleeper cabins with very interested middle-class families.

Sitting at the window in the tabled middle-class carriages, sipping on Tsingtao, watching the villages and mountains roll past, losing at cards and having the cart-girls refuse to serve me.

Happy days.

^why did the cart girls refuse to serve you?

Ass-slapping is apparently a cultural no-no in public, Smeg.

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

We are looking forward to going to Wuppertal to see the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn

It's pretty cool!

Originally Posted by misskit

Getting tickets was hell. Everyone smoking and spitting was hell. The bathrooms were hell. The cars stank of all the stuff the passengers dropped that got ground into the floors and seats and never cleaned

Yp, absolutely gross . . . until you try the 'new' Beijing/Shanghai to city trains.



Not a fan of trains but when in India it beats cars, buses etc . . . decided to take the train from Trivandrum (that long-arsed name at the bottom) to Kottayam and then by car to the rubber plantations near the Tamil Nadu border, in the hills. I believe I posted a travel pic thread.

Originally Posted by Edmond

Smeg

Originally Posted by panama hat

until you try the 'new' Beijing/Shanghai to city trains.

While it would be interesting to go 350-450kph once, for me, and probably people like Pat, it takes away from what the journey is about.

Give me a slow tumbling window seat, with nice hotel at the end of it, anyday.


Apparently many people use those trains instead of flying nowadays, as with all the airport check-in times, security, arriving one hour early BS, to end up at an airport outside of the city and then have to get a train anyway, the total time is about the same with less hassle.

Originally Posted by Edmond

Give me a slow tumbling window seat.

wtf is that?

^there was a great Bourdain episode in Burma where he went on a train, thing looked as though it bumped up and down by a metre!

Originally Posted by cyrille

wtf is that?

An unfastened window seat that falls out of the window and tumbles down the mountainside.

Originally Posted by Edmond

Spent a month+ travelling around China by train in my 20's, starting near Chiang Rai with a boat up the Mekong to Kunming. T'was a fantastic way to spend a month.

I did a few months traveling around Europe on the train when I was younger. Absolutely loved it and have thought about doing it again on the Inter Rail, but I'd probably get a few dirty looks pissed up in the buffet car and chatting up young Austrian exchange students in the hope of getting them in your couchette overnight...

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

^there was a great Bourdain episode in Burma where he went on a train, thing looked as though it bumped up and down by a metre!

I took the slow train in Myanmar from Thazi for Lake Inle. Unbelievable views and the train doing switchbacks on the side of a mountain!

The picturesque route to Inle Lake (The Slow Train from Thazi)

10 hours but highly recommended if you like your trains.

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

We are looking forward to going to Wuppertal to see the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn

But don't take your elephant along for the ride. That attempt did not go well, the elephant exited during the drive.

This is real, it did happen during a publicity stunt. The elephant was unharmed, fortunately.

^Thanks Hal, bookmarked! unfortunately I have never set foot in Burma but am hoping when we are back living in SEA again, everything will be ok there. Very sad for Burma, I have always liked the Burmese.